It depends on what you want: If you want a natural turkey, one that tastes like one butchered on the farm, do not buy any injected turkey, it adds and changes the turkey from what a natural butchered bird would taste like.
The injected birds do not have to be brined but you can if you want to.
As I said it all depends on what you want in taste, and cooking time, but if you want the taste similar to a wild bird, dark meat tastes like dark meat, you will have to spend higher bucks for a turkey , the packaging of which, states it is not injected , not raised in a building but allowed but is a true, free-range bird that gets not bird feed concoction.
I bought one at Hy-Vee because the local casino gave you a 25 dollar voucher, just for walking in the door, good at Hy-Vee only that day.
We went to the nearest Hy-Vee and found that the store stock men were clueless, plus the frozen turkeys were scattered around the store like a Chinese-Fire-Drill, literally tens of feet apart in multiple different freezer sections, AND, they had NO frozen whole turkeys, only breasts, in the main bin.
I walked the store and found one freezer area where there were some , a whole 3, frozen whole turkeys, but each was listed for $28.78, ($1.99 Lb.) so I paid the extra 3 bucks and took one of those.
The one I got was supposed to be a "heritage" turkey and at the same time, a little over 3 dollars for a 13 pound turkey tain't bad, BUT, as we left a lady who went looking for more whole turkeys found some Butterballs at .99 cents a pound.
I have bought the natural, not genetically altered to have huge breasts, turkeys; not cheap but you actually do get what you pay for if you want old school taste.
I used to buy the high buck ones AFTER Thanksgiving and get them for far, far lower prices than before and freeze them.
