Cassoulet is a traditional French bean and meat stew which is cooked in a large pot in the oven all day long, and develops a lovely, silky texture with a delicious brown crust on the top. This version won’t give you the brown crust, but it has a good flavor and, if you pre-prep things, you can put dinner on the table in about an hour!
A traditionalist might instead call this “French-style beanie weenies,” but if you close your eyes, you may not be able to tell the difference.
White wine goes best with this, but I won’t judge you if all you have is red. Or beer. Dry cider also pairs well with this!
Get your beans ready. Add them to the pressure cooker with about 8 cups of water and a generous amount of salt. Set the pressure cooker on high for 6 minutes. Do a quick release when done, drain the beans, then put them back in the pot.
Season the chicken parts with salt.
In a large carbon steel or cast iron skillet, add a generous amount of frying oil, and allow it to come up to temperature. Fry all of the chicken parts until they have a deep golden brown color, then put them into the pot. Fry the sausages, and put them in the pot as well.
While the meat is frying, roughly chop the onion, celery, and faux tourné the carrots, setting them aside in separate bowls.
Finely chop the garlic and add to the instant pot.
Once all of the meat has been fried, add the carrots to the hot frying pan, scraping lightly to start getting up the fond left from frying the chicken and sausages. Cook on a high enough heat until the carrots just start to get a little color, but aren’t soft. Remove the carrots with a slotted spoon and put into the pot.
Drain part of the oil if there is too much left until the pan is well-coated, then fry the onions and celery together. Add some salt and freshly ground black pepper while cooking. Just soften the onion and celery and scrape up all of the remaining fond. Put the cooked onion and celery into the pot.
Add a generous amount of Herbes de Provence to the pot, or to your taste. Consider adding a little more salt and pepper. Take a sip of wine.
Pour the chicken stock or broth into the pot.
Seal the pot, and set to high for 45 minutes. Sip some more wine. Quick release the steam when cooking is done.
Using tongs, combine the contents of the pot gently, trying to remove chicken bones.
Serve! Makes enough for a small army. Soaks up all that wine you’ve been drinking nicely, too.
If you can find duck at your grocery store for a good price, use that! However, you will be hard pressed to tell the difference between duck and chicken meat if you can use duck fat for all of the frying.
If you can’t find Herbes de Provence, you can make your own mix. Thyme is the most important herb, but also add a little finely chopped rosemary and oregano if you can. Fresh herbs are fine, but use less of them. Majoram and savory also make good additions. Lavendar is not necessary. You can also consider adding a little nutmeg for a more traditional flavor.
This recipe is quite garlicky, but it still tastes quite good if you ease up on the garlic. Don’t less less than 3-4 cloves, though.
You can adjust the recipe for fewer beans, but you may need to add more meat, or vice versa. In all cases, don’t let there be liquid over top of the rest of the ingredients in the pot, or you’ll end up with something more like a thick soup!