Crowd Cow "Free Range" Chicken Review

[ecowper]

Last night we had our first .... and last ..... chicken from Crowd Cow. Considering how much we have enjoyed their other meat, we thought this was bound to be a hit out of the park, too. Unfortunately, there was a major problem that leads us to never purchase chicken from Crowd Cow again.

Although flavor, size, etc was great, one leg and two thigh bones were broken. Not just broken, but shattered. There were pieces and chunks of bone throughout the leg and thighs. Those pieces were very inedible because of it.

Eric does not recommend!

[Jim White]

Well, I guess roadkill is technically free range...

[Troutman]

Lol !!

[Donw]

While I like Crowd Cow I have to agree on the free range chicken. Last order from them for whole chickens had the same conditions and the previous whole chicken order was so tough I ended up boiling them for chicken and dumplings. Even then they were stringy as all get out. Too many other places to buy good whole chickens than to buy from them again.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I am a tad surprised the chicken was still cooked after THE incident.

Should I be imagining a poor Eric with an eye patch and a whiskey glass tending to his chicken on the Hasty Bake or was this done in the oven?

[ecowper]

right??? no, my wife took over and cooked while I went to urgent care.

[Jerod Broussard]

Me thinks there are MMA matches out on the pasture, or the fight for survival against bald eagles. They got PAID for the losses.

https://www.npr.org/2017/02/08/514161106/an-all-you-can-eat-buffet-bald-eagles-prey-on-farmers-chickens

[Troutman]

Crowd Cow messed up too many of my orders, I quit them about 3 years ago. I think they are probably the worst of all the on line purveyors. Bad Cow....BAD.....

[bbqLuv]

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Timely thread as I was thinking about a Crowd Cow order with the discounts and chicken was on the list.

I guess this means a Porter Road order maybe for Christmas.

[ecowper]

I will never buy chicken from them again. And since I can get everything else I want from other providers, I won't do Crowd Cow at all.

[Troutman]

Porter Road has a 15% off special through 2/28/22. Use code SAVE15.

[Attjack]

I no longer buy chicken from my local butcher that I like for many other things. There are 2 reasons. The chicken thighs they have start to smell slightly funky by the second day. I find that disconcerting. Despite that another time I decided to try a whole chicken from them. I cooked it on the rotisserie and when I went to carve it I found a black tumor in one of the breasts. I was disgusted and threw the entire bird away.

So I buy my chicken from the nicer market (think local Whole Foods type of market). They have a lot of information about the farms the chickens come from, the parts smell fresh for days, and the whole chickens they carry (Smart Chicken brand) have always been good. It's worth it to me to pay extra for quality chicken. Their beef and pork is high quality and I do buy it occasionally, but mostly I still go to my local butcher for those items where the price is much better. I know which farm they get it from and it is a good one.

[ecowper]

What's funny, as much as I don't like factory chickens generally, I've never had a bad experience with the whole chickens I have bought at Costco. Probably the best choice for mass market chicken.

[Attjack]

I like the Costco meat department but a membership just doesn't end up being worth it for me. I also hate driving out there and dealing with the prolonged experience of shopping in a warehouse. Now that my membership has expired I get my buddy to buy my foil, plastic wrap, and disinfect wipes. Sometimes I have him grab me tri tip, brisket, or other items from the butcher.

[ecowper]

My closest Costco is about 10 minutes away. I do hate shopping there on weekends, though

[Huskee]

Eric I think you mistakenly ordered from Crowd Crow.

[CaptainMike]

Hahahahaha!!!

[Troutman]

Ya think?

[rickgregory]

Chicken isn't worth buying online for me. I can get, in the markets, the Smart Chicken brand or Mary's (organic or heirloom). If I want, I can get stuff from local farms (Sea Breeze or Stokesberry for you locals) that's as good as I've ever tasted.

[DaveD]

Sorry to resurrect an older thread... I'm very surprised by this problem at CC. We started ordering from them not long after the pandemic started, and have had excellent quality from them throughout. We order ground beef, steaks, and chicken thighs from them routinely. Our only complaint about the chx is that the thighs are rarely of similar size, but we just chalked that up to the smaller scale operations, consistency is often sacrificed a bit in all sorts of "craft" consumables. Needless to say, will be on the lookout for anything like this in future.

Since joining here, I've also learned about Creekstone and Porter Road, and am trying them out too. Just got our first Creekstone delivery a couple of days ago and the PR should arrive over the weekend. We'll be very well stocked at that point!

[efincoop]

I was worried after seeing this thread as I just placed my first Crowd Cow order last week. It arrived yesterday. While I haven't cooked any of it yet, I was impressed with the packaging. It came packed with dry ice via UPS and everything was frozen solid in a well packed box. The quality of items pass the eyeball test, but as we all know, that doesn't mean much. Communication from Crowd Cow was excellent from ordering through delivery.

[Donw]

We were very early supporters of Crowd Cow, and even have the tee-shirts they sent out in the early days to early adopters. We still order from them regularly. However the CC we knew and loved has gone through a lot of changes over the past several years and not all to the good. This is an interesting article about the on-going issues and changes https://thecounter.org/crowd-cow-bro...rs-craft-meat/

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Excellent and super interesting article.

[ecowper]

Great article. And that whole story just adds even more reason for me to not use Crowd Cow.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

ecowper I agree. While the current model may be more profitable for Crowd Cow, it doesn't feel like they are helping farmers as much as they were in the original model. It's a marketplace for buyers and sellers to connect versus a more full-fledged partnership with farmers.

I know SRF is essentially animal to customer integrated, Wild Forks is probably similar, but don't know about Porter Road or Allen Bros to state the same.

Click, of course, we're buying straight from the ranch.

[Bkhuna]

They have a lot of information about the farms the chickens come from.

You didn't buy a chicken named Colin, did you?