Cassoulet de Poulet Express

Don't kid yourself - this is peasant food.  And good.  Let's see what we can make with what's lying around the farmhouse today.

My mother, a quintessential 'French Chef', would always make mention of "le vrais Cassoulet" - the real Cassoulet, that originated somewhere between Carcassonne and Toulouse in southern France.  I won't get into the argument of exactly where, or with exactly which ingredients.  Let's be realistic - I'm sure many farmhouse wives all over France cooked meats with beans and threw in what food was hauled in that day, or needed to be eaten before it went bad.  But over the years local recipes got famous as did the local sausages, et cetera. 

If you can get local sausage from Toulouse - great!  If you have duck confit - great!  If you have lamb necks - great!  Your in great shape to make Cassoulet de Toulouse.  Or, if not, try this one - Cassoulet de Poulet Express; a fairly quick study on a classic dish.  But whatever you do, make sure you follow the directions to push down the browned crust at least once, and reform another crust on top.  It's well worth the extra half hour for a thick delicious crust on top.
1 roaster chicken, cut up into 8-10 serving size pieces
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp rosemary
2 cans Great Northern  or Canellini beans, drained
3-4 links fresh Chorizo sausage, ½ lb
1/2 link kielbasa sausage, ½ lb
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup dry white wine

½ cup Panko crumbs
½ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 Tbsp olive oil

Sauté the chicken in a bit of olive oil in a large oven-going skillet with a top, or ideally an enameled Dutch oven.  You will have to brown the chicken in two batches, about 6-8 minutes per batch, setting the batches aside in a bowl as they are done.  Add the carrots, onion and celery into the skillet after the chicken is removed, and sauté for about 10 minutes, until the veggies begin to soften and caramelize a bit.  After about 5 minutes, mix in the garlic and rosemary.  Push veggies aside to also sauté the Chorizo sausage to brown a bit.  Slice the sausages into 2-inch pieces and return to the veggies.  Add the kielbasa.

Pour the tomatoes, broth and wine into the skillet or Dutch oven, and mix, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  If using a skillet, transfer to a 5-6 quart oven-going casserole dish.  Stir in the beans and then submerge the chicken pieces into the bean mixture.

Mix together the crumbs with the oil (I think your fingers are the best tool for this!).  Top with half of the bread crumbs and bake, covered, for half an hour.  Then push down the crust into the beans, and top with the other half of the crumbs.  Cook uncovered another half hour.

Serves 6-8.

Cook's note:  Canned or dried beans?  You'll hear arguments either way, but I find canned beans are very good indeed.  If you prefer, you could use about 1/2 lb dried beans, soaked overnight.  Drain them and cook them in a pressure cooker for 5 minutes at high pressure with a glug of olive oil and a bay leaf, or a teaspoon of poultry or Bayou seasoning.  Don’t add salt or you will toughen the beans.  Remove from heat and allow pressure to reduce naturally, about 10-15 minutes.  Alternately, cook the beans according to package directions, for about an hour and a half (I dislike this approach for the time and the energy wasted – if you are concerned, buy yourself a nice new pressure cooker, they are very safe!).

...and the sausages...  As I mention above, you can use what you have and/or like.  If you have Andouille sausage, you can use it.  Linguica - use it.  But because some of these sausages are already smoked, you don't necessarily need to saute them - you can add them with the kielbasa.  Otherwise use fresh Italian sausage - preferably hot!