Chicken and Sausage Cassou-Lazy!

Thanks to Healthy Delicious for sharing the wonderful recipe for Cassoulet with White Beans, Sausage and Turkey. I have made some slight changes due to my pantry missing ingredients, I would recommend using what you have on hand to save a trip to the store and some money! I have listed my changes to the recipe below.

While talking about this dinner a friend pointed out that this is not a genuine French Cassoulet (oh la la) and I should not call it that on my blog. He dubbed it Cassou-Lazy. I was going to argue with him (this dish takes some work after all) but I looked into what a cassoulet really is and was quite surprised.  The Internet told me that a traditional French cassoulet is a slow cooked peasant food with white beans, tomatoes, ham, pork sausage, and duck. It would cook in the fire for up to 3 days using any scraps they had left over. Three days!! Well there is no way I have time for that! This dinner only takes about 1 1/2 hours. I was even able to make sausage and peppers for another night using the left over ingredients from it! Cassou-Lazy it is!

Two dishes in one night means less work later!

 Cassoulet with White Beans, Sausage & Chicken

2 links sweet Italian sausage, taken out of casings

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped

1 carrot, diced 

6 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped (or a large can of plum tomatoes, drain and save sauce for another time)

1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped 

2 springs fresh thyme, chopped 

1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes

1 can Cannelini beans

4 ounces roasted chicken thighs, rough dice

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1 Tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Place a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook through. Remove the sausage, leaving the drippings in the pan. Add the garlic and onion and cook in the sausage drippings until they begin to soften — about 5 minutes, add more oil if needed. Add the carrot and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, rosemary, thyme, and pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally to help break down the tomatoes, for about 10 minutes. Stir in the beans.

Spoon half of the tomato and bean mixture into a 3 quart casserole dish or dutch oven. Scatter the turkey and sausage over it, then top with the remaining beans. Sprinkle the bread crumbsover the top, then drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 60 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and the bread crumbs have browned (if necessary, you can put it under the broiler for 5 minutes at the end to help brown the breadcrumbs). Let sit for 15 minutes prior to serving.

mmmm look at those crunchy breadcumbs!

This dinner was so good I wish you could be here to taste it! This is a warm you to the bones, delicious, crowd pleasing dish to be shared with friends and loved ones. I will be making this all winter long, you can call me Cassou-Crazy!