Over the years I have become the accidental master of how to butterfly various poor unsuspecting slabs of meat needed for Barbecue recipes. From prawns and fish through to lamb, beef and chicken, I have successfully taught myself the best way to butterfly them all.

The most common, and in my mind the best, meat that is cut into a butterfly is chicken.

For those who have never heard the term “butterfly” in relation to meat or BBQ recipes, it is when you slice the meat in half but still leave it joined in the centre so that when you fold it out and lay the meat flat it looks like a, you guessed it, Butterfly.

The reason people butterfly the various cuts of meat is because it makes the cooking process easier and ensures no one gets the dreaded BBQ bug. It also helps with the marinade process and make sure your marinade recipe works its way through the entire piece of meat.

When you first try to butterfly a piece of meat it can be a little tricky and even a bit daunting so I thought it would be handy to give you a step by step guide, supported with a little video.

The first thing to do is to find the sharpest knife you can. If you have a sharpener, use it on your chosen knife before you start.

Step one, lay your chicken breast down on the chopping board, if you are right handed, place the chicken breast so the straighter edge of the chicken breast is furthest away from the knife in your right hand.

Step two, place your left hand flat on the top of the chicken breast and hold it firmly.

Step three, take the knife and slice diagonally from the right to the left, pulling down as you go. Don’t worry if you don’t make it right to the left hand edge of the breast, just try and get half way through at least.

Step four, if you have not made it to the left hand side, open the flap of meat you have created and then use the knife to continue slicing, ideally in one fluid movement, until you can fold the meat out into two halves (remembering not to slice it entirely into two pieces) and it looks like a butterfly.

Hey presto you are done and you can now pop the chicken breast, or any other form of meat for that matter, into the marinade recipe you have created.

Below is a video that hopefully shows you how it should work.

How to Butterfly a Chicken Breast

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