cuttingknife-skillsvegetables
Whenever I chop veggies like onions or carrots they sometimes just fly off the chopping board into the open space of the kitchen. Carrots do that especially often – I cannot chop them (dicing is also problematic) without the occasional pieces flying off the board.
What am I missing here? I try to imitate Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay chopping videos bit by bit.
I think what you want to do is this, cribbed from this book, which has an excellent step by step guide with pictures:
Remove the wings. Stand the chicken on its neck, legs point to the ceiling and breasts pointing away from you. slide the cleaver between the body and wing, cutting through the joint close to the body. You should slide the knife between the joint cutting only the tendons, not the bone.
Remove the legs. lie the chicken on its back one leg near you, one leg away from you. slide the knife between the joint near the body, again cutting only tendon not bone and remove the leg.
Separate the thigh from the drumstick, again go for the joint. If you want the legs to be in smaller pieces then you can cut each thigh and drumstick in two with a firm action. You have 2 choices for technique
Start with the cleaver tip furthest from you on the board, place the thigh under the blade and push down firmly and quickly. you should cut through the bone.
Chop through the bone by lifting the cleaver in the air and bringing down hard and fast. This has better chance of a cleaner cut through the bone, but you need to be a better aim.
Split the carcass in half. Stand in the same position as 1. and with the blade parallel to to your body cut down through the carcass so you have the back and the breast in separate pieces
Remove the breast from the bone by sliding the knife (might want to use a smaller knife here) between the meat and the bone.
Remove the backbone out of the back, kitchen scissors are easiest. you can skip this if the back doesn't have much meat.
Cut the back pieces into nice size pieces across the length.
Slice the breast pieces crosswise into nice size pieces
Reassemble the chicken on the plate with the breast meat on top of the back pieces
this picture doesn't really do it justice, but until I can find a better one...
this video shows it being done with a bit more force and not for presentation, but might be more what you are after
If you can't get a bigger cutting board, here are a couple pointers to getting the most done CLEANLY in a small space (mostly tricks from my kitchen manager):
All of these tips help, but I'll tell you what my chef told me: the bigger your cutting board, the more room you have to work, and the faster you can go. As your knife skills improve, you will be able to work in a smaller space without problems. But first, start off with plenty of room. As you you gain experience, your cuts become more precise, you organize your space, and work faster and cleaner.
With this advice in mind, you should move to a larger cutting board. The extra space to work make it much easier to develop proper knife skills, because you're not trying to cramp yourself in. I suggest the largest board that you can comfortably fit in your sink for cleanup. With professional knife skills, I can handle prepping multiple items on an 8.5" x 9.5" cutting board; however, I find that my 11" x 14" board provides a lot more room to organize my work, and is more comfortable to use. At work, I use the biggest board I can fit on my station.
Best Answer
Use a sharp knife, dull knives don't slice, they split the same way an axe splits logs and that will generate that sideways force that throws carrot bits.
Also learn to practice your slicing and chopping technique. You shouldn't be dropping the blade straight down like a axe or guillotine. You should be moving the blade in a orbital movement, so that you are slicing in a forward direction while the blade is on its way down to and through the carrot. By slicing properly much less of your veg will have that energy buildup because they won't "snap" apart but will be sliced apart neatly.
Search YouTube for Basic Knife Skills and watch several videos, then practice, and start slowly. You will get faster with time and time only, don't rush it or you'll get sloppy and may hurt yourself.