Uncle Ray’s Fried Turkeys/GoldbellyWhen you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more. Thanksgiving dinner is complicated enough — simplify your prep by buying a flavorful turkey online.
You want 1-1. 5 pounds of turkey per guest, and make sure to leave yourself enough time to thaw it. We recommend buying turkeys from reputable farmers that breed for flavor and raise the birds humanely.
Cooking a turkey has unique challenges, especially trying to manage it while making several sides, coordinating family, and weaving pie crust. Common turkey pitfalls include buying one way too big or small for your gathering, not thawing it in time, or having it turn out bland or dry. We can help make sure that you start with a turkey worth the marathon, and give you tips on how to cook and carve it like a pro.
Most turkeys in the US are bred to quickly put on muscle and to ship well, rather than for flavor. Having spent almost a decade in the specialty food business, I can tell you that springing for meat raised by responsible farmers leads to a more memorable and flavorful meal. Here are a few that will wow your guests, all from purveyors we consider the best.
Here are the best turkeys you can buy online in 2022Best heritage turkey: D’Artagnan Heritage Turkey, available at D’Artagnan, from $165. 99Free range, juicy turkey from breeds prized for flavor. Best organic turkey: D’Artagnan Organic Turkey, available at D’Artagnan, from $75.
99Humanely raised, hybrid turkey that comes in many different sizes. Best fried turkey: Cajun Mild Deep Fried Turkey, available at Goldbelly, $129. 95Deep-fried turkey, with a mildly spicy seasoning and without the fire hazard.
Best large turkey: Willie Bird Fresh Free-Range Pre-Brined Organic Turkey, 20-22 lb, available at Williams Sonoma, $319. 95Flavorful, huge, and pre-brined with apple and fresh herbs to save time. Best turkey for a tiny feast: Turkey Drumsticks from Grass Roots Farmers Co-op, available at Grass Roots Farmer Co-op, $16.
95Crispy skin and dark meat, without cooking an entire bird. Best turducken: Small Turducken with Cajun Pork Cornbread Stuffing From Hebert’s Specialty Meats, available at Goldbelly, $149. 95Herbet’s Turducken has cornbread stuffing between the layers of turkey, duck, and chicken.
Best heritage turkeyD’ArtagnanWhy you’ll love it: Free range, juicy turkey from breeds prized for flavor. Any antibiotic-free, heritage turkey from D’Artagnan will be either a Narragansett or Bourbon Red breed, both slower-growing turkeys with rich, memorable flavor. They are raised free-range, with the ability to forage and fly, and without the use of antibiotics.
Reviewers love that very little needs to be done to this bird as far as seasoning in order to make it taste great. The frozen option is 12 pounds, while fresh turkeys are available at 8, 12, and 16 pounds. The birds are shipped anywhere in the 50 US states and will be sent overnight.
Shipping costs may vary. Check the holiday delivery calendar for order deadlines because these birds often sell out. Best organic turkeyD’ArtagnanWhy you’ll love it: Humanely raised, hybrid turkey that comes in many different sizes.
Even those of us who prefer to shop organic sometimes forget during Thanksgiving prep that organic turkey is an option. The rich flavor of these sustainably raised birds speaks for the benefits of organic meat. The turkeys are raised on small-scale Midwestern farms without chemicals, hormones, or antibiotics, even drinking pure spring water without chlorine or fluoride.
There’s also a farm-to-table audit trail for full transparency. You can order a turkey between 8 and 26 pounds. Like the heritage turkey, these are shipped anywhere in the 50 US states via overnight shipping, though costs may vary.
Keep an eye on the holiday delivery calendar for order deadlines. Best fried turkeyGoldbellyWhy you’ll love it: Deep-fried turkey, with a mildly spicy seasoning and without the fire hazard. We’ve all seen YouTube videos where brave gastronomes try to fry a turkey, ending up with a scorched backyard and no main course.
Avoid this fate and, instead, order it from Uncle Ray’s Fried Turkeys, which has been deep frying turkeys in Texas for over 30 years. It’s not a “raised humanely on pasture” kind of bird, but it’s a crispy and Cajun-flavored Thanksgiving treat. Uncle Ray’s fries its turkeys in peanut oil, so be aware of anyone with a severe nut allergy at your gathering.
This turkey feeds 10-12 people and is shipped frozen after being fully cooked. The listed price includes shipping to the lower 48 states and generally will be to your door within a week. Best large turkeyWilliams SonomaWhy you’ll love it: Flavorful, huge, and pre-brined to save time.
If you’re cooking for a crowd this year, check out this certified organic, pre-brined turkey that clocks in at 20-22 pounds. Farmed in Northern California by famed poultry purveyor Willie Bird, the turkeys are raised humanely without hormones or antibiotics. The turkey is then seasoned with apple, lemon, garlic, and rosemary.
Shipping takes anywhere from 2-7 business days and is limited to the lower 48 states, so make sure to plan ahead. There’s a $15 delivery surcharge, and it’s shipped fresh with ice packs. It lasts for up to 3 months in the freezer and 7 days in the fridge.
Keep this bird in the refrigerator, or one of their smaller options, if you don’t want to factor a long thaw into your prep time. Best turkey for a tiny feastGrass Roots Farmer’s Co-opWhy you’ll love it: Crispy skin and dark meat, without cooking an entire bird. It doesn’t matter how tiny your gathering will be, you can still bring a turkey to the table.
In the case of small or less-turkey-inclined groups, we turn to these turkey drumsticks. You get to experience rich and juicy dark meat turkey without having to cook an entire bird. Grass Roots Farmers Co-op focuses on regenerative farming, with animals raised sustainably in nature by fairly-paid farmers.
It never uses hormones or chemicals and encourages biodiversity. These turkeys lived on fresh pasture and the flavor comes through in the meat. Shipping cost is calculated by location, but turkey parts will come in 2-5 days through FedEx anywhere in the lower 48 states.
You’ll receive your drumsticks flash frozen, and can thaw them overnight. Best turduckenGoldbellyWhy you’ll love it: Herbet’s Turducken has cornbread stuffing between the layers of turkey, duck, and chicken. You may have discovered the Frankenstein’s monster category of turducken (turkey stuffed with chicken and duck) on social media, but this creation predates the internet by a few decades.
Louisiana-based Hebert’s has been making these since 1984, with a layer of cornbread stuffing between each bird and topped with its special Cajun seasoning. This is not pasture-raised, antibiotic-free turkey, but it is a darn good time if you feel like going outside the box for your holiday feast. The small Turducken is 10 pounds and the large is 16 pounds.
The listed price of the small is $149. 95 and includes free 2-day shipping ( if you’re in the geographic US). The bird is shipped uncooked and frozen with dry ice.
How we chose the best turkeysFrom how you prefer to cook a turkey or the size of your gathering, everyone is looking for something different in a turkey. Based on our research and experience with specialty food, we developed more universal criteria below to evaluate the turkeys in this guide. Responsible farming: Eating meat can be iffy from an ethical and a climate change perspective.
You can mitigate the negative effects by buying turkeys raised humanely, preferably on pasture. It’s unquestionably more money, but it’s better for the environment and tastes better. Better flavor: Most livestock is bred to bulk up quickly, but we prioritized turkeys bred for better flavor.
This included purveyors that start with heritage breeds or raise the turkeys on pasture. Pre-brined options were favored to make the cooking process as foolproof as possible. For the cooked options, there needed to be information on how it was cooked.
Reviews: Turkey is generally the centerpiece of high-stakes celebratory meals, whether that’s Christmas, Thanksgiving, or otherwise. It should be a crowd-pleaser! So, we checked the reviews to make sure that the turkeys included did, in fact, please the crowd. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/guides/kitchen/best-mail-order-turkey
