chicken bone suppliers

I love making chicken stock and have been doing it for years, but after I moved to Chicago I lost my contact that supplied me with stripped chicken carcases and have yet to find a butcher in the south or west loop area where I can get them. When I asked the guys at Peoria Packing (where I typically go for meat) they gave me a puzzled look and said they didn't know of any place I could get them. Are they telling me it's impossible to find chicken bones in the Chicago area? I find that hard to believe, so I am asking if there is anyone who knows where I can find chicken bones in Chicago. I live in the South Loop, but I'm more than willing to travel a fair distance to get them. Any ideas?

Super H-Mart
800 Civic Center Drive
Niles, IL 60714

They sell chicken feet and the ends of chicken drumsticks (the part attached to the feet typically), as well as other animal bones (ie: beef feet, bones, etc) for soup stock.

I go to Kendall College and pass a meat shop daily that I'm sure you could get bones and such from. I'd just call and ask.

Halsted Packing HouseHalsted Packing House

445 N Halsted St
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 421-5147
(312) 421-4511

Ohh...and last resort could always be buying whole chickens. It's about half and half meat/bones...so 20# of chicken would have 10# of each. Freeze the meat for anything you use chicken with and make the stock.

Thank you very much for the ideas. I was going to try to stay away from having to buy whole chickens myself and saving the bones, but if all else fails I guess I have no other choice.

Whole Foods sells chicken backs, but they're basically the same price as buying whole chickens. So, not very useful for you, maybe.

Costco sells two whole chickens for something like $6 bucks. At that price, you can strip down all the meat from the carcass, should you so desire, and still come out ahead.

My initial thought was Garden Fresh in Vernon Hills. Have you tried Moo and Oink on the southside?

In Simple to Spectacular, Vongerichten & Bittman recommend using chicken wings for their chicken stock - 2 lbs of wings to net about 6 cups of stock. Much easier to find than chicken bones, and perhaps the extra meat and skin makes for a better way to go?

If you've not had a chance to read said cookbook, I'd recommend it. Many interesting ideas in there.[/u]

estepcha wrote: so I am asking if there is anyone who knows where I can find chicken bones in Chicago. I live in the South Loop, but I'm more than willing to travel a fair distance to get them. Any ideas?

Estepcha,

In the not so distant past I've made Barbara Tropp's double stock and infusion which calls for pounds and pounds of no meat chicken breast bones, including ribs. With a couple days notice John's Live Poultry was able to inexpensively accommodate my request. I'm guessing any live poultry place will do the same.

Enjoy,
Gary

John's Live Poultry and Egg Market
5955 W Fullerton
773-622-2813

Chicago Live Poultry House
2601 S Ridgeway
773-542-9451

Chicago Live Poultry and Grocery
6421 N Western
773-973-2531

Ciale’s Poultry Store
2141 W Armitage
773-278-1118

HI,

If you are considering Tim's suggestion for wings, then please consider the price. In today's market economics, a whole bird is often cheaper than the parts. Costco's 69 cents a pound chicken is far cheaper than the same at Jewel for nearly twice the price. When you select out components like wings, breast and legs, the touch of someone cutting it off jumps the price beyond whole chicken.

I read a chicken stock tutorial where two whole chickens were used. They suggested removing the chicken after the first 45-60 minutes, to cut out the breast (and other meat for your purposes). The breast was perfectly cooked and available to be made into chicken salad. The rest of the carcass was returned to the post for further cooking.

I almost always buy whole chickens, then cut them up myself. I keep a bag in the freezer to collect parts for making stock.

Gary's idea of working with a live chicken butcher is pretty good. If you go that route, then please comment how much was charged.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:
I read a chicken stock tutorial where two whole chickens were used.
Regards,

Is the tutorial online? If so, can you forward me to the site? I make ok chicken stock, but I'd love to learn to make it better

Hi,

I have the links to the tutorial in an earlier post.

Regards,

I did this a month ago and used chicken necks, backs and wings. I got them at Ultra foods. They are prepackaged. You need bones and dark meat parts to make good stock.

iahawk89 wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:
I read a chicken stock tutorial where two whole chickens were used.
Regards,

Is the tutorial online? If so, can you forward me to the site? I make ok chicken stock, but I'd love to learn to make it better

I'm not sure what tutorial Cathy refers to, but in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Judy Rogers describes her method of making Chicken stock which involves using an entire chicken. The essential philosophy is that the taste of the chicken is in the meat, not the bones, so unless you want stock that tastes like chicken bones, why wouldn't you use the whole chicken. She states the case much more elegantly that I do, so its worth picking up the book just to read her thoughts.

In fact, I tend to use chicken wing and backs that I save from past meals.

Occasionally, Woodman's offers a whole turkey, less breasts that is ideal for soups and stews.

FWIW, I buy my chickens (and parts) from Harrisons in Glenview. If they bone and skin the breasts for me, I have them wrap up all the bone and skin and stray breast meat. I freeze this until I'm ready to make stock. Usually I've collected a couple of necks from whole chickens I've purchased and I add them to the pot.

As the sign says...no extra charge for processing. Their current price for chicken breast is about $2.09/lb (I think)

Harrison's Poultry Farm Inc
1201 Waukegan Rd
Glenview, IL 60025
847-724-0132

I make my stock from whole chicken legs when they are on sale. I think it makes for a richer, more flavorful stock. Sometimes you can find a bag of them at 39 cents a pound.

I have also found that making one stock, cooling then skimming it and then making a second batch and adding the first batch to the second while cooking adds a lot of dimension to the stock. Actually sometimes it can turn gelatinous when cooled its so rich.

Thats how I like my stock.

We make ours almost exclusively with chicken wings, which we buy at Costco in those big packages. We've never had much issue with the stock gelling, but I'm still very interested in making a double stock like you describe.

For whatever reason, I don't really like actually eating the chickens from Costco. Maybe they're too big/old? I very much like the Miller Farms chicken available at Strack & Von Til/Treasure Island/etc, and also like the small 3lb chickens at Sahar II on Kedzie.

I'm also very interested in making a dark veal stock, and maybe a proper demi glace. Anyone know a good cheap source for bones where they'll be happy to saw them up into smaller chunks? Paulina? Some place cheaper?

Cathy2 wrote: They suggested removing the chicken after the first 45-60 minutes, to cut out the breast (and other meat for your purposes). The breast was perfectly cooked and available to be made into chicken salad. The rest of the carcass was returned to the post for further cooking.

I routinely do this. My chicken broth simmers till there's no flavor left in the meat, so I tie strings around the breasts and lift them out after 40 minutes or so and let the rest go overnight.

wak wrote:

iahawk89 wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:
I read a chicken stock tutorial where two whole chickens were used.
Regards,

Is the tutorial online? If so, can you forward me to the site? I make ok chicken stock, but I'd love to learn to make it better

I'm not sure what tutorial Cathy refers to, but in The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Judy Rogers describes her method of making Chicken stock which involves using an entire chicken. The essential philosophy is that the taste of the chicken is in the meat, not the bones, so unless you want stock that tastes like chicken bones, why wouldn't you use the whole chicken. She states the case much more elegantly that I do, so its worth picking up the book just to read her thoughts.

In fact, I tend to use chicken wing and backs that I save from past meals.

Using meat implies that you are making a chicken broth rather than a stock. The point of using bones rather than the meat is that bones contain collagen a protein or connective tissue that gives stock its gelatinous properties that broth does not have. The two (broth and stock) are very different and serve different purposes.

tsulli1 wrote:Using meat implies that you are making a chicken broth rather than a stock. The point of using bones rather than the meat is that bones contain collagen a protein or connective tissue that gives stock its gelatinous properties that broth does not have. The two (broth and stock) are very different and serve different purposes.

When it comes to chicken, the differences between "broth" and "stock" are less pronounced, because most people make chicken broth using chicken on the bone, which results in a fairly gelatinous product if you cook it long enough and don't water it down too much.

Semantically, I agree with you on the distinction, but it's a losing battle.

As usual, an infomative thread. I will be visiting Super H Mart for feet and ,,,well ankles, i guess.

I make a roasted chicken stock that i think has a nice body and depth of flavor. i spatchcock and bone an entire bird and roast all the bones and scraps with the giblets and mere pois. I make it a point not to use too much celery as i feel it tends to overwhelm the flavor the stock. after a heavy salting and convection roast to get everything nice and brown it gets a very long simmer and a trip through the chinois. after pounding those bones until i've taken that bird's very sole i'm left, basically, with dark brown aspic. this stuff is the most useful ingredient, cep maybe for salt, in my kitchen.

if anybody finds a source for raw bones and scraps i sure would like to hear about. then i could make more!

Joey A wrote:I will be visiting Super H Mart for feet and ,,,well ankles, i guess. !

The ankles can be cheap at $.49/lb, but the feet at $1.99/lb seem a tad prohibitively expensive if you're not actually eating them.

Incidentally their frozen beef bones go on sale quite often for classic Korean soup stock use - as well as "heel" bones from beef.

I wish I could find the kind of beef soup bones that are the long ones from the legs...the stores I shop mostly carry some other square looking part that has more fat on it, and no marrow.

For beef stock I use the Martha Stewart method of slow roating the bones at 200 degrees overnight with aromatic vegatables & then starting the stock.

In general, I guess my best tip is to always start the stock along long time before you add anything else. For instance, I started my ham stock 6 hours before I added the peas & carrots & onions for my split pea soup. Makes for a much richer soup and everything else didn't get overcooked.

And that's about as close to a hot "stock tip" as you'll ever get from me! ;>

I get leg bones from my butcher for free. We just ask for dog bones because, well, we give them to the dog. (I rarely make beef stock)

Our butcher is probably too far for you to travel, even for free bones, but FWIW

Mike's Market
http://www.caseysmarketonline.com/Mikes.html
32 S. Villa
Villa Park
630-832-1760