Upgrade: Chicken Cassoulet

Bonne fête! No Free Lunch is back for another Bastille Day, albeit a touch late. After a few months off, I think it's appropriate to return with a dish that's personally important to me. I started making my chicken cassoulet shortly after Ariel and I moved in together about a decade ago. It quickly became a staple meal, to the point were we just call it "beans." This is not meant to be a traditional Occitan cassoulet, but it does adhere to the rustic spirit of the dish and is authentic to the way I like to cook. It takes humble ingredients and puts them together into a very satisfying meal. I thought this was a great time to update the recipe to how I make it now.

I've made a few small but important changes to my previous recipe. It turns out that stews like this freeze exceptionally well and are great to pull out for a quick dinner later. As such, I've scaled it up, but a bigger pan is needed. Although precision is not really needed for something like this, I've also weighed out the vegetables for more clarity as there is a lot of variance in the size of onions and carrots. For the chicken, I now recommend bone-in pieces as there is flavor to be had in the bones. I usually pull the meat off the bones after cooking and return it to the stew to serve. This makes it easier to portion out and easier to eat, especially if you have to hold a baby. If you like the presentation with whole chicken pieces, skip that step. 

Many great dishes balance richness and acidity, which I now get done with a little butter and sherry vinegar at the end. This should be done to taste - you can always add vinegar but can't take it away. I no longer recommend my old method of cooking the stew with a lemon as it can add bitterness. My last change is in the beans. The cooking orthodoxy (which I once followed) says to always drain and rinse canned beans. I think this arose from older generations who thought of canned food as a little unclean. For me, this changed from making Kenji's white bean soup, where he notes that there is flavor to be had in the bean liquid. If making a bean salad, I would still rinse, but in a stew, leave it in. I drain two of the cans to make room for some chickens stock, but don't bother with rinsing. I served with a little parsley for color and some crunchy baguette toasts.

Ingredients

• 3 lb. bone-in chicken thighs or legs
• 1/2 lb. diced onion (about 2 small or 1 large onion)
• 1/4 lb. diced carrot (about 2 carrots)
• 1/4 lb. diced celery (about 2 stalks)
• 3 Tbs. minced garlic (3-6 cloves depending on size)
• 2 Tbs. flour
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 15.5 oz. cans butter beans
• 2 15.5 oz. cans cannellini or great northern beans
• 1 ring smoked sausage or kielbasa
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 3 Tbs. Dijon mustard
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp. herbes de Provence
• 1 Tbs. sherry vinegar
• 1 Tbs. butter
• Garnish: chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Vegetable oil
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions 

Before beginning to cook, it is best to prepare all ingredients. Dice the onion, carrot, and garlic. Mince the garlic. If the garlic has a large germ inside, pull it out and discard. Slice the sausage into rounds about 1/3 inch thick. Open the bean cans and drain two of them; no need to rinse. If the chicken has large pieces of skin dangling off the sides, trim off and save for another use.

If skin gets stuck (upper right), don't worry.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Add a thin layer of vegetable oil to a large Dutch oven or sauté pan, just enough to cover the pan, and heat on medium high. Cook the chicken, skin side down, until the skins are golden brown and crisp. A good amount of fat should render out. Turn over and lightly brown the other side, then set aside.

Deglazing with wine.

Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic and season with a little salt. Cook for a few minutes and scrape up browned chicken bits while doing so. Add the flour, stir together, and cook until the flour forms a coating on the vegetables and pan. Deglaze with wine and stir into a paste. Add the two cans of undrained beans with their liquid and the two cans of drained beans. Add sausage, stock, mustard bay leaves, and herbes de Provence. Stir everything together and nestle the chicken into the pan. Liquid should almost cover the chicken; if needed, add a little more stock. Transfer to oven and bake for 1 hour.

The pan after baking 1 hour.

Remove the pan from the oven and place back on the stove. Remove the chicken pieces and set aside. Reduce the stew on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid burning. While the stew reduces, use a fork to pull the meat from the bones. When done reducing, return the meat to the pan. Stir in the vinegar and butter and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in bowls and garnish with parsley.