The Best Places to Order Chicken Online
Updated: Apr. 18, 2024
There are so many good reasons to buy chicken online, but which poultry is worth the premium price? We tested 10 services to find the best-of-the-best chicken delivery.
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A decade ago, the idea of ordering chicken online would have seemed absurd. Today, it feels just as normal to buy chicken online as it does to order clothes or tech items. And why not? Chicken is not only one of the most consumed meats in the U.S., but it’s also extremely versatile. It can be grilled, roasted, sauteed, braised and deep-fried, and leftover chicken can be shredded to make tacos, sandwiches and salads.
Ordering chicken online is pricier than buying it in the supermarket, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Though the best chicken to order online comes at a price, the taste puts cheaper supermarket chicken to shame. The best online butchers offer healthier meat from humanely raised birds that have been sourced from small American farms, making ethical eating easy. After cooking and taste-testing chicken from the most popular places to order meat online, I’ve determined that these butcheries are the best of the best.
Allison Robicelli for Taste of Home
Best Overall
Porter Road
Porter Road was founded by two chefs who found themselves aggravated by how difficult it was to source high-quality meat for their restaurant kitchens. The pair stepped out from behind the stove to open a butcher shop in Nashville in 2010, partnering with small, local farms raising the most flavorful meat and poultry in the region. A smashing success, Porter Road began selling its meat online in 2017 to make the best meat in the business available to everyone, no matter where they live. They offer the following cuts of chicken:
- Whole chicken
- Ground chicken
- Boneless skinless breasts
- Split breasts
- Drumsticks
- Bone-in thighs
- Wings
Sourced from farms in Kentucky and Tennessee, Porter Road’s poultry is pasture-raised, feeding on a diet of fresh grass and wild bugs. The difference in quality compared to factory-farmed chicken is immediately evident. In our testing, we found the chicken breasts are tender and juicy, with a flavor that supermarket chicken simply can’t touch. It would be a shame to cover up this chicken with overly potent marinades or robust sauces—keep things simple, and you shall be handsomely rewarded.
Pros
- Outstandingly flavorful
- Responsibly raised
- Supports a small American farm
- Pasture-raised
- Free of hormones and antibiotics
Cons
- Cost significantly more than conventional supermarket chicken
Allison Robicelli for Taste of Home
Best Organic
ButcherBox
ButcherBox is a subscription-based butchery that partners with small, sustainable farms to bring superlative grass-fed meat, sustainable seafood and organic chicken straight to your doorstep. They offer three different curated box options (beef and chicken, beef and pork, or a mix of all three), as well as the option for a custom box that can be filled with whichever cuts you’d like. As for chicken, ButcherBox offers eight different options:
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts & thighs
- Tenders
- Wings
- Drumsticks
- Ground chicken
- Whole chickens
As far as sourcing is concerned, the organic chicken from ButcherBox is the best of the best, with the highest possible certification rating from the Global Animal Partnership. This means all their chickens are raised free-range without cages or crates, and given plenty of outdoor access. They eat nothing but organic feed that’s free of pesticides and GMO seeds and are never given hormones or antibiotics. And when it comes to taste, you’ll agree that all those things make a big difference.
In our testing, we found that ButcherBox chicken is remarkably delicious and needs little more than salt to be stupendous. Roast one of these birds, and you may never be able to go back to store-bought rotisserie. For more info, read our full ButcherBox review.
Pros
- Fully organic
- Wonderfully flavorful
- Raised humanely
- Supports small farmers
- Good variety of cuts
Cons
- Subscription required
via merchant
Best for Bulk Buying
Pasturebird
Unlike the other places to order chicken online on this list, Pasturebird doesn’t source from other farms—it is the farm. Located in Butler, Georgia, these chickens are (as the name implies) 100% pasture-raised. This means they spend most of their time outdoors, feeding on bugs, grains, grass and legumes. During the day the chickens are free to move around outside, and shelter in roomy chicken coops at night to protect them from predators and chilly temps. This lifestyle means that Pasturebird’s chickens develop robust immune systems, and don’t require hormones or antibiotics to stay healthy.
Pasturebird offers a subscription option that lets you build a custom box and saves you 10% off the retail price. If you’re not ready for or interested in a subscription, you can still order chicken a la carte in small, medium and large quantities. There are seven cuts to choose from:
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Whole rotisserie chicken
- Bone-in thighs
- Party wings
- Drumsticks
- Chicken livers
- Ground chicken
When it comes to taste, Pasturebird’s chicken is phenomenal, no matter how you cook it. Even slightly overcooked chicken tastes remarkable, which is unimaginable for factory-farmed chicken. While high-quality chicken always costs more than the conventional supermarket kind, Pasturebird helps bring the cost down by offering significant discounts when you buy in large quantities. And since everything is delivered frozen solid, it’s easy to keep your freezer fully stocked.
Pros
- Bulk discounts
- Subscriptions available that save 10% off retail price
- Outstanding quality
- Humanely raised
- Doesn’t require subscription to shop
- 100% Satisfaction Guarantee for 30 days from time of purchase
Cons
- $99 minimum order to qualify for free shipping
Allison Robicelli for Taste of Home
Best for Variety
Rastelli’s
Rastelli’s meat delivery has been in business for over 40 years, starting as a one-room butcher shop and growing into a thriving mail-order operation specializing in premium, sustainable meat and seafood. It’s also one of the best places to order chicken online, with several excellent ready-to-eat options in addition to raw cuts of meat. Rastelli’s offers the following:
- Organic whole chicken, ground chicken, drumsticks & wings
- Organic boneless skinless breasts & thighs
- Pulled shredded chicken
- Bacon cheddar stuffed and breaded chicken breasts
- Three-cheese stuffed and breaded chicken breasts
- Breaded chicken tenders
All of Rastelli’s poultry comes from small family farms that raise their birds free range, without the use of steroids, hormones or antibiotics. The raw chicken is organic and is sourced from a small organic farming collective in the Shenandoah Valley. While the shredded chicken and breaded chicken offerings are not certified organic, they are still pasture-raised to the highest standards. Chicken from Rastelli’s is moist and flavorful, and exactly what chicken should taste like.
Pros
- Oven-ready breaded chicken options
- Offers subscription and à la carte ordering
- Remarkable flavor
- Raw chicken is 100% organic
- 10% discount for active military, veterans, first responders and medical professionals
Cons
- Shipping is free for orders over $200; $25 for orders between $100-199, and $50 for orders under $100
Allison Robicelli for Taste of Home (2)
Best for Chicken Sausage
Good Chop
Good Chop is an online subscription butchery that brings high-quality free-range chicken from the farm to your front door. Everything they sell is raised responsibly without the use of hormones or antibiotics and is sourced from small farms in Nebraska and Iowa that are committed to using sustainable agricultural practices. The company offers two different sizes of fully customizable subscription boxes, which ship out every four weeks. You can pause or cancel at any time. Good Chop offers the following cuts of chicken:
- Organic boneless skinless breasts & thighs
- Ground chicken
- Bone-in chicken breasts & thighs
- Wings
- Drumsticks
- Apple chicken sausage links
- Italian chicken sausage links
Good Chop offers chicken that’s 100% organic, as well as chicken that’s raised to the same standards but lacks certification. Unlike the other best places to buy chicken online on this list, Good Chop also offers two types of chicken sausage, which grill up succulent and juicy. For a sneak peek at the brand’s other offerings, read our full Good Chop review.
Pros
- Offers chicken sausage, unlike other options
- Premium quality
- Sustainably raised
- Fully-customizable subscription boxes
- Shipping included in price
Cons
- Requires a subscription
What to Look for When Ordering Chicken Online
Now that you know the best places to buy chicken online, here are some other things you might want to look for when figuring out which one is right for you. If animal welfare and eco-friendliness are important to you, check each company’s website for their sourcing statements, which provide greater detail about the quality of their chicken.
Another thing to consider is the quantity and storage space. The best places to order chicken online ship their goods frozen solid, so they can go straight into your freezer. Before you place your order, make sure there’s plenty of room in there if you’re not planning on using your chicken right away.
Before you order chicken online, be sure to check the cost of shipping first. Some companies calculate the shipping cost into the price, but others charge an additional fee that’s based on how much you spend.
Why You Should Trust Us
I got my first professional cooking job in 2002, and in the past 21 years, I’ve learned a lot about cooking—and eating—meat. I’ve written and tested hundreds (if not thousands!) of recipes, written three cookbooks and cannot begin to calculate how much chicken I’ve cooked throughout my career. What I can tell you, though, is that I know what great chicken is supposed to taste like. I only recommend you buy chicken online if the product is well worth the price. Out of the 10 services I tested, these were the ones that lived up to my standards.
How We Found the Best Chicken Delivery Services
For the best chicken delivery service, we ordered frozen chicken from multiple mail-order companies. We first researched which companies were most likely to catch customer’s eyes when looking for online meat delivery services. We were eager to see if the top results warranted their perceived popularity, or if they’d invested more money into their advertising budget than their products. If you’re wondering why you aren’t seeing some of the best-known mail-order meat brands on this list, it’s because they didn’t meet expectations when put to the test.
We also ordered meat from several upstart companies that have yet to achieve the national notoriety of the well-established mail-order meat brands but have built plenty of buzz and solid reputations in the short time they’ve existed. We tested a mix of conventional chicken raised without much in the way of transparency, as well as chicken raised to the highest standards regarding humane treatment. These cuts keep eco-consciousness and the use of hormones, antibiotics, steroids and other substances top of mind.
Once the chicken was in the kitchen, it was tested using varying cooking methods, including roasting, grilling and air-frying. We stuck to simple preparations, initially cooking with little more than oil and Kosher salt so that the full flavor of the chicken could shine through. To judge texture, we cooked some to absolute perfection so that we could see if they were juicy and flavorful on the inside.
Also, we intentionally overcooked some chicken, because we know that accidents happen, and you shouldn’t pay a premium price for something that can easily be destroyed if you’re distracted by a phone call, boisterous children or any of the other surprises life can throw your way while making dinner. We wanted chicken that remained delicious if your attention was temporarily pulled elsewhere, or if it desiccated into a dud.
We tracked our findings in a detailed testing spreadsheet and then assigned each brand a rating. Only the top results made our final list.
FAQ
Why should you buy chicken online?
Buy chicken online for an affordable way to get top-notch quality while beating the specialty store price tag. Online retailers may buy and sell in bulk, creating an opportunity to pass on the savings to the consumer. They’re not only able to provide competitive pricing, but they also tend to have a better selection than your local store. Most grocery stores don’t carry spatchcocked chicken or bone-in chicken breasts, but you can find both of those items (and more!) online.
Many of the best places to buy chicken online also provide sustainable options. They list the chicken’s farm, feed and the environment on the farm. You’ll also have options when it comes to labeling, too, which is great if you’re looking for a specific type of chicken (i.e. organic, humanely raised, etc).
Can you order frozen chicken online?
Yes, you can order frozen chicken online!
Originally Published: July 19, 2023
