Chicken bones in NYC please

March 10, 2009 5:55 PM

Where can I buy chicken bones in Manhattan (or Astoria)?

I could have sworn I saw an identical question in the green within the last couple months but very extensive googling hasn't turned it up (the thread about NJ doesn't count). I'd like to buy chicken bones or necks for stock in NYC - Manhattan or if at all possible Astoria. The tour du butcer has come up empty; we've tried several places but they've only had beef bones.

Any recommendations, or even just a link to the original thread and prompt deletion of this one? Thanks in advance.

posted by donblood to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

don't know about bones but for chicken necks just go to a chinese butcher/supermarket, they sell all the parts. not super familiar with flushing chinatown but you should be able to find one fairly easily within a few blocks of the train.
posted by lia at 6:03 PM on March 10, 2009

Response by poster: By the way, I'm looking for a lot of necks/bones at once - about 5lb.
posted by donblood at 6:08 PM on March 10, 2009

doesn't answer your question, so feel free to diss, but in park slope there's a store called eagle provisions that carries backs and necks at like 25 cents a pound, and they definitely have 5 lbs.
Its a polish grocery...so maybe try to find a similiar polish grocery up near you somewhere.
posted by alkupe at 6:16 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

5 pounds of anything is not going be a problem in chinatown—seriously, you can get five pounds of chicken FEET easy peasy—but if you're determined to be worried: my super awesome neighborhood butcher jeffrey at the essex st market supplies a lot of restaurants with all kinds of products, many of them last minute. give him a call and he will do you right.
posted by lia at 6:45 PM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

In my area (a long day's drive from you), it's almost impossible to buy such parts because there's not enough of a market for them to make it worth the stores while to offer them. Why not make stock from a whole chicken or from other more available parts? I get leg quarters for <$1/#. For only 5# worth, it seems unlikely that you're going to save enough money to make an exhaustive search worthwhile.
posted by jon1270 at 2:42 AM on March 11, 2009

Eeek. ...stores'...
posted by jon1270 at 2:44 AM on March 11, 2009

Response by poster: Great answers. Thanks everyone.
posted by donblood at 8:27 AM on March 11, 2009