French Cassoulet — Tale to Table

This is what you’ll get for all your work.

This is an all-day dish — not set and forget it, but a recipe you need to tend all day — so plan accordingly. The result is sublime, and totally worth the effort.

Ingredients

1 pound dried cannellini beans (or other white beans if you can’t find cannellini)

Kosher salt

1 quart homemade stock, or

1 quart store-bought low-sodium chicken stock and

3 packets (3/4 ounces) unflavored gelatin

2 tablespoons duck fat (or olive oil)

8 ounces salt pork, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (or bacon if you can’t find salt pork)

6 to 8 pieces of chicken thighs and drumsticks

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound plain bratwurst-type sausage

1 large onion, finely diced

1 carrot, unpeeled, cut into 3-inch sections

2 stalks celery, cut into 3-inch sections

1 whole head garlic

4 sprigs parsley

2 bay leaves

Exactly 6 whole cloves

Directions

The night before: Put dried beans in a large bowl and cover with plenty of water and 3 tablespoons salt. Store and let sit at room temperature overnight.

The next morning, drain and rinse the beans, and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 300 F and put the rack in the lower middle. Put the stock in a large bowl, sprinkle gelatin over the top, and set aside. (You don’t need to add gelatin if you’re using homemade stock that has any amount of gel happening with it.)

In a large dutch oven, add duck fat (or olive oil) and salt pork. On hight heat, stir until browned on all sides, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

Season chicken pieces with pepper (no salt!) and place skin side-down in now-empty Dutch oven, with the heat still on. (You’ll probably need to do this in batches.) Cook without moving until well browned, 6 to 8 minutes, then flip it and continue cooking until lightly browned on second side, about 3 minutes longer. Keep going with all the chicken, transferring to the bowl with salt pork when they’re done.

Now cook the whole brats in the Dutch oven, the other meats. Drain all but 2 tablespoons fat from pot. (Save this multi-fat for another use, like frying eggs!)

Add onion to pot and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Cook until onions are soft and clear, but not browned, about 4 minutes. Add drained beans, carrot, celery, garlic, parsley, bay leaves, exactly six cloves, and stock/gelatin mixture. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Reduce to low, cover Dutch oven and cook for 45 minutes.

Grab some tongs and remove remove carrots, celery, parsley, bay leaves, and all six cloves, and discard (they have given all their flavor already). Add the bowl of meats to the pot and stir. Position the chicken skin-side-up on top of the beans, and make sure as many of the beans as possible are submerged. Transfer to oven and cook, uncovered for one hour. Check it to make sure the beans are still submerged — you may need to add more water, but do it 1/2-cup at a time by carefully pouring it down the side of the pot. Don’t stir! Cook for another hour, until a thin crust forms on top.

Gently break crust with a spoon (don’t stir!) and shake pot gently to redistribute. Return to oven and continue cooking, stopping to break and shake the crust every 30 minutes until you reach the 4-1/2 hour mark. Return to oven and continue cooking undisturbed until the crust is deep brown and thick, about 5 to 6 hours total.

Serve immediately with some crusty bread.

This recipe is modified from a Serious Eats recipe.

This is your chance to get a nice crispy chicken skin, which will also help hold the meat on the bone as it cooks all day.

Add in all the veggies with the beans. The big chunks will make it easier to remove them after cooking. Be sure to count the whole cloves so you remove them all. (The green thing in the middle is actually the gel from the homemade chicken stock.)

Nestle the chicken skin-side-up and make sure all the beans are covered. You may need to add more water, but do it carefully down the side of the pot — you don’t want to disturb this dish much!