Bones, We don't need no stinkin' Bones

More than 10 years ago I witness something I'd never seen before. I don't remember the show, most likely on PBS, where all great cooking shows go to die. I watched Jacque Pepin with a sharp knife and a deft hand remove the bones from a whole chicken. All that remained was a s meat blanket ready to be stuffed and roasted. I was in awe. In the past I've taken a knife skills course and the crowning achievement of my final class was the deboning of a chicken. It was a pity that I forgot my steel and my instructor was too busy flirting with the ladies of the class to lend me his. Results? confusion, frustration and a mangled bird. Since then I haven't attempted a deboning, not because I was scared off but I had no reason to do so. I generally buy whole organic birds and disassembling them myself to keep myself familiar with the bones and save a few bucks but never had the occasion come up that required a deboning.
But recently I watched a Ricardo Larrivée Christmas special in which Ricardo's butcher gave him a boneless turkey for his stuffed turkey. This got me thinking? My in-laws tend to only eat the white meat (a.k.a. boneless meat) so why not try it? Still on the fence whether to do it or not I thought I'd try a chicken before I commit to taking on a turkey. And so last night I did. My knife was sharp(ish) and freshly steeled and I was off. Starting with the back of the chicken and slowly, carefully cutting along the ribcage. Then the joints of the legs then continuing along the ribcage to the breast. Then I removed the bones from the legs and thigh and cut off the wings altogether. What I was left with was a layer of skin and meat which I stuffed with a quick stuffing of fried onion, peppers, garlic, various dried herbs, salt and pepper and bread slices cut into cubes. tied it with butcher's twine and roasted it for an hour or so. The results were better than I hoped for. Definitely a successful experiments.