Quote: when i'm pulling meat off, I don't use a knife on anything but the ligaments that hold it to the bone.
if you don't have one to play with, get yourself a Kroger roaster (cheap). peel it first, so you have a starting point, then if you feel around, you can feel where each muscle group starts and stops, and usually be able to get your fingers under it easily. there is some connective tissue around each muscle that makes separating them easy. for thighs, you can pop the joints (a knife helps to cut the cartilage in the joint), then once you have just the thigh, slice down the middle (all the way to the bone), and cut around the bone, scraping it slightly to get all the meat.
you can do the same with wings (almost a why bother tho) and legs. some people also save back meat and rib meat, but usually that goes into the soup pot (gutted carcass), or out to the chicken pen as is usually in case the dog gets hold of it. (cooked bones splinter, raw are digestible by dogs and cats). alternatively, you can also bake it and give to the chickens (meat comes off easier) and leave the carcass for roaming dogs and predators to play with in the hopes that the bones DO splinter, but that's between you and your wandering dogs/predators and how much you want them gone.
