A perfectly cooked chicken - despite its cooking time!

Sage is one of my very favorite herbs with it's velvety leaves and pungent smell.  I love to eat it but also to pick bunches of it and have them in the kitchen.

The unconventional cooking method was temperature and time.  I had timed the roast to be perfectly cooked by the time I had dropped off and picked up various children in various places at various times.  I left one at home to make sure nothing caught fire. Then of course everyone's times changed, frantic calls were made to turn down the oven, turn up the oven, turn off the oven, turn on the oven.  When I returned home 2 hours later the chicken was NOT cooked through!!! It was turned up one last time for one last blast and came out beautifully.  The meat fell off the bone.

I'm giving the regular cooking time in the following recipe as I couldn't possibly tell you the correct sequence of last nights temperature changes.

Roast Chicken with Lemons and Sage

1 4 lb best quality chicken

2 lemons

1 large bunch of fresh sage

1-2 onions, halved

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons unsalted butter (soft)

Heat the oven to 375 F

Take the chicken out of the fridge and bring to room temperature.  Place in a  roasting pan and rub the butter all over it.  Stuff with 1 lemon and some fresh sage.  Sprinkle salt, pepper and some very finely chopped sage over the top of the chicken.

Scatter the other cut up lemon, onions and more sage around the chicken.

Place in the oven for approximately 1- 1 1/2 hours or until the chicken is golden brown. If you're around you could baste it once or twice.

Remove the chicken from the oven, cover with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving. When carved, squeeze the juice from the roasted lemons over the meat and roasted onions.