DIY Butchery

I did something new and relatively disgusting today: I cut a whole chicken into pieces.

I know you're thinking: So what? Any douche-bag with a sharp knife can sever a carcass. But you are wrong. Cutting a chicken is a dicey and messy enterprise for the uninitiated. Fat sprays, bones crack and pierce your fingers, and the innards fall with a wet and disturbing thunk onto the formica countertop. I even pulled the heart out with my fingers.

I watched the Gourmet.com video on chicken dismemberment, but video instruction did not save me from wrestling with the chicken, sawing on bones with my best chef's knife while diluted blood trickled in little rivulets across the counter and the slippery skin beckoned, siron-like, to my cat, who kept jumping onto the counter to nibble at discarded fat. You try waging battle with a cat while neatly separating joint bones from muscle. It was supremely distracting and besides which, she is now lightly coated in grease and no doubt laying on the bed.

It was disgusting, and yet satisfying. Now I have this gloriously crispy, deep red paprika roasted chicken and roasted green beans with cashews and garlic for dinner, and a rich golden stock simmering ever so slightly on the stove. Somehow all of this food will taste better because I communed with the carcass in a new and intimate way. I held its heart in my hands and understood just a little more that my dinner once walked and squawked, and that I am thankful to be eating it.
(I'm sure the chicken would tell a different story.)