Chicken & Sausage Grande

I received this recipe from a friend of a friend of a friend who lives in New Orleans. I've altered it slightly for our taste and it remains a family favorite. I'll give you the basic ingredients and you can adapt for your own taste.

1 whole chicken cut up or mixture of legs and thighs

1 pound of either Italian sausage or our favorite Conecuh Sausage (cajun flavored) sliced diagonally about 3 - 4 inch slices

Olive Oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

At least two heads of garlic separated and skins removed from cloves

Lots of fresh rosemary

1 cup of white wine or chicken stock

First you'll need to rinse off the chicken and pat dry. Salt and pepper the chicken and place in a large resealable plastic storage bag or a large glass bowl. Add sliced sausage and garlic gloves and several sprigs of fresh rosemary. Coat well with olive oil and make sure everything has a nice coating of oil. Cover and place in refrigerator for a few hours. 

Next, a few pieces of either chicken or sausage at a time, brown in a large skillet over medium high heat. You're not going to cook it all the way through, just get a nice brown on all the pieces.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and as the pieces are browned, place in a 13 x 9 baking dish. When all the chicken and sausage have been browned, deglaze the skillet with the wine or chicken broth. As the liquid bubbles away, gently scrape the browned bits up from the bottom of the skillet. Pour the wine/broth with all those wonderful browned bits into the baking dish. Add the garlic cloves and rosemary on top. Cover with foil and cook for an hour or so until the chicken reaches 180 degrees on a meat thermometer.

When the meat reaches the 180 degrees, the garlic will be soft and creamy. Serve this dish over noodles or rice. For this meal, Sweet Harold made Grilled Potato Salad. I'll post that recipe as well.