The honest headline first: smoked turkey does not appear on Buddy's Bar-B-Q published menu, and the chain does not run the kind of national holiday turkey program that the big barbecue brands advertise every November. That is not a knock — it is the same short-menu logic that keeps a Pork Dinner at $10.99 and makes Buddy's the cheapest chain covered on this site. But it means the Thanksgiving plan here looks different, and it is worth knowing what it actually is before the week arrives.
Whether you can get a turkey at all
Ask your restaurant, and ask early. Buddy's publishes almost nothing centrally — prices appear as ranges, hours vary, there is no coupon calendar and no by-the-pound sheet. Seasonal items are decided the same way, at the restaurant, so a location may take holiday turkey orders in a given year without any of it appearing on a corporate page. Treat a phone call in early November as the only reliable answer.
What to order instead
The stronger play is to stop trying to replace the turkey and let Buddy's do what it has done since 1972.
- A Feed 10 Family Pack ($69.99–$79.99) as the centerpiece for a large table, or a Feed 5 ($34.99–$39.99) for a small one. At about $7 to $8 a head this is the cheapest way to feed a crowd of anything on this site.
- Half Smoked Chicken Dinners (from $11.49) if you want poultry on the table. It is the closest thing Buddy's makes to a holiday bird and it is genuinely good.
- Chopped pork as the second meat. Hickory-smoked shoulder, chopped rather than pulled, is what fifty years went into, and it reheats better than anything else on the menu.
- Hushpuppies, ten for $3.99 — only if you are eating within the hour. Best value on the menu, worst traveler.
- Meringue pies at $3.49 a slice, in chocolate, coconut and lemon. Ask ahead whether the restaurant will sell whole pies; slices for ten is a strange order on the day.
When to call
| Order | When to call |
|---|---|
| Feed 5 or Feed 10 Family Pack | At least several days ahead in holiday week |
| Multiple family packs or a large catering order | One to two weeks ahead |
| Whole pies | A week ahead — availability is a local decision |
| Anything on the day before Thanksgiving | Expect the busiest pickup day of the year |
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the heaviest pickup day in American barbecue, and a chain with pit capacity fixed overnight cannot flex to absorb it. Book a pickup time rather than arriving and hoping. Lead times for large orders are in the Buddy's online ordering guide.
Holiday hours
Standard hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. Buddy's does not publish a chain-wide holiday calendar, and each restaurant sets its own. Assume closed on Thanksgiving Day itself, with the Wednesday running long and busy, and confirm with your location. The Sevierville and Pigeon Forge restaurants sit in the Smokies tourist corridor and may keep different holiday hours than the Knoxville ones entirely — a pattern explained further in the Buddy's hours guide.
Reheating without ruining it
- Chopped pork: covered dish, splash of water or a little tomato-and-vinegar house sauce, 275°F until warmed through. Do not microwave a large quantity — it goes dry at the edges and cold in the middle.
- Brisket: the same, lower and slower, sliced only after reheating.
- Half smoked chicken: 300°F, uncovered for the last few minutes to bring the skin back.
- Ribs: wrapped in foil at 275°F, then unwrapped briefly at the end.
- Hushpuppies: oven or air fryer only, never a microwave — and accept that they were better an hour ago.
- Sauce: warm it separately and add at the table.
The realistic verdict
If your Thanksgiving requires a smoked turkey from a barbecue chain, Buddy's is not the reliable place to source one. If what you want is to take a dish off your own oven and feed a table cheaply, a Feed 10 at $69.99 plus a couple of half chickens and pies does it for less than any competitor. Add a Gallon of Sweet Tea at $5.99 for the room. Prices by location are on the Buddy's Bar-B-Q menu, and the group math is in the Buddy's catering guide.