Writing this article taught me something new. It’s possible that everyone else already knows this and I have just been living under a rock (my roommate’s name is Patrick, so I’m not ruling it out), but I learned this week that Butterball is not just a brand of frozen Thanksgiving turkeys. They have other turkey items, y’all! Ground, refrigerated patties, frozen patties, deli meat, other things (probably)—I mean, you name the turkey product, they make it. But this isn’t about how my perception of Butterball got so skewed (*Cough* it definitely wasn’t because of the Penguins of Madagascar Christmas Caper short); this is about finding the best turkey burgers in the grocery store’s frozen aisle.
The best turkey burgers should minimize their naturally spongy, chewy texture. They should cook up with some nice crispiness on the outside, and, most importantly, have at least a little bit of seasoning. Even the plain turkey burgers. Why? Because nobody likes a tasteless burger and a turkey burger without salt is like if accounting, khaki pants, and waiting in line at the DMV had a child. That is to say, bland.
So buckle your seatbelts and fasten your pilgrim shoe buckle thingies, because we gobbled up turkey burgers from Jennie-O, Butterball, and more to find the best frozen turkey burgers in the biz.
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- Diestel Family Ranch Ultimate Turkey Burgers with Uncured Bacon
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These turkey burgers from Diestel taste like straight-up bacon. If you want a bacon cheeseburger but you don’t actually want to cook bacon to put on top of it, then this is a huge time-saving win. While I didn’t spot any actual bits of bacon in the mix, the frozen patties are smoky, salty, and bacony, but with the usual, somewhat spongy turkey burger texture. If I’m being honest, these frozen turkey burgers do taste a little bit like an Oscar Mayer hot dog (something about the salt level), so keep that in mind. They’re the best turkey burgers if you don’t mind your kitchen smelling like bacon for over 15 hours.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Jennie-O All White Turkey Turkey Burgers
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These Jennie-O frozen turkey burgers are blander than the ones labeled “seasoned” (see #2 on this list), but if you’re watching your salt and you’re looking for the best turkey burgers to season yourself, these are quite good. The texture is a bit chewy/spongy, but even though they don’t explicitly say “seasoned,” Jennie-O did put some herbs, spices, and salt in the mix, which put these turkey burger patties miles ahead of the other plain turkey burgers we tried. These are the best turkey burgers if you’re looking for a low-fat blank canvas for burger night.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Butterball Sweet Onion Seasoned Turkey Burgers
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According to the packaging, these Butterball frozen turkey burgers are onion flavored and, honestly, I disagree. Is the sweet onion seasoning bad? No not at all. Does it taste like a cross between celery and beef jerky spices? Yeah, kinda. At first, I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not, but after a bit of pondering and deep soul-searching, I decided that these Butterball turkey burgers are, in fact, worthy of our list of the best frozen turkey burgers. They’d be even better on a squishy bun with some burger sauce and veggie fixins.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Jennie-O 90% Lean/10% Fat Seasoned Turkey Burgers
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Jennie-O’s seasoned turkey burgers immediately tasted like breakfast sausage to me. I am not sure what that means in terms of the actual spices that create that flavor (we talkin’ sage? clove? holy water that was blessed by Jimmothy Dean himself?), but either way, these turkey burgers are awesome. They are a lot less spongy than a lot of the other burgers and the flavor is very robust. And given the sausage similarities, these would be the best turkey burgers to use in an oversized breakfast sammy.
Credit: Liv Averett / Albertsons
- Butterball Original Seasoned
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Butterball’s seasoned turkey burgers are very tender. They cook up crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside and not at all rubbery. These patties tasted the most like turkey burgers made from scratch—almost like they were seasoned with powdered onion soup mix or something similar. Of all the frozen turkey burgers we tried, these tasted the most like beef burgers. If you are looking for a good ol’ fashioned burger-flavored burger but want to skip the red meat, these are the best turkey burgers to have in the freezer.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
Best Wildcard
Best Lean Turkey Burgers
Best Unique
Best Seasoned
Best of the Best
Other products we tried: Diestel Family Ranch Organic Butcher Quality Turkey Burgers, Butterball All Natural 93% Lean/7% Fat
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!