Easy Cassoulet Recipe

Cassoulet casserole with deep browned topped.

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5 from 1 vote

French comfort food using your favourite sausage, poultry and pancetta with creamy beans in a savoury sauce.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1

Total Time1 20

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: French

Servings: generous servings

Calories: 816kcal

Author: Carolyn Hetke

Equipment

cassole pottery (specialty item) deep pot with narrow bottom, wide surface top
or use a 9 X 13" casserole dish

Ingredients

4 skin on, bone in chicken thighs or duck legs, chicken legs or 8 oz breasts cut in large chunks
duck fat for frying preferred substitute butter or butter, olive oil mixture
12 oz garlic pork sausage or sausage of choice
4 oz cubed pancetta or 2nd sausage type of your choice I used lamb. Consider duck sausage if available or any other sausage variety you like.
4 cups chicken stock
2 packets gelatin (2 Tbsps)
1 large yellow onion diced
½ carrot peeled and minced
6-10 cloves garlic to taste, rough chopped
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tbsps tomato paste
2 19 oz cans beans mixture of cannellini, navy beans, white kidney beans or Great Northern beans
2 Tbsps chopped parsley
2 leaves
1 cup bread crumbs optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Brown poultry in duck fat if using, othewise mix of butter an olive oil. Use a large skillet over medium high heat and do not disturb for 3-4 minutes to all meat to brown. Brown on all sides. Transfer to a platter and set aside.
Optional: Remove browned poultry and brown cubed pancetta or sausage cut in to 1 ½" chunks. This is not necessary if sausage is cooked or smoked but it will add a nice texture. Transfer to same platter as poultry.
Pour the stock in a large measuring cup and sprinkle the gelatin on top.
Reduce stovetop to medium. In the same pan, add more fat if necessary, add the onion and saute about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook one more minute. Add the fennel seeds and salt and stir. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the vegetables. Scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook 2-3 minutes.
Drain the canned beans and add them to the skillet. Add the stock, parsley and bay leaves. Stir to mix.
Add the meat and any accumulated juices to your baking casserole dish. Add the bean mixture and stir to mix evenly. See Note 1 below if using a bread crumb topping.
Bake uncovered 30 minutes, increase the oven to broil setting and broil for 5 minutes. You should see some browning on top of casserole. Check if you need to add any liquid to the casserole. Only add if you are concerned it will go dry. Return oven to 350° and bake uncovered 20 minutes more. Return oven to broil and broil a further 5 minutes. The top should be nicely browned but not burned.
Remove casserole from the oven. Remove the bay leaves and serve with crusty bread.

Notes

Note 1: If using breadcrumbs to get a crispy topping, sprinkle them evenly over the top of the casserole. Bake uncovered 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees. Omit the broil steps. Checkat mid point if you need to add a bit of liquid. Only add if you are concerned the casserole will go dry by the end of cook time. Add liquid to the side of the dish so as not to disturb the crust of the casserole.

Nutrition assumes 4 chicken thighs; 12 oz pork sausage and 4 oz pancetta. No bread crumb topping.

Nutrition