Interesting facts: Dismembering of Chicken

Chicken is the favourite farmed animal used to prepare soup and stew for special occasions in the home and is accorded the honour of precise dismembering after slaughtering and dressing. Traditionally, the accepted method of dismembering a chicken should yield ten pieces of body parts plus one composed 3-in-1 part and three internal organs. The ten body parts include a pair of thighs, wings, hips, breasts and a single piece of the lower back and upper back. The two legs are joined with the neck to make one composed part, while the gizzard, heart and liver are the internal organs that are added to be consumed. Traditionally, being able to dismember a chicken precisely, is considered a mark of maturity and readiness to be entrusted with the soup pot. If a chicken is not dismembered precisely according to tradition, it will be questioned when served because men (husbands, fathers or heads of household) are given the lower and upper back and the breasts when dining. The rest are shared between the women and children.