Cassoulet
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| Photo by Jamie Winkelman |
Cassoulet | |
Cassoulet is one of those great, hearty dishes meant to be eaten by the fireplace on a cold and rainy day. Just add a good bottle of dry wine and a crusty loaf of bread for a complete feast.
If you were to order cassoulet in Southern France, where it originated, the meats would likely include duck and lamb, and the cooking process would often go on for 3 days or so, as each meat is loving cooked and sweated over. In the end though, all the meats and vegetables are combined with the beans.
While not nearly as time consuming, the recipe below accomplishes the same idea but takes only a few hours, including prep and cooking. Let the pot sit overnight or for a few days, and the flavors will continue to meld and intensify.
Feel free to use what is on hand, substituting meats like venison or boar, or trying homemade sausage in place of store bought. After all, cassoulet is still nothing more than a complex version of baked beans!
Ingredients
6 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin removed, brined
1 pound pork roast or steak, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 pound bacon (5 to 8 strips)
1 pound sausage, like kielbasa or andouille, cut into 1-inch pieces*
1 pound dried beans, navy or great northern
1 quart chicken stock
2 cups dry white wine
2 onions, 1 chopped, 1 quartered
2 carrots, 1 chopped, 1 broken in pieces
1 head of garlic
2 to 3 tablespooons tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
3 to 5 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Pinch or two of clove
Ground pepper
Kosher salt
Instructions
Brine the chicken thighs by placing them in a large Ziploc bag filled with water. Add 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup sugar, shake, and let sit for one hour. Rinse, pat dry, and liberally coat both chicken thighs and pork pieces with kosher salt and ground pepper to enhance browning and flavor.
To cook the beans, rinse them first in a strainer to remove dirt. Place beans in large pot with the quartered onion and broken carrot. From the garlic head, remove two cloves for later, remove most of the papery skin, cut the top off the head to expose cloves, and add to pot. Add one teaspoon salt, ground pepper, 2 cups of chicken broth, and 6 cups of water. Bring pot to boil, lower heat to simmer, and cook until the beans are tender, at least an hour.
In a Dutch oven, over low heat to reduce splattering, cook bacon until most of the fat is rendered; remove and drain on paper towels. Brown sausage pieces in remaining bacon grease; remove and drain on paper towels.
Increase heat to medium high, and in batches, brown chicken thighs in the bacon grease, adding oil as needed. Don’t crowd the pan, or the chicken will steam and not brown. Remove and drain.
Reduce heat to medium, and in batches, brown pork pieces well. When complete, add chopped carrot, onion and minced garlic to Dutch oven. When vegetables are lightly browned, add tomato paste, and stir well until everything is coated and browned, about 30 seconds. Add white wine, scrape oven bottom to deglaze, and heat until wine is reduced in half. Add remaining chicken stock, crumbled bacon, thyme, bay leaves, cloves, diced tomatoes, and ground pepper.
Drain beans from pot, reserving 2 cups cooking liquid for later. Discard onion, carrot and garlic head.
Place a few inches of beans into the Dutch oven, and then nestle half of the chicken. pork, and sausage into the beans. Add another layer of beans, and nestle remaining chicken, pork, and sausage into beans. Top with remaining beans.
Cover Dutch oven, place in oven, and bake for one hour, or until chicken is literally falling off the bone.
Serve immediately, or let sit overnight.
* If you would like to try homemade sausage, here is Julia Child’s simple sausage recipe from her 39th television show:
1 pound ground pork
2 teaspoons salt
1/8 tsp peper
Pinch allspice
Small crumbled bay leaf
Clove mashed garlic
1/4 cup cognac
Beat all ingredients together, form into cakes 2 inches in diameter, and 1/2 inch thick. Brown lightly in skillet and drain on paper towels.