Cassoulet is a classic French meat and beans dish that, made in the traditional way, can take five days. This slow cooker cassoulet recipe uses smart shortcuts to whittle the time down to just two days, with very little hands-on work. It’s best served on a cold night with plenty of toasted bread to soak up all the delicious flavor.
“What’s next?” That question led to my Better Know a Mother Sauce series, french onion soup, tartiflette, and, now, the classic French dish of slow cooked meats and beans called cassoulet.
Girl Gone Gourmet’s gotta a little French thing goin’ on now, apparently.
As with most things French I started with Julia Child but stopped cold in my tracks after discovering her recipe for cassoulet takes five days. Five days? Even for someone like me who loves to cook and isn’t afraid to dig in and commit to a recipe five days is excessive. I mean, I have a dog, a boyfriend, a job, and an unhealthy fascination with our current Presidential election that has me glued to CNN every night. I just don’t have five days to make Julia Child’s classic cassoulet. I don’t care how good it is.
And it’s not just the time commitment that’s the issue. Traditionalists argue that cassoulet must have duck confit, it must be baked in a special dish that allows a special crust to form on top, and it must have dried beans that have been soaked overnight. That’s all fine and good, except my local grocery store doesn’t sell duck confit, I don’t own one of those special dishes, and I didn’t want to deal with the whole dried bean issue.
I used ingredients available at my local grocery store.
No duck legs? Substitute chicken drumsticks. No pork shoulder? Use pork belly instead. The moral of the ingredients story is to use whatcha got and call it your own.
If Mark Bittman thinks it okay, then I think it’s okay.
I admit this was a risk. Anytime you slow cook with canned beans the chances of the beans disintegrating is high. So I didn’t slow cook them. Instead, I did the slow-cookingwithout the beans and only added them after the meat had cooked for several hours and before chilling the cassoulet overnight in the refrigerator. This gave the beans a chance to take on all of the porky/chicken flavor while keeping their shape. Worked like a charm.
I skipped the whole crust/breadcrumb topping step.
As far as the crust goes, modern recipes call for a breadcrumb crust, but I went an easy route and just toasted up some bread lightly brushed with olive oil and fresh herbs. The bottom of the bread soaks up all the sauce while the top stays crisp and toasty.
In the end, I cut my cassoulet time down from five days to two days, with only about an hour of actual hands-on time. My short-cut cassoulet is a reminder that, while I might strive to cook according to tradition, sometimes it’s just not possible and it would be a shame to skip these classic recipes because they take too long, or have hard-to-find ingredients, or because someone somewhere insists you “have to make it like this”.
My slow cooker cassoulet might not be traditional, but it worked for me.
Cassoulet is a classic French dish that, made in the traditional way, can take five days to make. This recipe uses some smart shortcuts to cut the time down to just two days, with very little hands-on time thanks to the use of a slow cooker. It’s best served on a cold night with plenty of toasted bread to soak up all the delicious flavor.
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. In batches, brown the chicken drumsticks, pork belly, and sausages until well browned on all sides. Once browned place them in the slow cooker.
Add the salt pork to the slow cooker in one piece. Add the onions, carrots, garlic, thyme and bay leaves. Pour the chopped tomatoes over the top. Next add the chicken stock. If the liquid is not covering the meat, add some water.
Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or until the meat is tender.
Carefully remove the meat from the slow cooker and place in a baking dish. Pour the liquid into a seperate large baking dish. Add the beans to the liquid, cover the dish and place in the refrigerator to chill. Cover the dish with the meat and place in the refrigerator to chill overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the dish with the meat from the fridge and shred the meat discarding the skin, extra fat, and bones. Cut the salt pork into small pieces and add it, along with the shredded meat, to the dish with the liquid and beans.
Cover the beans and meat with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until bubbly. Remove from the oven and keep it covered while you make the toasted bread.
Turn the oven to broil. Lightly brush the bread slices with olive oil and sprinkle some of the chopped herbs over the top. Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and toast them for a few minutes under the broiler.
Serve the cassoulet with a slice of toasted bread on top.
Amazing dinner for 6! Cold winters night perfection at its best. Thank you!
Complimented with butter lettuce /radish /mustard Vinaigarette! And lots of wine!
I’ve yet to attempt beef bourguignon, but this sounds doable! Plus I love anything that can be sopped up with bread. Gimme the carbs!
Five days is crazy!! I think I would completely lose interest after about three 🙂 Love that you took this dish and made it accessible for all of us.
With my life right now five days is crazy!
I love how simple and approachable you made this fancy French recipe. I might actually be willing to give it a try since it doesn’t take 5 days to prepare. I’m not generally a fan of the slow cooker as I find most recipes create a dish that just blah in flavor and texture… But this is one I might actually give a try. You make it look fabulous, especially with that toasted piece of buttered garlic toast on top… I’m a sucker for all things with bread, butter and garlic…?
Hi Ann – I just recently started up with my slow cooker after a very long hiatus for the reasons you mentioned. I agree that it’s very easy to turn out “blah” recipes with one – I did for years! I think the key is to use it as you would any other appliance/tool in the kitchen – where it makes sense. Just like not everything should be cooked on the stove or in the oven, the slow-cooker is the same – it’s great for some things, others not so much. I’ve challenged myself this year to use it more, so stay tuned!
This looks so good. I have a can of duck confit that I got in Paris last year — I haven’t done the cassoulet yet because I was intimidated. Not anymore! Thanks!
This sounds SO good and SO simple to make….perfect!!! Thanks so much for sharing the yumminess, can’t wait to try!
Five days to make one dish! Can you imagine? Haha. It just seems so absurd. Good on you for making it your own. I think that is one of the best and most commendable things about cooking–being able to take something and putting your own stamp on it.