The Best Meat Delivery Services of 2024

Subscription services, online grocery shopping, and meal kit delivery services are extra popular these days.

Even if you’re skeptical about the concept of online meat delivery, there’s a lot to love in this space. A roster of new services offers individually packed cuts of meat, that arrive at your doorstep quick.

There’s a good chance that any service in this roundup will smoke any meat that comes from your local supermarket. Meat delivery services offer more than just quality. It’s not just steak anymore, but everyday fare like chicken breasts, pork chops, and wild caught Alaskan salmon.

To help you narrow down which service reigns supreme, we ordered, cooked, and tasted many popular brands in meat delivery. In the end, Good Chop (available at Good Chop) won our pick for the best meat delivery service we tested.

We find that Crowd Cow (available at Crowd Cow) offers the largest variety of products. And for special occasions and prime cuts, we recommend Snake River Farms (available at Snake River Farms) as the best upgrade meat delivery service.

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Other Meat Delivery Services We Test

How We Test Meat Delivery Services

We choose a mix of cuts from each service. This lets us try out cuts that are meant to be cooked quickly like filet mignon. We also try long-cooking meat like short ribs, as well as a few economical cuts like skirt steak.. If there's an option for a fancier or specialty cut, like a Japanese wagyu, we'll order that as well.

For quick-cooking cuts, we sear the meat on a stovetop and roast it in the oven if necessary until medium rare. For slow-cooking cuts, we pressure-cook the beef until it reaches a shreddable consistency. This takes anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour, depending on how large each cut is.

For beef, we do not use any additional flavorings beyond salt and black pepper, so we can fully taste the meat. We evaluate the meat for tenderness, juiciness, depth of flavor, and consistency of quality across cuts.

We also evaluate cuts like chicken breasts, cod, salmon. We prepare meats in weeknight recipes we cook often. This lets us get a feel for what it's like to use the service on a regular basis.

What You Should Know About Meat Delivery Services

Why Should I Buy Meat Online?

Buying meat online can be a convenient and reliable way of stocking your fridge and freezer with a wide range of meat options. When it comes to meat delivery services, meat is generally frozen very quickly after it’s cut.

This helps meat retain its flavor and texture. Plus, delivery means you don’t have to frequent a grocery shop or butcher. Many services are also focused on working with smaller farms. This means you’re supporting small businesses in the process.

Since your meat will arrive frozen, you’ll have to factor in some thaw time before you can cook the meat you’ve ordered. Make sure to have your delivery arrive one or two days before you plan on cooking it. If you typically cook for a large group or family, meat subscription services can help you learn your favorite cuts.

How Much Do Meat Delivery Services Cost?

The price range for meat delivery services is quite large. You can buy anything from a $20 steak to a $150+ box of various prime cuts. It really depends on what you’re looking for and how many folks you’re feeding.

If you’re looking for affordable options for a regular weeknight meal, perhaps opt for a mixed box. These contain options like beef, pork, chicken, and seafood. If you’re purchasing a centerpiece for a holiday, it’s worth splurging for a premium cut that can feed many people.

Many of these services offer both à la carte and subscription options, with discounts available for the latter.

How long does meat last in the freezer?

Freezing is very useful for keeping meat safe to eat for a longer period. It accomplishes this by significantly slowing down yeast and bacteria growth. This is why you’ll often see the text “use or freeze by” on meat you purchase at the grocery store.

Meat delivery services take care of that step for you. When freezing food, the key to keeping it fresh is minimizing the air space around it. This is why meat delivery services vacuum-seal their products.

Dave Ellerby, Reviewed's chief scientist explains, "Most foods, including meat and seafood, have a high water content, which turns into ice when frozen. One of water's most interesting properties is that it can sublimate and turn directly from solid ice to water vapor without becoming a liquid. This can happen at any temperature but speeds up if your freezer is too warm."

Water vapor can escape the meat and turn back into ice. This is why you see ice crystals around loosely packed items in your freezer. This slowly dries out the meat, and exposure to air in loose packaging can also discolor the meat.

The advantage of vacuum packing is that it eliminates space around the meat for water vapor to collect. This prevents drying, or what we move commonly call freezer burn, and the lack of air limits discoloration.

Whether you buy meat fresh or frozen, storing it correctly is crucial. Once products arrive at your house, you’ll need to keep an eye on your freezer temperature so it doesn’t fluctuate too much.

Also make sure the freezer fan has enough space to properly circulate cold air. If you’re buying frozen meat, it’s generally still best to consume the meat within six months. Some companies state that products can be stored for up to one year.

How Do I Thaw My Frozen Meat?

You should always thaw frozen meat in a refrigerator slowly and under controlled conditions so it thaws evenly. Depending on how large the cut is, this could take anywhere from one to three days—make sure to plan ahead.

What are the Cuts of Meat on a Cow

Filet Mignon: One of the most popular premium beef cuts, this is a small medallion-shaped piece that is taken from the tenderloin. The tenderloin runs along the spine of the cow and is not used often, so it’s tender but also lean. It’s an expensive cut because there is very little tenderloin per animal. Often cooked with a high-heat method and served rare to medium rare.

Ribeye: A cut from the rib section of the cow. It is slightly worked but is considered a well-marbled and tender part of the cow.

Ribeyes can be bone-in or boneless. (A bone-in ribeye with at least five inches of bone intact is called a tomahawk.) It’s fattier than filet mignon, and still tender but less so. Often cooked with a high-heat method and served rare to medium rare.

NY Strip Steak: This is also known as the strip loin steak or just strip steak. Strip steaks were popularized by the New York-based steakhouse Delmonico’s.

It’s cut from the short loin section of the cow. This also houses part of the tenderloin, and is a section that does little work on the animal. While not as tender as the filet mignon, it offers nice marbling and great flavor. When served with the bone, this is a T-bone steak (also called a porterhouse steak).

Short Ribs: A cut that comes from the chuck, rib, or plate section of the cow, from the parts at the end of the ribs near the breastbone that can’t be cut into steaks (hence the name, short ribs). While short ribs come in a variety of different styles, they all contain pieces of the rib bone.

The “flanken” style is cut across the bone and left relatively thin, making for easier grilling. (You’ll recognize this as galbi, for example.) The “English” cut slices parallel to the rib bone and yields thicker, square-like short ribs that are more often slow-cooked. The ribs from the back area of the cow, in the rib section, are referred to as “back ribs” or “dinosaur ribs.”

Boneless short ribs specifically refer to chuck short ribs, which are a little tougher than other short rib cuts but very meaty and flavorful. These are quite different from bone-in short ribs from the plate or rib section (as it comes from a whole other section of the cow), and not interchangeable.

Skirt Steak: A long cut of beef from the plate section, which is at the belly of the cow. This is an area that is exercised often, so this cut isn’t particularly tender but is very flavorful. You often find this marinated and cooked via high heat to medium-rare, then sliced against the grain, cut into pieces for a quick stir-fry, or braised until soft. It’s often confused for flank steak because it looks similar, but the two come from different parts of the cow.

Flank Steak: Somewhat similar to skirt steak, flank steak is a thicker and wider cut of beef that also comes from the belly area of the cow but farther back than skirt. It’s also known as the bavette, London broil, and jiffy steak. It’s a tougher cut of beef—and quite lean—so it’s often tenderized and either cooked at high heat and sliced against the grain, cut into thin pieces for a stir-fry, or gently stewed under fork-tender.

Stew Meat: Beef stew meat is generally cut from parts of the cow that have a lot of tough connective tissue. Given that this beef will be cooked for a long time, it’s best to find stew meat that also offers a lot of collagen, which will break down with heat and time to give your final product a nice glossy texture and rich mouthfeel. The chuck section is a good place for getting stew meat, though some stew meat may also come from the round section.

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