Folks, today I made myself hack up a whole chicken for a soup recipe (we all had colds so this was medicinal). The recipe calls for 2" pieces of raw chicken (cut right through the bones, which you saute and sweat to get a good broth.)

My problem was getting a good enough grip on the cleaver while slamming it into the chicken bones- I wore vinyl disposable gloves and got to the point where I had to wrap a towel around the handle of the cleaver (new and fairly sharp) but it was a mess. The chicken kept sliding around and the cleaver missing previous cuts, etc. Not helping was the Dayquil I was on, either, but when I was done my kitchen looked like a crime scene.

Any tips out there for doing this with more class and efficiency than I exhibited today?