MARINATED ROASTED CHICKEN IN WINE MUSHROOM CREAM SAUCE WITH KALAMATA OLIVES.

Ingredients

2 chicken leg quarters cut in half to make four chicken pieces

Olive oil (to brown chicken)

Marinade:

3 sprigs of fresh sage

3 garlic cloves roughly chopped

½ teaspoon rubbed sage

½ cup dry white wine

¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives (roughly chopped)

Salt and pepper to taste

Mushroom Cream Sauce:

6 sage leaves roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves (minced)

½ cup dry white wine or chicken broth (I have used both and they are both great to use)

1 cup of heavy cream

1 pound of Portobello mushrooms (sliced)

¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Season chicken with rubbed sage, salt, and pepper. (I also like to place the seasonings under the skin of the chicken. Another thing I like to do that some may cringe at- I poke holes in my chicken when prepping to marinate the chicken so I can get season all throughout the chicken.)

Place the chicken in a covered container with the wine and chopped olives.

Marinate the chicken overnight (I sometimes like to marinate a little longer than that.)

When ready to cook chicken, take the chicken out and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Bringing the chicken to room temperature helps the chicken to cook evenly. While you are waiting, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

After the chicken has sat out for 15 minutes, place a few drizzles of the olive oil in a cast iron pan or any oven safe pan you have. Using your stove top let the oil heat up on medium heat.

Once the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces, and evenly brown the chicken on both sides (I like a nice golden brown, so I cook the chicken on each side for about 3 to 4 minutes.)

Once you have browned the chicken, remove the chicken from the pan.

Add the wine to this hot pan. The wine will deglaze the pan (removing all the delicious pieces of marinade from the bottom of the pan).

Immediately after you add the wine, add your heavy cream, mushrooms, sage, and garlic. You can cook this sauce for a couple of minutes if you like.

Then, add your chicken back in to the pan.

Top the dish with salt, pepper, and the remaining olives.

Bake the dish under covered for 30 minutes or until the chicken is well done.

NOTES

I like to chop some of the olives up that I place in the pan during the baking process. These chopped olives soak up all of the flavors of the dish, and it helps to smooth out the flavor of the olives for anyone that feels the taste of olives are too strong. So when they eat the olives, it's not such a shock for non olive lovers.....