If you know what cassoulet is "supposed" to be and/or are authentically French, you may want to turn away to protect your delicate sensibilities. This is not your mama's cassoulet.
What it is, is a richly flavorful, economical casserole that can be prepared in about an hour, plus half an hour of cooking time. Compare this to the several days and expensive exotic game meats it takes to make authentic cassoulet :P
You will note that the ingredients are sometimes vague. This is an EXTREMELY FORGIVING recipe. You can, and should, alter it and serve it differently every time you make it. That way you can make it often without getting tired of it!
Ingredients:
5 carrots, finely chopped
5 celery stalks, finely chopped
2-4 onions, finely chopped, about 2 cups total
5 slices bacon
1 package spicy Italian chicken sausage, about 8 ounces, sliced
Dark meat off a rotisserie chicken (I like to use the breast for other things)
2 cans small white beans, rinsed and drained
1 16oz can crushed tomatoes or petite-diced tomatoes or fire-roasted tomatoes, your choice
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/4 cup cooking wine or sherry
Broth (or water + bouillon)
Spices
Cook the bacon in a large dutch oven until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Pour the fat out of the dutch oven, only leaving enough to prevent the sausage from sticking.
Add the sausage and cook over medium heat until golden brown. Remove.
Add the veggies (including the garlic IF you are using fresh garlic) and saute until tender.
Return the sausage and bacon to the pot. Add the beans, tomatoes, garlic (if using prepared or dried garlic) wine, broth, and spices. Cook, stirring often, over medium-low heat until veggies are very tender and sauce is gravy-like in thickness.
Stir in the chicken and bring to a boil.
Remove from heat and serve, or save for later. It just gets better as you store it!
This makes a lot of servings and, though time-consuming with all the chopping, is an efficient use of your time and money per serving.
Serve with cheese on top if you wanna get fancy. Smoked cheese is especially yummy.
Here's why I don't list a volume for broth:
The amount you will need depends on the moisture of the veggies, your personal preference, the humidity, etc. Just add broth when it looks too dry. If you accidentally make it too wet, turn up the heat and boil the excess liquid off. Cassoulet is best when very thick, but you don't want it to burn, either. 1 cup is probably the right amount most of the time.
Spice suggestions:
The seasoning on this recipe is forgiving. You should adjust to your preferences. Here is what I use:
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp dried parsley (add this at the end, right before serving, so it stays fresh-tasting)
2 bay leaves
Ground pepper to taste
Ariel likes to shake crushed red pepper on his, like you do on pizza.
Salt:
This recipe gets most of the salt from the bacon, sausage, and cooking wine. You may not find you need any extra salt. If you do want salt, I suggest using chicken bouillon instead of plain salt. It's more flavorful! Taste the cassoulet at the end, just before serving, and add salt then. If you add salt early, it might end up too salty as additional salt leaches out of the meats.
Sausage:
You can use lots of different sausages. Anduoille is good. Regular Italian pork sausage is probably good, I've never tried it. Turkey sausage is good. Other flavors of chicken sausage, like garlic and roasted pepper, are good. Go nuts!
