Roasted Sage Chicken with Mushroom Sage Stuffing

This came out to be such a tasty, home cookin' kinda meal!  We'd just had the whole chicken in the freezer for a while, not sure what we were going to do with it.  Justin had mentioned brining it.  But I left work early today and decided I was cooking up a meal.  We had a lot of the stuff on hand - that's often inspiration enough for us... trying to see what we can use up in the fridge and still create something fantastic.  We had the garlic sourdough bread, the leftover corn bread, we had onions and lemon... so I really just picked up a few odds and ends to complete it.

Oddly, we weren't really listening to much music while cooking this tonight.  So as I posted this, I had this random stream of thoughts that made their way to Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls On Parade" in a ridiculously long, out-of-the-way though process.  Punk?  Well, not really, though I can think of a handful of arguments on how you could call Rage punk.  But I get to break my own rules whenever I want.  And if I want to post some Rage, I'm gonna post some Rage! :)  -jen

ROASTED SAGE CHICKEN

• 1 whole chicken (about 5 pounds)
• 1 cup sage butter (recipe below)
• 1/2 a lemon, quartered (use other 1/2 in butter below, zest whole lemon first)
• 1 large carrot stick
• 1/2 a medium onion, quartered
• 1-2 celery sticks
• a handful of fresh parsley
• a handful of fresh basil
• salt and pepper
• butcher's twine

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Make sure all innards are removed from chicken cavity.  Generous salt and pepper the chicken cavity.  Stuff lemon, carrot, onion, celery, parsley and basil into cavity.


Tie legs tightly together with butcher's twine.  Then gently lift the skin from the chicken and using your hand, rub a generous amount of sage butter under the chicken skin.  Rub remaining sage butter over entire outside of chicken.  Place chicken in a roasting pan and cook for about 90 minutes, or until the breast reaches 160 degrees F and juices run clear.

SAGE BUTTER

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temp
• 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons fresh sage
• 2 teaspoons parsley, chopped
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• several cranks of fresh cracked pepper

MUSHROOM SAGE STUFFING

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1.5 medium-sized yellow onions, chopped
• 3 cups roughly chopped crimini mushrooms
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 5 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon salt
• several cranks of fresh cracked pepper
• 6 cups stale bread, cubed (I like 4 cups sourdough, 2 cups cornbread)
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Melt butter over medium-high heat and add onions, mushrooms, and celery.  Saute until tender, 8-10 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in sage, parsley, salt and pepper.  Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine bread, chicken broth, and beaten eggs.  Mix in sauted vegetables.

Pour into a buttered 9x13 baking dish.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees F.  Remove foil and continue baking for an additional 30 minutes.