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Amazon has 12-pound turkeys for $12 right now

These budget birds are welfare-certified, hormone-free and about as cheap as you're ever going to find the preeminent Thanksgiving main.

David Watsky Senior Editor / Home and Kitchen
David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. He earned a BA in English from Northeastern, and has toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom. Right now, he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or the best way to cook bacon. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.
Expertise Kitchen tools, appliances, food science, subscriptions and meal kits.
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If you're looking for a Thanksgiving turkey to arrive by the big day and keep your budget intact, we found a turkey deal that's so good it almost seems like a mistake. Amazon (via Whole Foods) is selling 12- and 24-pound young turkeys for $1 a pound. And they'll arrive well before Thanksgiving. The catch, if you want to call it that, is there's a $10 delivery fee. but $22 for a 12-pound bird is still an excellent deal, and $34 for a massive 24-pounder is even better.

Note: Inventory for this turkey deal may be limited by region, as some folks from our team are seeing this listed as unavailable.

See at Amazon

A couple more things to note: We haven't tried these birds, but can confirm they are raised antibiotic-free and fed a 100% vegetarian diet (which usually means lots of corn and soy). Surprisingly, at least to me, they're also animal welfare-certified, which is one of the most rigorous standards for raising meat and usually carries a higher price tag. (You can read more about that here.)

We dug through the reviews, and while the birds have a good score overall, not everyone who bought one loved the taste or texture. So buyer beware. But at this price, you could grab one now to do a test run and grab another in time for Thanksgiving if it measures up. 

If you want to peruse more options for buying turkey online, see our list of the best places to buy a mail-order turkey in 2021. And if you're getting your bird early and freezing it, we outline the best way to safely defrost your turkey in time for the big day.