Butterball Turkey Hotline Open Via Alexa, Text, Chat Or Call

Cooking the turkey, the centerpiece of the quintessential Thanksgiving feast, can be daunting the first time. So if you are panic-stricken because your turkey isn't completely thawed, or you don't know a giblet from a drumstick, the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line is staffed, open and ready to answer your questions.

For more than 30 years, the Turkey Talk-Line has responded to tens of thousands of questions during the holiday season. Its experts help with everything from planning and preparation to cooking, serving and more. Butterball's helpers are on the job from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve.

And while it's been around for decades to talk nervous cooks through their kitchen disasters, the hotline keeps up with changing technology, adding social media and Amazon Alexa to the ways you can reach out.

You can text your question to the turkey experts through 6 p.m. Central Time on Thanksgiving Day; send your text to: 844-877-3456.

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line began in 1982 when it had six people working the phones that holiday season answering 11,000 questions about cooking a turkey. Since then the line has grown in both the number of calls and the number of experts on hand to help.

Today Butterball has more than 50 experts and fields more than 100,000 questions from thousands of households across the United States and Canada. From phone calls to texts, nearly a million people have used the Talk-Line's guidance.

You can find an expert on Butterball's website, Facebook and Twitter, via email, or just give them a call at 1-800-BUTTERBALL (1-800-288-8372) if you need to talk one-on-one.

The turkey hotline hours (all Eastern Time) are:

• Nov. 21: 7 a.m.-11 p.m.
• Nov. 22 (Thanksgiving Day): 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
• Nov. 23-Dec. 21: 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. (Monday - Friday)
• Dec. 22-23: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
• Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve): 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Photo by Lorraine Swanson/Patch