My favorite is an old, old dish. I actually thought I invented it until I told my mom about it and she responded "Oh, your great-grandmother used to make that all the time; it's an old recipe from Alsace-Loraine!" I was working on a paper in grad school and hadn't had time to go grocery shopping, and all I had left in the house was the ingredients for this chicken. Yes, I had fresh sage, because my mom had just given me a paper bag full of it from her herb garden!

1 whole chicken
1 apple, cored and peeled, cut into wedges
1 pear, cored and peeled, cut intso wedges
1 onion, chopped into about 6 wedges
about 2T butter
fresh sage--at least 10 leaves
2 c. chicken broth
1 c. white wine--I happened to use Gewurtraminer for this, which is the traditional wine used to make it, but was just the only thing I had on hand!
salt and freshly-cracked black pepper

Brown the chicken in a little butter until at least part of the skin on each side is browned and crispy. Set it up on the end and shove in the apple, onion, and pear, as well as some of the sage leaves, and some salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Transfer to the Dutch oven.

Deglaze the pan with just a little of the broth--pour it in, and then scrape up the tasty browned bits. Pour it over the chicken, as well as the rest of the broth and wine. Place the rest of the sage leaves over the chicken.

Put the lid on the Dutch oven, and place in the oven at about 300 degrees for roughly 3 hours (it will depend on the size of the chicken--large ones will take longer). Chicken is done when the leg moves easily in the socket or when a meat thermometer reads 180F.

Serve with more Gewurztraminer, some good crusty bread and a fresh salad with a dressing made from olive oil, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard and snipped fresh chives. The flavors in the dressing do nice things to the flavor of the chicken!