Techniques

Frenching 101

By Monica Floirendo


Published on February 27, 2012

For these chicken lollipops, frenching the chicken wings — cutting and shaping them to expose a length of bone — creates a built-in handle to grasp while you eat the succulent meat. Here is how you do it:

1. Begin with a whole chicken wing, consisting of a fat drumstick at one end, a drummette in the middle, and a pointed wing tip.

2. Grip the drumstick in one hand and the wing tip in the other. Bend the wing back forcefully at the joint between the drumstick and the drummette, so that the bone at the end of the drumstick pops out through the skin.

3. Place the wing on a cutting board, and use a knife to cut through the joint between the drumstick and the drummette, fully separating them. Then, gripping the exposed bone at the end of the drumstick, push all the meat to the opposite end, to form a length of bone topped by a knob of meat.

4. Grip the remaining drummette and wing tip in opposite hands, and bend them back at the joint, as you did in step 2, to reveal the ends of the two bones - on larger, one smaller and pointed.

5. Place the drummette and wing tip on the cutting board, and use a knife to cut off the wing tip. Discard the wing tip, or reserve it for making stock.

6. Take the smaller, pointed bone in one hand, and wiggle it until it is free of the flesh; discard. Then, gripping the bone at the end of the drummette, push all the meat to the opposite end, to form a length of bone topped by a knob of meat, as you did in step 3. Repeat with the rest of the chicken wings, then marinate and fry according to the directions in the recipe.

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