Ciales Poultry Store

As a reformed vegan, I’m pretty picky about the origins of what I eat. As I cannot currently raise my own foodstuffs, I do my best to acquire meats (in particular) from reputable sources. I’ve been to Alliance poultry before (also quality business), but having moved further north than I had been, needed a new primary shop.
A call ahead verified that they would be open Thanksgiving day, so I stopped by that afternoon to pick up a duck for my celebration. The building does have a dank, animalistic scent, but that is unavoidable when dealing with an indoor livestock pen situation. It’s not terrible; if you’re really freaked out about weird scents, smear a bit of vaporub under your nose before going in. But it honestly doesn’t take long to get your order processed, mine was about 12 minutes start to finish even on a busy holiday afternoon.
You go back to the cage area, pick your bird (with employee assistance), get it weighed out, decide whether you’d prefer a whole bird or segmented, then receive a still warm bag of ready-​to-​cook meat & giblets (plus the head unless you request they keep it, lol).
Excellent selection, great prices, friendly service. My new go-​to spot for ANY poultry needs!

Could be cleaner, but try the pernil. Got a 20lb one for a party and the taste was easily 10 out of 5 stars. Probably one of the most perfectly cooked and seasoned meats I’ve ever had. And great price!

It’s been a really long time since we ordered it, but we ordered a lechon for our ceremony. We had approximately 150 – 200 guests. Ciales was very helpful in helping me determine the size we would need.
We got lots of compliments, it was authentic and the price was very reasonable. I would return in the future.

Live rabbit! Yup. You go in he back. Pick your bunny from a cage. Weigh him or her and pay $ 3.xx? Per pound. You can watch as they butcher it from start to finish. I peeked in only after the guy was wit the angels. Then they skinned, gutted and chopped him into small pieces. I’ve never been handed warm meat in plastic. Fresh as they come. I even made a rabbit stock from the chest cavity I did not stew.

I’ve been going here for awhile and gotten extremely fresh and delicious chicken, turkey and have even ventured goose and duck. Service is A+ as they are always patient and flexible to give you what you want. (Daniel L sounds like he forgot to take his medication, but made for a humorous review.) You do smell the live animals when you walk in the door, and you can see the very clean prep area when you approach the back counter. There is free parking on the street, or you can just pull in behind one of their trucks in the front parking area.
The chickens are farm-​raised and are more al-​dente than supermarket chickens and I can no longer eat supermarket chickens as I now regard them as mushy and a bit slimy. They cook well and I’ve never had a dry breast with Ciales chickens. Tthey seem to have lower fat than the supermarket.
You can also walk into the back and view all the live stock if you want (and Daniel L’s non-​existent ritual area!). They are always very open and welcoming. Picking out your own takes about 10 minutes (no time for a Santeria ritual!). Other produce varies. I pick up cilantro and farm eggs from there and sometimes more exotic eggs like quail or guinea. I got some excellent onions there recently. Sometimes they have live chicks which are snapped up by locals who raise them. They also have roast pork and other items you can special order.
Overall, it is a wonderful experience — just watch out for major holidays when a traffic jam forms around their store!

I would characterise my experience with Ciales Poultry as «greatly satisfactory».
I did pick up some good chicken breasts here at about 2 dollars a pound. They were on the bone (didn’t affect the weight so much, it’s still a decent price) so I had to prepare them myself, however I did get a quality stock out of them as a result.
Going in, the smell was a little peculiar even for a poultry store, and the line of vegetables they had stacked up looked a bit iffy. Probably best avoided. However, the meat is great!
Be warned though, I hear this is a Santeria joint. They ritually slaughter the chickies and sell on the meat. Seriously, I heard this. You can hear the chickies fumbling around in the back room, blithely unaware of the spiritual design to be put upon them. Possibly you’ll want to grab your reasonably priced meat and get the hell out of there soon as you can.
Also take note, this place it often to be found empty of both customers and produce… hmm, one must surely assume those two things could be connected… somehow, so they do themselves no favours to that end.