Turkey Roundup, 2007

By Caroline Clough in Food on Nov 21, 2007 3:17PM

Last year, perhaps a little earlier, we gave you a quick run-down of where you could buy yourself a turkey and at what cost. We felt that it would be nice of us to do that again for you ... not to mention the fact that we haven't had time to get a turkey for ourselves. So, without further ado, a decidedly skewed to the north side turkey roundup.

• Dominick's located at 6009 N Broadway has fresh turkeys starting at 99 cents per pound and frozen birds begin at the bargain starting price of 49 cents per pound. Butterball weighs in at 88 cents per pound, frozen. Organic turkeys start at $2.99 a pound and are frozen as well.
• Down the street from Dominick's is the 5323 N. Broadway location of Jewel Osco (we assume that prices at these big chain stores will be comparable to any of their locations throughout the city). Their fresh turkeys start at $1.56 a pound go on up to $1.99. Their frozen Jenny-O turkeys are 89 cents per pound. They also have an organic free range option for $3.99, fresh.
• Next we gave the Lakeview Whole Foods store a call. Their Whole Foods All Natural turkeys are $2.19 a pound and their fresh organic turkeys ain't cheap, $3.49 a pound.
• Last year's winner for best fresh/natural turkey, Sunflower Markets, again comes in with a reasonable price for a natural, albeit non-organic, turkey for $1.69 per pound.
• Paulina Meat Market has fresh, hormone-free, free range (weather permitting) birds for $2.60 per pound. They also feature the phenomenon of turducken.
• Fox & Obel has a limited supply of fresh Hoka turkeys, the smallest of which weigh around 12 pounds and go on up to the mid-twenties. They are fresh and $2.49 a pound.
• Treasure Island also has Hokas, and for $2.19 a pound (take that Fox & Obel!). They have two other varieties of turkey, fresh not frozen, at $1.49 and $1.89 respectively.
• For maximal freshness you could check out Live Zahiba Poultry (2741 E. Lawrence, 773-784-9921). Their killed on-site birds are $1.99 a pound.
• John's Live Poultry and Egg Market (5955 W. Fullerton, 773-622-2813) beats out Zahiba with their $1.85 a pound turkeys. Though we picked up a good hint at chow.com that it's a bitch to try to cook a bird still in the stages of rigor mortis. So, act fast or not at all.

And remember, one and all, the general rule of thumb (for a fresh, unstuffed turkey) is a pound of meat per person. Happy Thanksgiving!

Dancing turkey image care of this link.