How to cook a turkey with coconut oil

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Prepare the thawed turkey by removing gizzards and neck from the bird. Wash thoroughly inside and out with cool water. Remove any pin feathers from wings and any extra skin or unwanted bits. Pat dry—the inside too—with paper towels. Place the turkey on a cutting board.

3. Mix seasonings together in a small dish.

4. Rub about 1 tablespoon of the seasoning mixture inside the cavity of the turkey. Place the lemon, onion and chopped celery inside the bird.

5. Gently loosen the skin the turkey skin by placing your finger between the skin and the flesh and pressing slowly, as if you’re separating two sheets of fragile paper. You should be able to get much of the skin over the breasts and leg/thigh area loosened.

6. Rub some of the herb and salt mixture onto the turkey flesh, under the skin.

7. Brush the turkey with the melted coconut oil. Cover the entire bird. Massage the remaining seasonings over the coconut oil.

8. Remove the ribs from the celery stalk and place them in the bottom of your roasting pan. If there are extra pieces of lemon or onion that did not fit into the turkey cavity, nestle them into the celery.

9. Transfer the turkey to the roasting pan. The vegetables in the bottom will impart flavor and keep the bird slightly elevated from the juices as it cooks.

10. Pour one cup of water in the bottom of the pan.

11. Roast for about 3 hours or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165 degrees. Baste with the bird’s own juices every thirty minutes. Supplement basting with more melted coconut oil if there’s not enough liquid the first couple of times.

12. Tent with aluminum foil if the bird gets too brown.

13. Remove from oven and let rest 20-30 minutes before carving.