whole smoked turkey- where to find today near Arlington

[yvetteski]

I just realized that I bought what I thought was a smoked turkey was instead a fully cooked, roasted turkey in a brown wrapper.

Any ideas where I can find a smoked turkey close to Arlington?

[alkapal]

call the cherrydale safeway -- 703-841-1155 --- and ask to talk to the meat manager -- or just go there. usually they have the smoked turkeys for $20.

the other one on harrison: 703-538-6700

[yvetteski]

You are correct. Cherrydale says they have them for $22 and will take back the one I bought from the Wilson Blvd store.

Thanks!

[alkapal]

excellent! happy thanksgiving! (i'm a smoked turkey fan, too). btw, look at their sale flyer when you go in, they have some good sale items.

[MikeR]

Doggone! I wish I'd noticed that. I really like smoked turkey, and have done them myself on occasion. I got lazy this year and decided to let Popeye's do the cooking based on the high praise here. Since I decided to go that route, I didn't bother to look at the turkeys in Safeway. Otherwise I'd have gone with a smoked turkey and saved $20.

Oh, well, at least now I'll know what a Popeye's Cajun Turkey is like.

[MsDiPesto]

Wow, is that $20 for a whole turkey? I understand the Popeye - which is deep fried and therefore not the same - is about $40. I love smoked turkey breasts.

[MikeR]

I suppose that if you know to look for them, smoked whole turkeys are easy to find. I was in Harris-Teeter (Annandale) yesterday and there was a freezer bin full of them, two brands - Butterball and something else. Most were in the 10-12 pound range, priced by the pound, in the $25 ballpark.

Since I only look at turkeys once a year, I never remember what I learn, and I realized that I've looked at those before, and considered them before, but was unsure of what I'd end with on the table. "Smoked" covers a pretty wide range of taste. I think I remember from reading the label that they aren't entirely cooked by smoking, but they're run through a smoker to give them flavor and then roasted in a conventional oven to assure that they're fully cooked (or maybe they're roasted first and then smoked to add the smoke flavor).

If you (only) smoke a turkey, it's fairly pink inside, and this probably would look suspiciously un-done to most retail customers. You used to be able to get a true smoked turkey (pink and all) from Red Hot and Blue when they were a local restaurant. In fact if I'm not mistaken, you could bring in your own turkey and they'd smoke it for a fee, but today's corporate chain version doesn't do that.

The Popeye's turkey, according to the text on the wrapper, goes through a similar two-step cooking process, being roasted first, then deep fried, basically to make the skin crisp. The two-step smoking/roasting process for a pre-cooked smoked turkey may be fine, but I'd like to have a taste myself, or at least have as strongly favorable recommendation as the Popeye's turkeys get.

[alkapal]

mike, the butterball smoked turkey is $18, and the other brand -- a bit heavier -- is $22.00 at safeway. i've had the butterball a few years ago, and it was good. i just bought another yesterday, where i ran into yvette buying hers!

hey, yvette!

and...here is the fennel thread i mentioned. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/576330
hope your dinner goes great! ;-).
honey pig in annandale -- january?

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ps, smoked turkey soup is pretty good, made from the carcass.