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.

[voicereason]

My sister discovered roasting the bird upside down. It works.

When I had a kitchen with two full size ovens, I'd Spatchcock the bird. It not only cooks faster, but also more evenly. The upside down can get good results as well. One thing I've never been a big fan of though is stuffing the bird; let the heat flow into the cavity.

[PIF]

It all boils down to how you prepare the turkey.

—
In my old age, I’m getting quite good at boiling water ...

[mewzilla]

ROTF!

Don’t do it in NYC. The rats would make off with the bird first.

Don’t be fooled by Pizza Rat. He’s a runt.

[Exit148]

Keeps the breast meat moist. (If you eat and like breast meat)

I’ll take the thigh.

[outofsalt]

Turkeys, like bacon, are not mass produced in a factory. Each animal is unique and how it tastes will depend on its diet and comfort in the last few weeks of its life. It’s “just the luck of the draw” but I haven’t been able to convince my wife. She wonders why two packs of bacon from the same processor taste so different!)

[Captain Compassion]

Got a Diestel Family Ranch brined and seasoned turkey from Costco. Very expensive but very good.

[Exit148]

My first time cooking a turkey was when I was 15. My Mother was getting remarried, so I cooked it for my sister and two brothers. It was fine. BUT forget turkey -— give me stuffing!!!!!!

[gnarledmaw]

Its unnecessary work but its something all the cool kids are doing. You can just split the bird, often the meat cutter at your store will do it for you. Same effect and leaves a little cavity where you can still “stuff” the bird while its cooking and do so in a safer manner than when whole.

[EinNYC]

ROTF! Don’t do it in NYC. The rats would make off with the bird first. Don’t be fooled by Pizza Rat. He’s a runt.

My late friend Avi always used to make chicken for the Friday night Sabbath meal, and I was frequently invited to join them for the meal. I used to call the dish "Roadkill Chicken". I have no idea what Avi did to create this flattened bird, but at least it tasted good--even if it looked like roadkill!

[hsmomx3]

Same here.

I think the best is getting it from a local butcher, if possible.

[mylife]

Old stuff works!!

[gnarledmaw]

Sadly its unlikely that many understand the what and why of his actions.

[mewzilla]

I took an anthropology course from a prof who, after teaching us how to flake points, make tools, offered to give us extra credit if we prepared the road kill we’d seen nearby, cooked it over an open fire lit without matches, and ate it.

None of us took him up on it.

I have done some Manifold Destiny type cooking, many moons ago, but that’s about as adventurous as I’ve gotten culinarily speaking.

[TianaHighrider]

Honeysuckle is what I usually get and everyone always love it. Great price and dependable lovely outcome.

I don’t do anything special. Just give it a good butter and olive oil rubdown, add basic herbs/salt/pepper on surfaces. And toss inside a piece of fruit cut in half, like either an orange,apple, or lemon if I have one. With or without, very tasty each time.

Oh yes, if skin starts to darken too much, just put a loose piece of foil on top or legs as needed. No worries and easy peasy.

[Hot Tabasco]

Christmas and Thanksgiving were not celebrated last year for family reasons and I really missed them.

I leave the holidays up to my sister or nieces. With that being said, I've never tasted a bad turkey.....

[webheart]

Ha ha ha don rickles ha ha. Somebody seems to like the eat this not that website. This is like the 4 th article I have seen from there. Someone call humblegunner. There is a blog pimp on the loose.

Five turkeys from five stores, none of which owns a turkey farm. They all get the same turkeys from the same farms. There are 2 levels of random here. One, which farm had the best bid for the big order. Two, just grab any turkey from the freezer. There also should be some experimental controls too like time of day, cooking order, which oven you use, seasonings, weight of the bird, basic science stuff. Otherwise it is just clickbait bullshit. I would sat it is exactly clickbait bullshit.

[oldasrocks]

Only decent turkey is wild one. Then brined and smoked with apple wood.

[RoseofTexas]

😂

[telescope115]

I would really like to spatchcock a turkey, but my wife HAS to have the stuffing cooked in the bird. This has been a sore point with me for a number of years.

[mewzilla]

Well, as long as the result tastes good I’m not a purist about how one gets there.

I’m willing to experiment.

But the first rule of my kitchen is that cleanliness is next to Godliness, and darned if I can figure out how I’d get that bird flattened out without sliming me and my tiny kitchen in the process.