Free Range Christmas Cockerel
Our fresh, free range cockerel makes a fabulous and great tasting centre piece for your Christmas table. Each cockerel is given time to mature slowly and naturally on our family farm in rural Staffordshire. This allows for a beautiful depth of flavour to develop alongside moist, succulent, tender meat. Demand for our fabulous birds grows every year. Order your free range Christmas cockerel today before we sell out.
Award winning, with a fantastic 2-star in the Great Taste Awards – these free range cockerels are sure to make your Christmas dinner just perfect.
If you’re looking for recipe inspiration visit our recipe page for some ideas, and how to use up your leftovers. Our friends over at Sophie Allport have also shared our leftover Christmas pie recipe, so be sure to have a look.
Don’t forget to add your Pigs In Blankets to complete your festive feast (max 2 packs per cockerel ordered).
Free Range Christmas Cockerel
Small (3-4kg) feeds 8-10 people – £57
Medium (4-5kg) feeds 10-12 people – £67
Large (5-6kg) feeds 12-15 people – £77
Extra Large (6+kg) feeds 15-18 people – £87
Related products
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The last date to place an order for Christmas will be Wednesday 13th December at midnight, unless we sell out before that date. Deliveries for Christmas will be made on Thursday the 21st December. Collections in Person from our farm office in Barton-Under-Needwood will be on Saturday 23rd December, between 9am & 12 noon. Please read Delivery information below for areas we cannot deliver to. For any queries regarding online orders please call Caroline on 01283 205427
Description
At Packington Free Range we firmly believe that what is good for the animals and the land will naturally be good for us and better for our customers.
This is the philosophy of our great grandfather before us and we believe passionately in provenance, sustainable and ethical farming which fuels our drive to create an environmentally sound and welfare orientated farm.
- Delicious
- Complete Provenance
- Family Farm
- High Welfare
- Environmental Sustainability
- www.packingtonfreerange.co.uk
Country of Origin – UK
Storage Instructions
Cooking Instructions
To test whether the cockerel is cooked, push a skewer into the thickest part of the thigh – the juices should run clear. If they are pink, cook for a further 15 minutes before testing again. Continue until the juices run clear. Once cooked, place the cockerel on a warm platter, cover with foil and rest for up to 20 minutes before carving. Please remember that all appliances vary and these are guidelines only.
Delivery
What is the delivery cost?
We offer FREE delivery on all Christmas orders.
Delivery date information
If you have selected ‘Home delivery’, your order will be delivered between 8am and 6pm on Thursday 21st December 2023.
Can you deliver to my address?
We can deliver to the majority of postcodes on a next day delivery service.
We can’t deliver to certain areas like the Scottish Highlands, Ireland and Isle of Man due to longer delivery times, please see postcodes of areas we do not deliver to below:
AB30, AB33-38, AB42-45, AB53-56, BT1-94, DD8-9, G9-10, HS1-9, IM1-99, IV21-28, IV40-63, KA27-28, KW1-17, PA22-80, PH30-50, TR21-25, ZE1-3
Collection information
If you have selected ‘Collection’ for your order, please bring your order reference with you to collect from our farm gate in Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire. You can collect on Saturday 23rd December between 9am and noon.
When is the last day to order?
Packington Free Range cockerels are extremely popular at Christmas and we have sold out in the past, so we always recommend you place your order as soon as possible to secure your Christmas bird. Subject to availability, the last day to order will be 13th December 2023.
Customer Contact & Tracking
A confirmation email will be sent to the email address provided by yourself when you order. You will also receive a dispatch email with tracking information so you can view the delivery schedule on the day of delivery, complete with a drop pin of how far away the driver is.
If you provide a mobile number, you can also receive text messages from our carrier providing you with details on your delivery status.
Can I order for friends & family?
You can order from us and we can deliver directly to the recipient – perfect as a gift, or if you’re spending Christmas at a different address.
Missed Deliveries
If you are not home when the carrier attempts to deliver your order, they will leave it in a safe place. If there’s no safe place available, they will leave a card with details and attempt to re-deliver the next working day.
Changes to your Order
If you need to make any changes to your order, please call 01283 713901 or email feedme@packingtonfreerange.co.uk. However, orders cannot be amended after the delivery labels have been processed on Monday 11th December.
Great Taste Judges Comments 2023 – 2-Star –
This is a very fine bird which looks incredibly enticing. The texture is firm in both the breast and leg, and the skin is thick and crisp. The flesh tastes mature and pleasingly dry.
Great Taste Judges Comments 2023 – 2-Star –
This is a handsome bird with beautiful conformation, evenly bronzed all over. We were delighted by the sweet, full flavour of the white meat and the brown, too, more than fulfils expectation. If flavour can evidence a long and happy life and great husbandry, this certainly appears to do so. We certainly can’t fault the flavour, which also has remarkable length.
Great Taste Judges Comments 2023 – 2-Star –
The judges absolutely loved the depth of flavour from this majestic bird. The meat was super juicy and succulent, even on the breast, and the skin was incredibly moreish. They felt it couldn’t be improved upon!
Great Taste Judges Comments 2023 – 2-Star –
Visually impactful, the judges felt the meat from this cockerel exhibited a good firm texture that spoke of being reared well. With great depth of flavour there’s no mistaking this for average supermarket poultry.
Anonymous –
The whole process with Packington Free Range is personal and reliable, the Cockerel we ordered was great quality. However the only thing stopping a 5 star review this year was the fact that the cockerel was improperly packed and arrived with one breast squashed.
Anonymous –
I’ve bought a cockerel for 3 consecutive years now from Packington and they have all been beautifully tasty and succulent and so easy to cook (if you follow the instructions using butter and streaky bacon there is no basting required – it literally cooks itself so you don’t need to wrestle getting it in and out of the oven regularly).. My whole family remarked on this year’s in particular saying it was the best yet. I wouldn’t go anywhere else.
Anonymous –
My cockerel arrived on time. It was very well packed and insulated; the bird was in 1st rate excellent condition, no bruising or discolouration. I was very happy with my purchase. Thank you for making my Christmas a happy one. My family was very impressed with the taste and flavour of the cockerel. Thank you so much.
D Apps –
I wanted to let you know that my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our Packington cockerel at Christmas.
We have been eating cockerel for some years but yours was outstanding, moist and delicious.
V Claridge –
I just wanted to let you know how happy we were with the Cockerel which we bought for Christmas Day.
This year, our Cockerel was slightly larger than in previous years (6kg) and this enabled me to make some of your suggested recipes. I made the Festive Leftovers Curry, the Chicken Pasta and the Chicken Noodle Soup. They were all a success with my family and we enjoyed all of these meals. So thank you very much. We particularly enjoyed the Festive Curry which had a lovely flavour, quite hot in flavour but very tasty. I bought all of the suggested spices for the dry spice mix and it created a wonderful flavour. The meat was so tender. All great.
Wishing you all a very happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2023. We shall certainly be purchasing a Cockerel again when the festive season comes around in 2023.
J Burton –
I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed the free range cockerel that we had from you.
It cooked beautifully and was so tasty for Christmas dinner! There was plenty left for scrumptious cold chicken sandwiches as well.
With the convenience of free delivery, we were very impressed with your service. This was the first time that we have had a Packington bird, it certainly won’t be the last!
L Whitford –
We buy a Packington cockerel every Christmas and they are just so delicious, we really appreciate the ethos of the farm! This year again our cockerel was perfect and we are looking forward to our leftovers too! Thank you!
Great Taste Judges 2022 – 2 Star Award –
A handsome, golden bird – golden fleshed too, suggesting corn-feeding. The skin carried a pleasing layer of fat and ample flavour. The brown meat deep, mineral-rich and rounded in flavour. All told, a sound and rewarding bird, that could easily form the centre of a festive feast.
Great Taste Judges 2022 – 2 Star Award –
An impressive roast bird with beautifully golden skin. The flesh of both the breast and leg meat is succulent and full of flavour, with a length on the palate that tells of a cockerel life well lived. The skin was also delicious – crisp and melting on the tongue.
Great Taste Judges 2022 – 2 Star Award –
What a stunning bird! It’s held it’s plump shape and structure perfectly well, with a golden skin that the judges couldn’t wait to try. Moist, buttery meat that’s tender and eats well. A showstopper indeed
Great Taste Judges 2021 – 1 Star Award (verified owner) –
We loved the golden appearance of this big bird and the skin had a pleasant crispiness. The flavour was beautiful and sweet and very moreish.
Great Taste Judges 2021 – 1 Star Award (verified owner) –
This cockerel looks great, with its crispy golden skin. The texture of the meat is moist without being watery, and has plenty of bite and chew without being tough. There is great depth of flavour, especially in the dark meat which also retained its moisture for longer than the breast meat.
Great Taste Judges 2021 – 1 Star Award (verified owner) –
A most handsome, golden-skinned bird, enticingly aromatic. The flesh is firm, as anticipated, the brown meat pleasingly flavourful. We did enjoy the subcutaneous fat, which lubricated the gently flavoured white flesh nicely. A sound bird which would make a pleasing Sunday dinner or even festive centrepiece.
Great Taste Judges 2021 – 1 Star Award (verified owner) –
The bird looks appealing, with a great colour to the skin and large amounts of meat. The skin had a robust flavour, with the leg meat gamey. What impressed most was the luscious golden fat between meat and skin, resulting in poultry that was big on flavour.
Maggie Welton (verified owner) –
If you care about animal welfare and the environment then Packington is the very best place to buy poultry. We don’t eat a lot of meat but when we do we want to know if it is free range and that animal welfare is at the heart of the seller. Packington ticks all the boxes for us. Chickens and cockerels are free range, rich in flavour and succulent. I only ever buy poultry from them. Thank you for caring and our Christmas cockerel was delicious.
Maggie Welton
Rose Lamburn (verified owner) –
Was extremely impressed not just with the quality of the Cockerel but the packaging and accompanying leaflet that came with it.
This is the first time I have purchased from you via The Butcher and Baker, Barton under Needwood but it certainly will not be the last. Thank you.
Name: Rose Lamburn.
Bob Hill (verified owner) –
I feel I must tell you the cockerel we had off you for Christmas was beautiful flavour and moist better than I have had for many a year keep doing what you are doing don’t change a thing Thanks
Name: Bob Hill
Joe (verified owner) –
I simply had to write to tell you what an amazing product you have; from the very solid, safe and smart packaging with a beautifully clean, vacuum packed bird inside, we knew we were in for a treat. Your delightful brochure certainly whetted our appetites, and after four and a half hours in the oven and a good hour or more well wrapped in foil whilst we indulged with Christmas presents and fizz we were not disappointed. It carved so beautifully with lovely tender slices on our plates and the texture and flavour were simply out of this world!
With my very best wishes for the New Year
Joe
Ruth Hamlett (verified owner) –
Good Morning,
Merry Christmas, and we hope you had a restful day yesterday after all your hard work in the run up to the festive season!
I wanted to drop you a quick line to say thank you. We cooked one of your cockerels for the first time this year (after a recommendation from our butcher Plant & Wilton) and were absolutely delighted with our Christmas lunch – I have never seen such a large amount of rich juices come from poultry, and both the meat and the gravy were superb.
Like many people we are trying to be more conscious of where and how any meat or poultry we consume is produced, and it was great to see from your brochure the care and attention that you all put in to your birds.
Thanks again – we’ll certainly be ordering the same again next year 😊
Kind Regards,
Ruth Hamlett
Susan Harper (verified owner) –
I have always preferred cockerel to turkey, so was pleased to see your product on the Ocado site, via Marks and Spencer.
I just wanted to congratulate you on the most delicious bird we have ever had. It really was superb ….. succulent, and wonderful quality. There was so much meat on it, and it was moist beyond belief, even on the legs which can often be dry. It was also extremely good value.
I shall definitely use your company in the future, but I just wanted to congratulate you on a seriously first-class product. Many thanks.
Best wishes, Susan Harper
Barbara Hudson (verified owner) –
Happy Christmas everyone! I felt I had to write to let you know that the Packington free range cockerel was the best Christmas poultry we have ever eaten and the first time we had tried cockerel. Moist, flavoursome and plentiful – absolutely fabulous. Thank you for providing it via Ocado. Kind regards, Barbara Hudson and family
Brian – Lichfield (verified owner) –
For the first time ever we didn’t have Turkey for Christmas Dinner. We decided to branch out and try a Packington Cockerel – boy, we have been missing out on something special for years!
No more Turkey, Cockerel is the future!
The whole process was so easy, order on line, the bird was delivered when they said it would be in brilliant packaging and cooling blocks. The Cockerel even looked fantastic before cooking.
The taste was simply wonderful, lovely moist meat and lots of it. I’m typing this to the smell of the carcass being turned into post Christmas soup – perfect. Thank you so much to everyone at Packington – I’ll be back!
Name: Brian – Lichfield
David and Gaye Wilkes (verified owner) –
The tastiest cockerel we have ever cooked! It had so much more flavour than others before it. We’ll be back next year for sure.
Many thanks to you from us.
David and Gaye Wilkes
Mike Mellor (verified owner) –
I trust your Christmas was a good one. I wanted to tell you guys how much my partner and I enjoyed our cockerel – the first time ever for me, quite a few years for my partner. It was excellent.
Excellent at several levels – the most important must surely be the excellent tasty meat, firmer than poultry with more flavour
– the ease of ordering and receiving, delivered to my door, couldn’t be easier
– the support you guys gave us in how to store and reassurance about cooking it
– the free range element as regards animal husbandry
We just loved the whole experience, especially the eating ; we’re definitely going to have another next year.
Many thanks, and all the best next for the coming year
Mike Mellor
Mrs Gillett (verified owner) –
Hi,
This was the first time we had purchased one of your cockerels from our local butcher. My husband said the meat tasted like the chickens he had as a child on the farm. it was full of flavour. As there ended up as only 2 of us, it was jointed and most is in the freezer for later.
Kind Regards,
Mrs Gillett