If you haven’t tried chicken skin on its own, you are missing out. Here’s a guide on where and how to buy them, both raw and fried.
You can buy chicken skin at your local butcher’s, meat shops, or farms. You can ask around or do a quick internet search. You can also buy them at the grocery but not all the time. In fact, you can find them more online.
So, where do you buy them and what should you look for? Keep reading to learn where and how!
Ask Your Local Butcher
Chicken skin can be bought from your local butcher, farm, or meat shop.
If you aren’t familiar with your area, ask your neighbors, or the people around, or do a quick search on Google about where you can find a local butcher, meat shop, or farm. You can also try Facebook, Yelp, or Yellow Pages.
Make sure the local butcher, farm, or meat shop sells chicken. Most of the time, chicken skin is already packed in bags when you order them unless they were just butchering chickens. It is generally sold per pound.
Many people online wonder whether or not they could get chicken skin from a butcher. And you can. Multiple success stories have been posted by people just by asking their local butchers.
If you want to bring home more than just chicken skin but the bag in chicken meat as well, you can always buy whole chicken or chicken parts and take out the skin from them.
The benefit of buying from a butcher is that the prices of the items they sell can be considerably lower than grocery prices because they don’t pay for shipping costs. Moreover, you support local which is always great.
Grocery Store
Some grocery stores do carry and sell raw chicken skin. For this, you’ll have to check with your nearest grocery or ask around before you get in one.
Online Specialist Stores
More common than in grocery stores and supermarkets, chicken skin is sold online. Farms and meat shops that are not accessible to some people are now selling their items online which is great!
Specialty farms that sell pastured chickens also sell pasture-raised chicken skins. You can also find one online, like this one from US Wellness Meats. They ship to the continental US and Puerto Rico too!
Here are some online stores that sell chicken skin:
In New York or New Jersey Area:
In California
A store that offers worldwide delivery as well as Kosher Certified chicken skin and other products:
Another store with a Kosher Certification:
If You Can’t Find Chicken Skin on Its Own
The drumstick and wing cuts of the chicken have the most meat because these cuts are surrounded by the skin when they are cut, unlike the breast or upper thighs. However, the skin on the chicken wings is harder to remove.
You can also buy a whole chicken or two, and remove the skin on your own.
Here are some videos on how you can remove the skin of the wings, drumsticks, and whole chicken.
And if you can find a local butcher, farm, or meat shop that sells chicken skin, here’s what to look out for when you order:
It should be free from any tumors or unusual growth like tumors over or under the skin. This could indicate that the chicken had some form of disease.
The color should be consistent all throughout without any spots or discolorations. It should be somewhere between white to bluish to yellowish.
A yellowish skin could be because of marigolds used for chicken feed. All these colors are a result of the age, diet, breed, and physical activity of the chickens (source: USDA).
Chicken skin should smell just like chicken or none at all. These are the same qualities you should look for when buying at the grocery.
Where Can I Buy Chicken Skin Chips?
Chicken skin has many uses such as chicken oil, chicken stock, chicken wraps, and of course, chicken skin chips which are the most popular among the bunch.
If you don’t like making your own chips, you can always buy them online. There are many online sellers who offer them, especially big chains like:
A quick Google search will also give you results, some of which are company websites that sell their chicken skin chips online.
