When NYC gives you grapefruits: Grapefruit Sage Chicken

This is actually a post I started when I still lived in New York. The grapefruits in Ohio are much better, but this is still a great dish worth sharing. 

I am from Texas.  The state fruit is the ruby red grapefruit.  I grew up eating big juicy RED grapefruits, and I liked them.  NYC has a serious dearth of red grapefruits.  And even if they are around, they are hardly recognizable.  When I sent my boyfriend to the store to get grapefruits, he came back with this.  I immediately thought that he had gotten a yellow grapefruit instead of a red grapefruit due to the color of the peel.  This is what I saw when I cut open the fruit.

If someone handed me a precious gem of the color depicted above and told me it was a ruby, I would laugh.  The flavor of said ruby red grapefruit was also a faded version of the grapefruits of my youth.  So what does one do with specimens of this quality?

I was inspired by a post on Simply Recipes for lemon mustard chicken.  Although I love lemons, I'm not actually crazy about them with chicken.  However, grapefruit has a toned down tartness that I thought would appeal more to my palate. I also happened to have some fresh sage sitting in my fridge which I think might be the savory superhero of herbs. The result, delicious grapefruit sage chicken!  I've made this using a whole broiler chicken and put half of a grapefruit inside of the chicken along with a few sprigs of sage.  I have also made this with chicken quarter legs similar to how Elise suggests in her lemon chicken recipe by arranging the legs on top of chopped potatoes so that the potatoes roast in the chicken juices. Both ways are tasty.  The leftovers do make good chicken salad too, and the sage grapefruit flavor does not affect the flavor of the stock made with the leftover bones. 

Grapefruit Sage Chicken

Inspired by Simply Recipes

3-4 lb broiler or 4 lbs of chicken quarter legs

1 red grapefruit

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

3-5 fresh sage leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

1.  Preheat oven to 375 F.  Chop garlic and sage leaves.  Cut grapefruit in half and juice one half of the grapefruit. Combine grapefruit juice, garlic, mustard, honey, salt and pepper by either whisking together or mixing with a fork. 

2. If using a broiler chicken, place the second grapefruit half in the cavity along with some sage sprigs. If using quarter legs, arrange in a casserole dish or on a broiler sheet. Slather the marinade over the chicken.  Optional: you can arrange the chicken pieces on top of a bed of chopped potatoes and coarsely chopped onions or shallots. 

3.  Place the chicken in the oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes.  I like to brush the chicken with a repeat dose of marinade about 20 minutes into baking. A whole chicken is done when a fork poked in the joint between the thigh and the body causes clear liquid to come out.  There is an internal temperature criterion as well, but I don't own a meat thermometer.  

4.  When the chicken is done, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving. I like to serve this with roasted potatoes or cauliflower and a salad. 

The marinade