Cheat's French Cassoulet - Crock Pot or Le Creuset

Submitted by French Tart

"This great Cheat's recipe has all the elements of a traditional French Cassoulet - assorted meats, beans, carrots, tomatoes, wine & tomatoes - but is very easy & does not include Confit d'Canard if you find that difficult to obtain. However, you need to get hold of high meat content sausages to give it a more authentic taste. I have given a few variations at the bottom of the recipe; this recipe works extremely well in a Crock pot as well as the more traditional Le Creuset casserole dishes. French comfort food at it's best! Serve with mashed potatoes & crisp Savoy Cabbage. This recipe can be easily doubled for bigger or hungry crowds of diners! NOTE on BEANS: I use tinned/canned beans or pre-soaked and cooked beans in this recipe; for uncooked beans, you will need to soak them overnight and then boil them; then increase the cooking time by about 15 minutes. This was posted as a "Cheat's" recipe, meaning cutting a few corners if you don't have time - i.e. use tinned beans!! P.S. I have a sausage recipe posted: Recipe #190045 that would work well with this recipe."

 

• Ready In: 3hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 50 g lardons or 50 g bacon, chopped into small dice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 450 g meaty sausages
• 4 lean pork chops, cut into large pieces
• 400 g tinned beans
• haricot beans or butter beans
• 1 onion, peeled & diced
• 4 carrots, peeled & diced into biggish chunks
• 400 g chopped tomatoes
• 400 ml chicken stock
• 200 ml red wine
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 garlic cloves (or more)
• 50 g breadcrumbs
• 1 bouquet garni

directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet - fry the bacon until nearly crisp & then add the onions, garlic, & carrots. Cook over a high heat until they are just soft on the outside & turning a golden colour. Drain well & remove from pan. Add to crock pot or Le Creuset casserole dish.
2. Add sausages and brown - remove & add to onion mixture.
3. Add pork chop pieces & brown - remove and add to above mixture.
4. Make up chicken stock and add wine. Mix tomatoes in with stock & teaspoon of sugar.
5. Pour stock and tomatoes over the cassoulet in crock pot or le creuset - add bouquet garni & give everything a good stir!
6. Add the beans and stir well again.
7. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and cook for up to 6 hours on high in crock pot or in le cresuet for 3 hours in a slow oven with the lid on, 150C/300°F.
8. Half an hour before serving, take lid of le creuset to brown the top. It's difficult to brown in a crock pot, but it's not that essential to brown the top, as the reason behind the breadcrumbs is to soak up some of the juice & make a crust on top! If your crock pot is the type which you can put under the grill, then do so!
9. Serve with mountains of fluffy mashed potatoes & stir-fried Savoy Cabbage.

10. NOTE ON SAUSAGES:

11. Try to use very good quality high meat content sausages; in France Toulouse sausages are mainly used - they generally have a meat content of at least 85%. Good quality English style sausages are also good - I have a recipe posted for some English sausages: Recipe #190045.
12. However, any kind of sausage can be used and in the past I have used: Choritzo, Italian Style, Chipolatas etc.
13. The Pork chops can be replaced with chicken pieces, lamb steaks or Confit D'Canard - preserved duck, if you are lucky enought to have some!

Reviews

[lynne12d_11193218]

I have heart disease so converted this to a heart healthy recipe. I used turkey bacon (had to use a little extra olive oil), turkey sausage and boned skinless chicken thighs. I cooked my own beans (tinned are high in sodium) and used extra garlic (not only good for the heart but delicious!). Served this up with a fabulous salad and some crusty whole grain bread! We didn't feel like we were missing anything, this dinner felt like a "cheat nite".

 

[mommymakeit4u]

This cassoulet was superb. I did do a few things differently. I had no bouquet garni so I use 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp parsley and a bayleaf which worked out perfectly. After I was done browning the pork chops I deglazed the pan with the red wine mixture before putting it in the crock pot. Also, I used a tin of cherry tomatoes in place of the plain tomato. I used white kidney beans for the bean. The bread crumbs on top got mixed in during cooking in the crock pot, so I couldn't brown the top but it didn't seem to matterb because it was still delicious. Served it with mashed potatoes and "carmelized butternut squash" from this website.

 

[barrdbarrbarr]

Fantastic! I did a lot of research before undertaking Cassoulet, and in the end I decided to base it on your recipe. The only thing I varied was the type of meat - I used a large ham hock, two duck breasts (browned in a pan beforehand to remove fat), some diced ham, and a chorizo sausage. I served it with sautéed savoy cabbage and a fresh homemade baguette. It was fattening, but soooo good! Thanks for a great recipe :)

 

[vusandra]

It was my first time making cassoulet and this recipe made it easy. I used a 2-qt dutch oven and, hot Italian sausages, and chicken thighs. The recipe calls for about 1 lb of sausages, but I used three sausages instead (about 10oz) and about three chicken thighs (about 12oz) and it was plenty of meat. I cut the carrots in diagonal slices for nicer presentation. I also added quartered mushrooms, which I sauteed separately and added to the pot This recipe definitely tasted good (what wouldn't with all that meat, red wine, and herbs?), but I only wish it looked more appealing in color. It was all very brown and even the breadcrumbs were a dark brown, not a golden crust like I imagined. I made fresh bread crumbs by cutting 1-in cubes of a big loaf (including crust) and mixing with olive oil combined with dried herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, and/or basil). Then bake flat on a sheet at 400 degrees for about 10 mins or until crispy then smashing with a rolling pin in a ziploc bag with no air. I served the cassoulet with the rest of the bread from the loaf I used for breadcrumbs, as well as mashed garlic red potatoes. This recipe is worth the wait for it to cook.

 

[Jonathan Melendez]

I've never had cassoulet before and so this was my first time making it. WOW. Everything was delicious. The meat and sausages were tender and the sauce was incredible. Will definitely be making this again!