I went to Paris recently, and remembered why French cuisine is so famous. I hadn’t been to Paris itself in maybe 20 years; I travel extensively throughout France, but for some reason I remembered Paris as being nothing special, so I never went back, but my friend is living there for 6 months at the moment, and my daughter had some random week off from school, so to Paris we went! With a 7 year old in tow, it’s needless to say that we had to stop and take breaks a little more often than I’m used to, but it ended up being great because we could just stop at bistros or cafés and eat and eat and eat, and since we were in Paris, we could get any kind of regional or non-regional food we happened to encounter.
Cassoulet is from the Languedoc region of France, but the one I had in Paris was the best I’ve come across. They used chicken thigh instead of the customary duck, which was great for me when recreating the dish at home because duck is incredibly difficult to source in the part of New York City I’m currently living in. The cassoulet I had in Paris was indirectly smoked because it was cooked in a woodfire oven, and I didn’t think I could achieve that with my conventional oven, and I also wanted to add a little spice, so I substituted Kielbasa for the traditional salt pork and pork belly. In the end it had a bit of a more Creole flair to it, but it had the flavor profile I wanted, and was still luxuriant and rich. The beans serve to soak up all the flavor from the braising liquid, but also impart an unexpected creaminess to the overall mouthfeel of each bite. Adding this one to my weekly rotation for sure.
Butter Count: Shockingly None
INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 yellow onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 stalk celery, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 large carrot, roughly chopped
14oz Kielbasa sausage, sliced slightly diagonally into slices about 1/4-inch thick.
2 Tbsp double concentrated tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 whole, fresh thyme sprigs
2 bay leaves
2 15oz cans canellini beans
Fresh parsley for serving
INSTRUCTIONS:
Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large, high-walled, oven-safe pan. Season the chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper, and place them skin-side-down in the hot oil.
Do not move the chicken while cooking. Let it cook 6-8 minutes until the skin is very golden-brown, and the pieces lift easily from the surface of the pan.
While the chicken is cooking, add the onion, celery, garlic, and carrot to a food processor or blender and pulse them into a paste. Add a tiny amount of water if the ingredients stop blending.
Flip the chicken thighs and cook another 2 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate, skin-side-up.
Add the sausage slices to the pan in a single layer. Cook without stirring for about 4 minutes, until crispy. Flip each sausage slice and cook another 2 minutes until uniformly browned. Use tongs to transfer the sausage to the plate with the chicken, while leaving as much of the fat in the pan as possible.
Preheat the oven to 425F.
Add the vegetable pulse to the hot pan. Reduce the heat to medium, and cook about 2 minutes until the mixture is slightly browned.
Add the tomato paste and stir constantly while it cooks for about 2 minutes. Do not rush this part - you want the tomato paste to really cook out and also combine with the other ingredients.
Pour in the white wine and use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook about 2 minutes until the liquid is mostly evaporated.
Add the thyme, bay leaves, and the beans with their canning liquid to the pan, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Stir the sausages back into the mixture in the pan, and remove the pan from the heat.
Use tongs to nestle the chicken thighs, skin-side-up, into the bean and sausage mixture. Use a rubber spatula to squeegee all of the fat from the plate which held the chicken and sausage into the pan.
Transfer the pan to the oven and bake, covered, for about 20 minutes. Remove the cover and bake another 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool about 10 minutes.
Sprinkle fresh parsley over the top and serve over buttered or non-buttered rice.