Sage Chicken & Sausage Bake

When your hands smell of onions and sage, you know you're making something autumnally appropriate! Adapted (barely, if I'm being honest) from Nigella Lawson, this recipe is perfectly simple and delicious late fall comfort food...and hearty enough to ease you into an early hibernation. I usually just opt for thighs when I throw this together but you can use any chicken pieces you desire - just keep track of baking times. When paired with roasted potatoes, a crisp salad and peppery saison, you couldn't ask for a better November weeknight dinner.  

Sage Chicken & Sausage Bake
Serves 3-4

*1 onion, peeled and cut into wedges

*3-4 cloves garlic, smashed
*1 tablespoon EVOO
*1 teaspoon of your favorite mustard - my standard is a wild mushroom mustard

*1 heaping teaspoon dried sage
*1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
*Juice of half a lemon
*4 chicken thighs, extra skin and fat trimmed

*3-4 hot or sweet Italian sausages, your choice
*Handful of fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped

Throw everything but the sausages into a Ziploc bag with a good grinding of fresh pepper and a couple pinches of salt. I cut the spent lemon half in a few pieces and throw that in too.  Toss the bag around, squelching everything together to mix all the ingredients evenly across the chicken. Leave to marinade in the refrigerator a couple of hours (or overnight), squelching and turning the chicken around in the bag every so often.

Take the chicken out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you're going to bake, and toss the sausages and some sage leaves in the bag as well, squelching everything around again. Heat the oven to 425.

Arrange the chicken and sausage as well as some of the onion quarters all in a roasting pan. Sprinkle the rest of the fresh sage leaves over the chicken and sausages (I usually tuck one under each flap of thigh skin, too) and then put into the oven to cook for 45 minutes to an hour, until the thighs are done. Turn the sausages about halfway through to brown on both sides.