Still, despite its popularity in our culture, you would be hard pressed to find fried turkey on restaurant menus. Jive Turkey might be one of only a handful that bases its menu on the fried bird. The in-store menu includes fried turkey breast, wing, or leg entrees and fried turkey sandwiches and salads. Flavors range from basic salt and pepper and traditional Cajun to Mexican mole and honey pecan. “Since it is what we specialize in, it’s something we have down to a pretty good science,” Westbrooks says.

Between 20 and 30 percent of Jive Turkey sales are whole turkeys. Customers order in the store for pickup or online at thejiveturkey.com. The birds can be shipped anywhere in the United States. Jive Turkey even has a turkey-of-the-month club.

Though not as deep as Jive Turkey, Popeyes too is in the fried turkey game and has been since the early 1980s when customers in New Orleans would bring raw turkeys into their local Popeyes before Thanksgiving and ask to have them deep fried. As a courtesy to customers, it became a tradition for local stores to accept raw turkeys, season, and fry them.

Recognizing an opportunity, Popeyes began contracting with an outside firm to sell whole fried turkeys to customers during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. “It’s morphed from a mom-and-pop operation to a real, consistent, nice product for customers to enjoy,” Popeyes Executive Chef Billy Jacobs says.

Systemwide Popeyes sold some 50,000 deep-fried turkeys last season. The birds are seasoned, fully-cooked, sealed, and refrigerated. To cook, customers simply remove the turkey from the bag and heat in the oven for no more than an hour at 350°F. At the customer’s request, some Popeyes stores will do all the work and provide a hot, ready-to-eat turkey. Sales traditionally begin three weeks before Thanksgiving. Popeyes advertises on its website and in stores. Customers order through their local store or online at cajungrocer.com.

Popeyes considered expanding its fried turkey offerings to its regular menu, testing a Cajun turkey medallion over vegetable rice in Atlanta and New Orleans. They found turkey entrees to be a hard sell outside of the holiday season.

But the main reason Popeyes and other quick-serve brands have not followed Jive Turkey’s lead goes back to equipment. “It is a big piece of protein that you’re putting into the fryer,” Jacobs notes. “You need a huge fryer.”

Yet, there are possibilities. “I think it has huge potential to move out of the home and into restaurants,” Mould says.

Despite maintaining its moisture level longer than roasted turkey, the ideal serving style for fried turkey would be one in which the turkey can be moved quickly. A la carte could be difficult but the dish might be a great item for buffets or cafeterias.

There is also the potential for substituting fried turkey for roasted in sandwiches and salads. Mould says doing so would “up your flavor profile tremendously.” He has developed a Cajun fried turkey wrap and used fried turkey in other sandwiches. He even makes a turkey gumbo using the carcass of a fried turkey.

“The people that figure out how to [put it on menus] and do it well will definitely have a niche,” predicts Ventura’s Seigler.

According to Ventura’s research, 60­–70 percent of those who have not tried fried turkey say it is a matter of never having had the opportunity. Only 7 percent have refrained because they are concerned about health aspects.

And safety concerns that once seemed insurmountable are being addressed through new electrical equipment introductions. Seigler predicts the availability of electric cookers in the $200 range will boost the number of those who have tried fried turkey by 5 to 15 percent over the next year. The more people try it, the bigger the opportunity for restaurants. “It’s a phenomenon that’s growing all over the country, and we think it’s going to continue to grow,” he says.