Finally Bought Poultry Shears

Finally procured a pair of poultry shears. Took me long enough to do it. Well, I never really had a reason to. I don't like handling raw chicken, so roast chicken doesn't appear in the oven at all. If it does turn up, maybe once a year, the man takes care of it, including spatchcocking it so that the breast meat cooks evenly along with the thighs and remains tender. Chicken in this kitchen always appears in the form of whole legs or fillets of breasts and thighs sealed in vacuum packs.

When it comes to chicken feet (in soup stock), the butchers at the wet market or the supermarket cut off the nails; I simply rinse and throw them into soup. However, now that there's a Choya and she is chomping on raw chicken feet at least twice a week, I have to cut them up into bite-size pieces. The dog loves chicken feet, but she's a bit lazy and doesn't bother to crunch the whole foot. Guess who has to make a chicken foot palatable to the dog?

I had been using fairly sharp kitchen scissors to do the job. Bad idea. Kitchen scissors are great for meat and cooked bones, but it isn't that easy to slice through raw bone. Last week, the friction burn from exerting too much strength at the wrong angle got to the hand bad.

On that same night, I sliced the sole of the foot on a sharp corner at the patio ledge, leaving drops of blood all over because I didn’t realize it was that badly cut. Later in the night, I also managed to hit my back on the sharp edge of the door handle, splitting the skin, and bloodied my dress. Ugh. Took a hot shower, disinfected the cuts again and put plasters on them. Went to bed feeling very sorry for myself.

While the other minor wounds had nothing to do with cutting chicken feet, they were rather annoying altogether. The cuts didn’t stop tearing till two days later. The friction burn from the kitchen scissors on the side of the thumb will take a longer time to heal because it's in an awkward position. Gentian violet, antiseptic powder and plasters to the rescue daily till the scabs form.

Anyway, I finally went on Amazon to buy a more practical pair of poultry shears. Since the local site carries stock, it was promptly delivered the next day. Hahaha. This pair of poultry shears are from OXO. Poultry shears are designed as such for a very good reason, so that you don't get dumb wounds like mine. Dunno know why I procrastinated in buying these shears. I really should have bought them sooner. They slice through chicken bones like I'm slicing through a slab of cheese. I use them to cut through everything else. These poultry shears are a kitchen essential. And save the delicate skin on my thumb and fingers from future friction burns.