Garlic & Sage Roasted Chicken

Thing 1 has been very into drawing lately.  This week he busted out the Magna Doodle he got for his 2nd birthday. 

His favorite thing to "draw"...having me trace his hands and me hand and Dad's hand and Thing 2's hand.  You get the idea.  I caught this the other morning before he could erase everything and have me start all over.

Thing 1 just saw this picture as I'm typing and made me trace both of his hands, my hand, and then he ran over to Dad and made Dad trace his own hand.  Crazy little man.

I can't believe it's almost Christmas.  To kick up the "I have to get it all done yesterday" feeling, my dad's birthday is Christmas Eve.  So instead of having 6 days to get my act together, I only have 5. Yay...

We do Christmas at Dad's house on Christmas Eve.  The morning is for Dad.  We sing Happy Birthday and dote over him.  Then the grandkids bug him relentlessly until he open presents, and once he does it's officially Christmas. 

I opted to make dessert this year for Christmas dinner.  This way I can pretty much pre-make everything, instead of cooking until the last minute in the hopes the food I made will still be hot. 

I found a couple recipes I'm going to be trying out, you'll see them later this week.

For now, chicken.  Not just any chicken, roasted chicken with garlic and sage...hmmm.

Garlic & Sage Roasted Chicken with New Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (3 to 4 pounds), thawed

4 cloves garlic, sliced

4 springs fresh sage

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

5 to 6 red potatoes, cubed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon dried parsley

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Pat chicken dry with paper towels.  Cut 2 small slits into the thickest part of each drumstick.  Insert one slice of garlic into each slit.  Using your hand, separate chicken skin from breast meat.  Stuff some garlic up under the breast skin.  Place remaining garlic and sage into cavity of the chicken.
3. Rub chicken with 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Season chicken with salt and pepper and rub over chicken to distribute seasoning evenly.  Place chicken in a 9" x 13" baking dish.  Place into oven and bake for 15 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley.  Toss to coat potatoes.  After chicken has baked for 15 minutes, add potatoes to the baking dish on either side of the chicken.
5. Bake chicken and potatoes for 20 minutes.  Stir potatoes and roast for another 25 minutes, or until chicken is golden brown and chicken breast internal temperature is 160 degrees F.
   
   *If the chicken skin begins to brown too quickly, loosely cover the pan with a piece of foil.