A Dietitian's Honest Review of Good Chop's Meat and Seafood Delivery Service

As a dietitian who works full-time with a family of five, I am always looking for ways to make shopping for and preparing healthy meals more convenient. I also insist on keeping it simple and affordable (although that may sound impossible). Over the years, I have adopted a few core skills that help get the (huge) job done — like ordering some of my groceries online.

And after trying all types of grocery and meal delivery services, I can attest that some are much, much better than others. Enter: Good Chop. I evaluated everything there is to know about the subscription meat delivery service below, from the ease of ordering and shipping to cooking and tasting each cut.

What is Good Chop?

Good Chop is a meal and seafood delivery service that offers over 80 different cuts of pork, beef, chicken, seafood, turkey, bison and lamb. All offerings are responsibly sourced from U.S. farms and sustainable fisheries. It is a monthly subscription service, but can very easily be paused or canceled depending on your needs.

Monthly orders range in size and price. A “medium” box with six cuts of meat and seafood costs $149, while large (12 cuts) and extra-large (18 cuts) boxes are also available for $269 and $359. But now, new customers will get $130 off throughout their first four boxes, meaning $50 off the first, $30 off the second, $20 off the third and $30 off the fourth.

The easy-to-navigate menu is filled with appealing photos (impressive, knowing it isn't always easy to make raw meat look appetizing). They also offer a variety of heat-and-eat side dishes to accompany your entree, which we did not try for this test. With a few quick clicks, I was able to select a delivery date. A few days later, my Good Chop order arrived, neatly packed in dry ice and frozen solid — perfection from a food safety perspective. I unpacked my delivery (wearing gloves!) and transferred all six neatly packaged items to the freezer.

How I Tested Good Chop

Navigating the Good Chop website was easy, but deciding what to order was much more difficult. I selected the “medium” box, which featured six cuts of my choosing (up to 14 pounds) for only $99.

I settled on a one-pound bag of Gulf shrimp, four (5-ounce) Atlantic salmon filets, two (6-ounce) pieces of flank steak, one (14-ounce) thick-cut ribeye, three (10-ounce) packs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and two (1-pound) packs of ground turkey. Each selection came in clearly labeled, sealed packages to be placed right in the freezer. The beef and poultry were defrosted overnight in the refrigerator the day before use. Since seafood defrosts quickly, I was able to defrost the shrimp and salmon filets with cool running water right before cooking.

Here’s what I made to elevate the taste of Good Chop cuts, all following a recipe from the Food Network Test Kitchen.

• Shrimp Tacos: Shrimp is a lean and super quick-cooking protein source, and my family loves a good seafood taco. The Gulf shrimp from Good Chop were tiny but tender, and super easy to defrost and pop on the grill.
• Air Fryer Pomegranate-Glazed Salmon: I love making salmon in the air fryer – it is so fast, and the salmon from Good Chop came out slightly caramelized and perfectly cooked. The sweet and tangy sauce from this Food Network recipe was also a wonderful complement to the flavor and texture of this omega-3-packed fish. The newly defrosted fish tasted very fresh, but the texture was slightly denser than never-frozen cuts of salmon.
• Moroccan Flank Steak: Lean cuts like flank steak offer plenty of flavor, protein and iron, and a very low amount of saturated fat. Good Chop portions of beef are smaller than what I typically buy in the grocery store, but can easily be paired with plenty of other fresh ingredients to build a balanced meal. The flank steak cooked up in minutes; it was delicious with Moroccan spices and orange-spiked couscous; I love that the meat came pre-portioned, so I didn’t have to slice until after it was cooked.
• Grilled Rib-Eye Steaks with Watermelon-Tomato Salsa: Rib-eye is one of my favorite cuts of beef to grill. It does have more fat than flank steak, but most of it can be easily trimmed off after cooking. The smoky flavor went perfectly with the watermelon salsa.
• Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs: Chicken thighs are a weekly staple for my weeknight dinners. They are affordable, versatile, and flavorful, and also high in heart-healthy polyunsaturated fats! This slow cooker recipe smelled amazing and was easy to prepare. Chicken thighs don't really dry out, making them ideal for low and slow cooking. I highly recommend thickening the sauce as the recipe suggests. I served this over rice with steamed broccoli, and the kids loved it. I used leftovers to make a batch of fried rice for lunch.
• Turkey Burgers with Mango Slaw: Good Chop ground turkey meat didn’t resemble most ground turkey you find in the grocery store. It was much darker in color and softer in texture, with a higher fat content than what I typically buy. It was moist and flavorful and cooked nicely in burgers, but the flavor was almost a little too strong for my liking. The nutrition information on the site was confusing, so I hit up the Good Chop live chat feature. After a very short wait time, they answered my questions and provided full nutrition facts for the ground turkey, earning them high marks in my book for customer service.

What We Loved About Good Chop

Ease of Ordering

Good Chop does online ordering RIGHT. It took minimal clicks and the site features lovely imagery and a comprehensive selection of meat, fish and some fun extras. They also don't bombard users with emails, which is greatly appreciated.

Delivery Reliability

The delivery was seamless. I could not have asked for a better, more reliable experience. Perfect packaging for a food safety crazy person like me! Good Chop was mindful about not overdoing packaging, while keeping the food protected and temperature-controlled. I loved the variety of meat and fish offerings and was very impressed with the shipping – dry ice for the win (just wear hand protection when unpacking)!

Storage

It was helpful that the food came frozen so I was able to map out when I wanted to use it. Seafood was easy to defrost (water method), and other cuts were moved to the fridge for 24 to 48 hours before use.

Taste

I was very impressed with the quality and flavor of my selections. For the most part, you could not tell that this meat and fish had been frozen and defrosted.

What We Didn't Love About Good Chop

Portion Size

Some of the portions were smaller than desired, especially for red meat. The flank steak I ordered seemed a bit small; meanwhile, read meat is more expensive. Twelve ounces of flank steak was too little for my family of five. While the quality is excellent, the cost of this service may be more than some are willing to pay every month. I would have liked one more choice, seven cuts instead of six; however, the Medium Box is a great way to get started. If you want more meat and seafood for the month, consider the larger sizes.

Bottom Line: Is Good Chop Worth It?

This convenient and reliable meat delivery service can be a great tool to help you get healthy meals on the table throughout the month. We highly recommend!

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