Classic French Chicken And Sausage Cassoulet Recipes

CLASSIC FRENCH CASSOULET

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 325 F degrees.
• Brown the sausage: In a dutch oven or heavy bottomed sauce pan, brown the sausages whole. I prefer a smaller bite so I dice them up in pieces. Remove them once browned.
• Cook the chicken: Add the chicken breasts to the Dutch oven next, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the chicken is no longer pink and cooked through. Remove and set aside.
• Saute veggies: Add onion, carrot, and leeks to the pot in the residual sausage fat and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Then add the shallots and garlic and saute for an additional minute.
• Deglaze pot: Add the white wine to deglaze the pot, scraping any brown bits from the bottom.
• Finish the cassoulet: Return the protein to the pot and add beans, herbs, water and seasoning. Bring to a simmer then cover and transfer to the oven to bake for 2 hours.
• Garnish with parsley and serve.

FRENCH CASSOULET

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Trim the excess skin from the duck or chicken and place on a lined baking sheet. Dry the trimmed skin in the oven, checking often, until crispy, about 15 minutes.
• Add the skin to a food processor along with the breadcrumbs, oil and the 1/8 teaspoon thyme leaves and blend until uniform. Set aside. (This step can also be done while the cassoulet is stewing).
• Heat the clarified butter over high heat in a heavy-bottomed saute or frying pan and, working in batches, sear the poultry, pork or lamb and sausage until they are caramelized, adding more butter if the pan gets dry. Remove the meats to a large roasting pan or deep broiler-proof baking dish as they are completed.
• In the same pan you browned the meat in, saute the onions, carrots and celery until they are caramelized. Add the tomatoes, wine, and 5 cups water, deglazing the pan by scraping all the loose particles from the bottom of the pan.
• Drain the beans and add them to the pan, along with the marjoram, parsley, bay leaves and 1/4 cup thyme. Bring the liquid to a boil.
• Pour the beans and liquid over the meats in the roasting pan, cover the pan tightly with foil if no lid is available and bake until the meat is fork-tender and the beans have absorbed most of the liquid and are tender, about 3 hours.
• Remove the meat from the pan, drain the liquid from the beans and vegetables and put it into a saucepan.
• Add two cups of the cooked bean and vegetable mixture to the liquid and puree with an immersion blender or puree in a blender before adding to the liquid. This will thicken the liquid into a sauce.
• Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Pour the liquid back over the remaining beans and vegetables, stirring to combine.
• Preheat the broiler.
• Slice the lamb or pork and lay it on the beans with the sausages and poultry legs. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture on top of the cassoulet and broil until the top is lightly browned.

CLASSIC FRENCH CHICKEN AND SAUSAGE CASSOULET RECIPE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Place the beans in a large saucepan and cover them with cold water. Bring the beans to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Cover and cook them until they begin to turn tender, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper to the beans and cook until the liquid has absorbed, about 25 additional minutes.
• Remove the beans from the heat, drain and discard any other liquid, and set the beans aside.
• In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the lardons for 5 minutes, until they turn brown. Transfer them to a plate.
• Add the onions to the pan and sauté them for 10 minutes, until they turn light golden brown. Transfer them to the plate with the lardons.
• Brown the sausage and transfer it to a bowl. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Drain all but 4 tablespoons of the fat from the skillet. Add the chicken breast pieces to the fat and brown them over medium-high heat. Transfer the chicken to the bowl with the sausage.
• Brown the chicken legs in the skillet. Then transfer them to the bowl.
• Combine the lardons, onions, sausage, chicken pieces and legs, tomatoes, wine, chicken stock, bouquet garni, garlic, tomato paste, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper in a large casserole dish.
• Cover with a lid or foil and bake the casserole for 25 minutes.
• Add the carrots to the pan, cover, and bake for an additional 20 minutes.
• Add the reserved white beans to the hot casserole and gently stir the mixture.
• In a small bowl, toss the breadcrumbs, parsley, and thyme with the melted butter. Sprinkle the seasoned breadcrumbs over the casserole.
• Bake it, uncovered, for 1 hour.
• Discard the bouquet garni and serve the cassoulet hot.