How to Debone Chicken Thighs

So you have to debone chicken thighs. In this post, we’ll show you how to do it with step-by-step instructions, photos, and a video!

Use Cases for Deboning Chicken Thighs

The biggest use case for this is when we want chicken thighs that are boneless, but still have the skin on, like in our Roasted Chicken with Sticky Rice recipe.

Chicken thighs are usually sold bone-in/skin-on, or boneless/skinless. There’s no boneless, skin-on version at the grocery store!

You may also find yourself in a situation where a recipe calls for boneless thighs, but you only have bone-in thighs on hand in your fridge or freezer.

Another reason you might want to debone chicken thighs is that the bone-in versions are often significantly cheaper at the grocery store.

If you buy whole thighs, you can de-bone them yourself, save the bones to make stock (try my mom’s Pork & Chicken stock—it’s the best), and save some money!

How to Debone Chicken Thighs

1. Ok, there is only one bone to remove from each thigh. Start with the chicken thigh on the cutting board skin-side down. Find the bone that runs along the length of the thigh. Run a sharp boning knife, paring knife, or chef’s knife along the length of it to reveal the bone underneath the meat.

2. Use your fingers to move the meat away from the bone. Angle your knife towards the bone, and slice down both sides of it to expose the bone even further. You can also scrape the knife along the bone to remove the meat cleanly and avoid leaving any meat on it.

3. Next, point your knife so it’s perpendicular to the bone. Holding the bone up, make an incision underneath it to separate it from the meat below. Slice both ways so the middle shaft of bone (between the two ends) is separated from the meat. Then, slice around and below one end of the bone to release it completely from the meat.

4. Now that the bone is only attached at one end, pull the bone up vertically. Make a few final cuts to remove the other end from the meat.

Done! Don’t throw those bones away. Put them in the freezer, and use them the next time you make chicken stock, or our Pork and Chicken Stock.

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5 from 8 votes

How to Debone Chicken Thighs

Learn how to debone chicken thighs with our step-by-step instructions. Deboning the chicken yourself can save money at the grocery store and allow you to cook boneless chicken thighs with the crispy skin still intact!

by: Sarah

Course:Chicken

serves: 4

Prep: 10 minutes

Total: 10 minutes

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 pound bone-in chicken thighs

Instructions

• Start with the chicken thigh on the cutting board skin-side down. Find the bone that runs along the length of the thigh. Run a sharp boning knife, paring knife, or chef's knife along the length of it to reveal the bone underneath the meat.
• Use your fingers to move the meat away from the bone. Angle your knife towards the bone, and slice down both sides of it to expose the bone even further. You can also scrape the knife along the bone to remove the meat cleanly and avoid leaving any meat on it.
• Next, point your knife so it's perpendicular to the bone. Holding the bone up, make an incision underneath it to separate it from the meat below. Slice both ways so the middle shaft of bone (between the two ends) is separated from the meat. Then, slice around and below one end of the bone to release it completely from the meat.
• Now that the bone is only attached at one end, pull the bone up vertically. Make a few final cuts to remove the other end from the meat.

Tips & Notes:

Do not discard the bones! Freeze them until you have enough bones to make stock, or add them to other stock recipes. 

nutrition facts

Calories: 211kcal (11%) Carbohydrates: 1g Protein: 16g (32%) Fat: 16g (25%) Saturated Fat: 4g (20%) Trans Fat: 1g Cholesterol: 94mg (31%) Sodium: 74mg (3%) Potassium: 198mg (6%) Vitamin A: 75IU (2%) Calcium: 8mg (1%) Iron: 1mg (6%)

nutritional info disclaimer

TheWoksofLife.com is written and produced for informational purposes only. While we do our best to provide nutritional information as a general guideline to our readers, we are not certified nutritionists, and the values provided should be considered estimates. Factors such as brands purchased, natural variations in fresh ingredients, etc. will change the nutritional information in any recipe. Various online calculators also provide different results, depending on their sources. To obtain accurate nutritional information for a recipe, use your preferred nutrition calculator to determine nutritional information with the actual ingredients and quantities used.

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