How to Chop Up a Chicken - Cutting up a Chicken

Next, put the chicken breast side down, and slice cleanly up the spine, pressing down so the blade scores along the ribs. Turn the chicken upright, with the neck pressed into the cutting board, and cut straight down along the spine to open the chicken; my father-in-law (a retired butcher) taps the back of the blade repeatedly with his other hand to drive it through the ribs.