GROUND CHICKEN

Product

Ground Chicken
Four 12 oz packs
Plymouth Rock and New Hampshire

Kansas-based heritage farmer Frank Reese, who has made it his life’s work to preserve endangered breeds of poultry, has worked for years to maintain stronger lines of chickens. Reese has partnered with his first-ever protégé, Jed Greenberg of Chosen Farms, to raise and process kosher and non-kosher chickens in New Jersey.

Ground chicken is our go-to staple, the most versatile item in the entire Heritage catalog! For chili, meatballs, ragu in pasta, as filling for dumplings, tacos, stuffed peppers and anything else you can imagine, there is nothing so delicious, filling, easy to prepare and of course, sustainable! Ground meat is an essential part of true nose-to-tail farming and dining — but mostly, Heritage ground chicken is delicious, and an essential item to keep in the freezer at all times.

Good Shepherd chickens can be traced back over 100 years, are 100% antibiotic free, and are pasture raised. This is by far the juiciest, most flavorful bird on the market today.

Tamar Adler, in Vogue magazine, writes, "And the flavors! I am stunned by the Plymouth Rock, which smells like hay and has a marigold-yellow, pork-style fat cap beneath its skin. Its flesh is silky and grassy, bringing to mind smoked sablefish. The New Hampshire has meat that is almost lavender and tastes closer to an oyster, or perhaps Lardo di Colonnata cured in ancient marble, than to any chicken I’ve ever eaten. It’s rich in umami, that indescribable flavor in soy sauce, Parmesan cheese, truffles, and aged meat."

Farm

Chosen Farms is founded and operated by Jed Greenberg who has worked with Frank Reese at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch for almost a decade, learning the art and history and skills needed to raise heritage breeds of poultry. 

Frank is almost 75 years old and is considered the Godfather of American poultry so Jed plays a pivotal role as he is the one destined (and you could say being bred!) to inherit the responsibility of running the network of what is currently the only heritage breed (Standardbred) hatchery for rare breeds in America. 

Jed's New Jersey farm is currently raising exclusively Good Shepherd genetics of chicken, turkey, and guinea fowl. Jed is working to spread heritage breeds to farms across the country as the Director of the Good Shepherd Conservancy of which his farm is a leading member. The Conservancy is working to build a hatching and education center, as well as a museum on the Kansas prairie, ensuring a future for rare breeds around the world.

Breed

Your parts come from two breeds: 

The New Hampshire breed is a beautifully red-feathered and fast-growing breed that epitomizes American innovation and quality. Prized for its rapid early growth, heavier breast development, and solid egg-laying ability, this newer breed was able to dethrone the Plymouth Rock as America’s #1 chicken in the 1930s.

Created in the 1940s, the Delaware breed is the youngest breed in our preservation program. Originating from the state that provides its name, it is the result of crossing a Barred Rock rooster and New Hampshire hen. This bird carries many of the benefits that made Rocks and New Hampshires favored and also sports a fully white under-fluff and pin feathers.