Hi all,
I lost my supplier of ground chicken! I used to get 1 lb rolls of frozen ground chicken for $1.19/lb at our local grocery store, and they stopped carrying it. I buy chicken backs at Whole Foods (the only place left around here that cuts their own chickens), but I need a way to get muscle meat - I have to give him hamburger from Costco cause that's the cheapest beef I can find. But it would cost me $3.00/lb for chicken meat there. And turkey is even worse.

We don't have access to any inexpensive meat locally, so I'm wondering if any of you know if there are places online that I might be able to get a better deal. I've looked but haven't had any luck yet.

Have you checked with the grocer to see if they'd buy a case for you? Or you have anything like Aldi you can check out? They might be good source for gr turkey at least.

Lori, you might be better off ordering from GreenTripe online. It's all good stuff, especially compared to $3/lb chicken meat (?) and Costco hamburger.

Here we get $.99/lb fresh whole chicken at Safeway regularly. Or $1.99 whole fryer at Whole Foods. Both are better than ground poultry.

 Quote: Mara Jessup

Have you checked with the grocer to see if they'd buy a case for you? Or you have anything like Aldi you can check out? They might be good source for gr turkey at least.

Yes, they can't order it anymore. Ugh. What is Aldi?

Buying anything online will kill you on shipping. I occasionally do order frozen gren tripe on line, but the shipping is crazy.

Since you shop at Costco already, why not just buy whole chickens there?

Lori, of you can find a place, ever a couple of hours or so away, & have a large enough freezer to store it...it would be worth buying large quantities & make the trip every few months.

My restraunt wholesaler is an hourish away but I get over 200 lbs of meats each trip & only go every 3 months. I'd gladly travel 2 + hours if I had to for the prices that I get. I usually pick up a couple of cases for friends when I go also & they kick in a couple bucks toward the gas...so it's a win win for all!

I get the skin-on chicken thighs at CostCo -- $0.99/#. Chicken quarters at Wal-Mart $0.88/#. This is in in NE Ohio. However, as national chains, I would think prices would be similar in your area.

If you have to have it ground, that can be a sticking point. For a long time, I deboned the thighs by hand -- my big guy tends to inhale stuff like that. And, I'm still a bit paranoid about long bones like that.

Recently, I wound up purchasing a commercial-grade, refurbished 1 HP, #22 grinder from Weston. Their distribution center is about 25 miles from my place, so I was able to drive up and get it. Shipping on a item like that is non-trivial. It weighs about 75#. However, I got it specifically to grind chicken parts with the bone in it. It doesn't event grunt at them. I ground and bagged 30# of chicken and 30# of heart in about an hour with it.

http://www.westonsupply.com
-- they occasionally have the refurbished big grinders available.
http://www.lehmanhardware.com/
-- lots of home food prep stuff available. They tend to cater to the local Amish and to other who live a bit off the grid. Good place to get parts for old oil lamps.

For some more muscle work, you can get a #12 hand grinder from places like Lehman's Hardware or Cabela's. It can grind chicken backs and other stuff with a bit of effort.



Don't waste your time with the Kitchenaid grinder attachment.

It's not that I need ground meat really. It's more that I can't feed Kasey very many legs and thighs or he gets loose poops. His system is really sensitive, so chicken backs and boneless meats are what seem to work best for him. That's why I loved using the ground chicken rolls I used be able to get, because I could give him that and a chicken back. I'm going to just have to experiment with different combos of things until I find something else that works.

Thanks everyone for all your ideas! Ann, I am looking into the restaurant wholesaler idea. So far I can't find one, but I'll keep looking - they must be out there!

Maybe you might consider stopping into a few local restraunts & see if you can find out who they purchase their meat from. If need be tell them a little white lie,that you are thinking about starting a catering business. Since not all restraunts do off site catering, they might be willing to share info & not view you as a conpetitor.

Many wholesalers will sell to someone that doesn't have a business license. I actually do have a CT license but was never asked if I had one or asked to pruduce one. It never came up. Don't know about Cali though.

Just a thought....can you get Bravo prepared frozen raw food there? They are pricey but have ground meats as well as the blends etc.

Good luck.

All this is going to get more pricey. I just talked to my grain elevator and we priced out raising 50 chickens from 0-roughly 8 wks. Thinking of doing that, some years we do.
Not counting the cost of the chicken itself, as a chick, the cost for non-GMO corn+soybean/fish meal (protein source) was going to run $6.00 per chicken. That does not include butchering the chicken or any labor.
Using GMO stuff we could get it down to around $4.00. That's just the feed, no building, medication, water, bedding, labor, butchering or freezing. And it doesn't include the cost of the baby chick either,usually about $1.25.