Almost Every Chicken in a Grocery Store Never Sees a Blade of Grass. Ours Do.

Sponsored by REP Provisions. Our partner farm raises the chicken, and we wrote the article.

Comparison

Almost every chicken in a grocery store never sees a blade of grass. Ours do.

What happens to a chicken between the hatchery and your oven, on most farms and on ours.

Left: a crowded chicken barn drawn in gray. Right: one hen on green grass under the sun.

The bird you usually buy hatches in a tray, rides to a barn at a day old and stays inside its entire life. The barn has a sawdust floor, a water line, an unlimited supply of GMO corn and soybean meal, and lights on a timer to simulate day and night. By the last week there is about 0.5 to 1 square foot of floor per bird. Then a truck. We aren't saying it's cruel, but it is the cheapest way to make a chicken, and cheap wins with a lot of people.

Where ours live

Chickens standing in green grass in north Texas, a mobile coop behind them.
On grass in north Texas. The coop behind them moves every morning.

Ours are hatched, raised and processed on a small family farm in north Texas. As chicks they stay in a warm brooding barn. After a couple of weeks they go out onto grass and spend the rest of their lives there. The mobile coop moves to fresh grass every day, so the ground under them never goes bare and the bugs are always new. Count the birds under one roof and you get 30 to 40, not 40,000 to 50,000.

The north Texas family who raise the chickens, standing on the farm.
Baby chicks in the warm brooding barn.
The family that hatches, raises and processes every bird. The chicks start in the brooding barn.

What goes in

Grass, clover and whatever they scratch up. No antibiotics, ever. Nothing sprayed on the ground they walk; this farm hasn't used a drop of glyphosate.

What grass does to a chicken

A chicken that eats grass, clover and bugs is a different bird on the plate than one that eats a ration under a roof. Researchers who pooled 27 studies found that birds with pasture access had more protein and less fat in the breast meat. When an Italian team measured what actually moved from the pasture into the bird, outdoor chickens carried about three quarters more vitamin E and about 60 percent more omega-3 in the breast than the same breed raised indoors, because that is what grass and forage put there. A study of supermarket chicken in Britain found the opposite, too: the label on the package guaranteed nothing about the fat inside it. The grass does the work. The word does not.

A raw whole pasture-raised chicken on a dark board.
Raw pasture-raised chicken breasts on a dark board.

These are the chickens. Whole birds, breasts, thighs, quarters, wings and tenderloins, from the same coops. They ship frozen to your door.

Shop the chicken

Raised on American pasture. Never imported.

Three things you might be wondering

Does it taste better than grocery store chicken?

Yes, and not in a subtle way. A bird that walks all day and eats what it finds creates chicken with more depth of flavor, and the natural fat keeps it juicy and tender. Grocery store chicken is bred and fed to be put on weight at all costs. They are created to gain mass, not flavor. Ours are raised for nutrient quality and flavor first. Don't take our word for it, see what our customers are saying around their tables:

“These were delicious and cooked up very nicely. Not dry and very flavorful, tender and juicy.”
Ellen N.Verified buyer · Chicken Breasts
“Fresh, good, and not many nerves in the meat like the ones from the grocery store… The meat is very different from the one you buy in the grocery store. After you try here you won’t buy anymore the one from the store.”
Adrianna C.Verified buyer · Pasture-Raised Chicken
“Short of being able to raise our own chicken, I doubt there’s any better to be had. We’ve tried several sources for regenerative and sustainably raised chicken, and this is the best we’ve found. It’s so good (and often out of stock), so, yes, we subscribed.”
Sonja P.Verified buyer · Pasture-Raised Chicken
Freezer and shipping

It ships frozen in an insulated box and arrives frozen. Two whole chickens take the room of a bag of peas and a loaf of bread.

Is this a real family farm?

One small family farm in north Texas hatches, raises and processes every bird we sell. Thirty to forty to a coop, moved to fresh grass every morning.

Shop the chicken

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