How to Butterfly a Chicken Breast: Step-by-Step Guide

Butterflying is a kitchen prep technique whereby a chef slices open a piece of meat—like a cutlet or a boneless chicken breast—along its side until only a connective strip holds the meat together. To complete the preparation, chefs open the protein like a book and pound it flat with a mallet or meat tenderizer to a uniform thickness.

Butterflying helps ensure even cooking, allowing most of the meat to reach the same internal temperature simultaneously. It also reduces the overall cook time, whether you’re grilling, roasting, or pan-frying a piece of meat to a crispy finish.

While they’re both similar preparation techniques, butterflying is slightly different from spatchcocking, which involves using kitchen shears to cut out the backbone from a whole chicken and then pressing down to flatten it for roasting.

Here’s how to perfectly butterfly a chicken breast, step by step:

1. 1. Cut the chicken breast in half. Place a skinless chicken breast onto a cutting board. With one hand palm-side-down on top of the chicken to hold it in place, use a sharp knife to cut the chicken in half using a horizontal slicing motion beginning at the thicker end of the breast and working your way down to the thinner end.
2. 2. Enclose the meat in plastic wrap. Stop cutting when the breast resembles a closed book. Leave about half of an inch of meat intact. Open up the piece of chicken, so it lays flat, then position it between two pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap.
3. 3. Use a rolling pin to tenderize the meat. With a rolling pin or the smooth side of a meat tenderizer, pound the chicken until you achieve an even thickness of one quarter to one half of an inch.

Many chicken breast recipes call for the butterflying technique because it creates more surface area for marinades and makes the meat more pliable for rolling or stuffing. Here are some chicken recipe ideas to get you started:

1. 1. Chicken Milanese: For this dish, chefs butterfly, bread, and fry chicken breasts over high or medium-high heat until they’re crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. Learn how to make chicken Milanese with this easy-to-follow recipe.
2. 2. Chicken Cordon Bleu: This classic French dish consists of butterflied chicken breast stuffed with ham and cheese, which chefs coat with breadcrumbs, before frying and finishing with a Parmesan-and-dijon sauce.
3. 3. Chicken piccata: Sometimes referred to as lemon chicken, chicken piccata involves dredging the butterflied chicken breast in flour before pan-frying in olive oil and finishing with capers and a buttery lemon sauce.

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