The wing should bend in two places, and each bend corresponds to one joint. The rounded end previously connected to the body of the chicken is the drumette. The middle portion between both joints is the wingette (also called a “flat”), and the pointed end is the tip. Once you’ve visually identified both joints, use your fingers to feel for the areas that seem hollow or loose. Those are the connecting points, and those are the points at which you’ll cut the wing.
You should hold the wingette and drumette in either hand so that the two portions form an upright “V” shape. Disregard the wing tip for now. Pull down on both portions until you hear a slight crack. Continue until the bone connected to the end of the drumette forces its way through the connecting skin.
You’ll need to use a straight, downward force to cut through the joint, but you may need to use a sawing motion to cut through the connecting skin. Alternatively, you can cut through the exposed joint using sharp, clean kitchen scissors.
This part of the process is usually easier than the first part since this joint is less firm. Hold the wingette ready while using your other hand to wiggle the tip. Do this until you can hear or feel the joint pop, then continue bending the joint back until you can reveal two bones. The smaller of the two bones is connected to the wing tip.
The two pieces should separate easily with a knife. If desired, however, you can separate these portions using kitchen scissors instead.
The wing tips have little to no meat, making them unfit for use in normal recipes. If you don’t wish to completely discard them, you could save the tips and use them for use in chicken stock later.
Discard the wing tip as usual. You can make French cuts using both the drumettes and wingettes. French cuts separate the meat and skin from a portion of the bone. The meat sits on one end of the wing piece and the exposed bone presents itself as a neat “handle” for easy gripping.
Firmly pinch the exposed bone between your fingers with one hand while cutting the skin with the other hand. Use a gently sawing motion to separate the skin. Allow the blade to do the work instead of forcing the knife through with force. The goal is to separate the skin without marring or sawing into the bone itself.
You might be able to use your hands to do this, but if it feels too slippery or too tough, use the knife. Press the blade of the knife down so that the sharp edge lightly touches the side of the bone. Push up on the meat, rotating the drumette as needed to scrape up all sides. Note that you may need to cut through several sinews while doing this.
This isn’t strictly necessary, but securing the meat in this manner should prevent it from slipping back down along the length of the bone as it cooks.
Since the wingette is the middle section of the whole wing, you shouldn’t need to separate the skin from the bone as you did with the drumette. Force the meat from the narrow end of the wingette, exposing more of the bone there and creating a fat knob on the thicker end. You can fold the knob of meat inside-out to help secure it, but doing so may not be necessary.
