We Roasted 5 Grocery Store Turkeys & This Is the Best We cooked five grocery store turkeys to determine which bird was best in terms of taste, texture, and tenderness.

eat this not that ^

[mylife]

Purchasing and preparing the turkey for Thanksgiving has taken on a kind of mythical status through the years. It's a big hunk of poultry that you only cook once a year, so taking the care to properly store, thaw, and cook the big bird in time for a glorious entrance to the harvest table can be tricky. While it may not be as easy to control for seasonings, cooking times, and temperatures, there is one easy way to start off your Thanksgiving feast preparation on the right foot: Buy the best bird.

To help you decide which turkey to buy for this Thanksgiving, we bought, roasted, and tasted five brand-name frozen turkeys from the supermarket. We had taste testers judge the birds based on tenderness, texture, and flavor to determine a winner.

Here's how we did it. We visited three local grocery stores—Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and Whole Foods—to source our big birds. They were all frozen and ranged in the 12–14-pound range. Two of the birds were not injected or didn't have any added salt, while the other three were already brined in the bag.

[mylife]

HONEYSUCKLE is good.

[mylife]

Kroger has good meat.

[mylife]

Thanks.

[faucetman]

Nothing makes a better turkey than “Time Love and Tenderness”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhEoQUSU6Mo

Michael Bolton.

[Bob434]

Grew up on a farm eating our own, then later in life we bought store bought and hated it- mushy, hardly any taste,. Sure there was more because they get plumped up for supermarket sa,es and more profits, but it kills the flavor and makes,the meat mushy.

If you ever have a chance to eat a wild turkey (or goose or duck for that matter) there is a world of difference In the taste. Yeah they are a bit tougher, sometimes quite a bit, but the flavor is unreal delicious, at least in our opinion. But preparing gthem 6ou gotta have a strong stomach. Defeatheringmthem ain’t exactly an exercise in olfactory bliss 😆

[faucetman]

Cornish Game Hen?

[PIF]

I couldn’t properly cook a turkey if life depended on it. Squashed turkey without the stuffing sounds horrible, to me at least.

[where's_the_Outrage?]

My main suggestion is to use a Reynolds Turkey bag, never had a dry turkey using them. Don’t know anyone that once they’ve used a turkey bag go back to basting.

I’ve taken to brining the turkey, but not yet sold on injecting.

Then I buy the cheapest frozen turkey I can find, in this case it was at Meijer for $.33 a lb. Got an 18+ one for just over 6 bucks.

[caver]

We buy most all of our meat at Krogers.

[Fungi]

Boneless whole turkey. Gonna do this this year, if I can get a turkey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0TfYHzEOcs

[mewzilla]

Well, I’m a germaphobe. And slinging around a bird to do all that to it seems to me to be far more risky from a food safety standpoint than just shoving some stuffing up its bits and heating all to the appropriate temp.

[Jane Austen]

I have not seen it in my area grocery stores.

[Jane Austen]

I have not seen it in my area grocery stores.

[caver]

Ditto on the roasting bags!

[SamAdams76]

It's a big hunk of poultry that you only cook once a year

I take exception to that! During the winter months, cooking a turkey is a Sunday tradition. I probably cook at least a dozen turkeys a year (outside the holidays). Provides the wife and I four to five meals over the coming week including turkey sandwiches and turkey soup ending in bone broth. We pretty much make use of the entire bird.

I almost never buy a supermarket bird. A frozen Butterball turkey is almost sacrilegious. We get them fresh from the local farms. We pay big money for them but they are worth it.

[urtax$@work]

Best roast turkey method.

Season turkey your favorite way.

Slice an onion into discs and place
them in middle of pan.

Place seasoned turkey UPSIDE-DOWN (breast-side-down)
on top of the onion discs.

Cook per your normal temp and time length.

Last 30-45 mins of cooking, turn bird
right-side up (breast side up)until browned
to your satisfaction.

Should yeild a plump & juicy breast !

[FLNittany]

Not only that, Publix has key lime pie on sale this week. The bestest!

[NautiNurse]

Food Lion is an old chain out of NC. Started out as Food Town, until it ran into trademarks as the chain expanded many years ago. There was a big scandal about 25-30 years ago when Food Lion was altering sell-by dates on their meat and poultry.

[rainee]

My mom unable to cook this year so my turn & ive never done a turkey!
Honeybaked Hams has an 11 pound, already cooked for $60. Was thinking about it because don’t want to gamble on ruining Thanksgiving. My mom never brined but basted..salt, pepper & plenty of butter under/over skin.

[LibertyWoman]

It’s the best. Never dry. I used to buy butterball but Honeysuckle lays those in the shade.