This Ina Garten Cassoulet recipe is easy, quick, and made with duck or chicken legs, breadcrumbs, olive oil, fresh thyme leaves, and clarified butter and takes around 4 hours and 30 minutes to cook to perfection. Serve your Cassoulet with roasted duck fat potatoes, sautéed spinach, braised red cabbage, arugula salad, and lemony celery crunch salad for a well-rounded meal.
To make this Cassoulet, Ina starts by preheating the oven and preparing a breadcrumb mixture with duck or chicken skin. She then sears the meats, sautés the veggies, and combines everything in a roasting pan. After baking for about 3 hours, she thickens the liquid and broils the dish with the breadcrumb topping.
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Ina Garten Cassoulet Ingredients
4 duck or chicken legs, cut into two pieces
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup + 1/8 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons clarified butter
3 pounds boneless lamb leg or pork shoulder
1 pound Polish or bratwurst sausage
1 1/2 cups large dice Spanish onions
1 1/2 cups large dice carrots
1 1/2 cups large dice celery
4 fresh tomatoes, large dice
1 cup dry white wine
5 cups water or chicken bouillon
1 pound navy beans, soaked overnight
1/4 cup fresh marjoram leaves, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
6 bay leaves
Salt and ground black pepper
How To Make Ina Garten Cassoulet
Preparation: Preheat your oven to 375°F. Trim excess skin from duck or chicken and dry it in the oven for about 15 minutes. Blend the dried skin with breadcrumbs, olive oil, and 1/8 teaspoon thyme leaves. Set aside.
Searing the Meat: Heat clarified butter in a heavy-bottomed pan. Sear duck, lamb, and sausage until browned. Transfer them to a large roasting pan.
Cooking Veggies: In the same pan, sauté onions, carrots, and celery until browned. Add tomatoes, wine, and water. Bring to a boil.
Combine and Bake: Drain soaked navy beans and add them to the pan with herbs. Pour this mixture over the meats in the roasting pan. Cover and bake for about 3 hours, or until meat is tender.
Final Touch: Remove meat, and drain liquid from beans and veggies. Blend some of the mixture to thicken the liquid. Adjust seasoning. Lay sliced meat on beans, sprinkle breadcrumb mixture, and broil until the top is lightly browned.
What To Serve With Cassoulet
For a well-rounded meal, consider pairing your cassoulet with side dishes like roasted duck fat potatoes, sautéed spinach, or braised red cabbage. Lighter options could include a celery salad or an arugula salad. If you’re looking for something unique, try serving the cassoulet over a cauliflower steak.
How To Store Cassoulet
In The Fridge:
Store the cassoulet in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Make sure it has cooled down to room temperature before sealing it to maintain the best quality.
You can freeze cassoulet for up to 2-3 months. Place it in a freezer-safe container, leaving some space for expansion. Thaw it in the fridge before reheating.
How To Reheat Cassoulet
To reheat the cassoulet, place it in a preheated oven at 350°F for about 20-25 minutes, or until it’s heated through. You can also reheat it on the stovetop over low heat, stirring occasionally to ensure even warming.
This Ina Garten Cassoulet recipe is easy, quick, and made with duck or chicken legs, breadcrumbs, olive oil, fresh thyme leaves, and clarified butter and takes around 4 hours and 30 minutes to cook to perfection. Serve your Cassoulet with roasted duck fat potatoes, sautéed spinach, braised red cabbage, arugula salad, and lemony celery crunch salad for a well-rounded meal.
Ina Garten Cassoulet Ingredients
How To Make Ina Garten Cassoulet
Preparation: Preheat your oven to 375°F. Trim excess skin from duck or chicken and dry it in the oven for about 15 minutes. Blend the dried skin with breadcrumbs, olive oil, and 1/8 teaspoon thyme leaves. Set aside.
Searing the Meat: Heat clarified butter in a heavy-bottomed pan. Sear duck, lamb, and sausage until browned. Transfer them to a large roasting pan.
Cooking Veggies: In the same pan, sauté onions, carrots, and celery until browned. Add tomatoes, wine, and water. Bring to a boil.
Combine and Bake: Drain soaked navy beans and add them to the pan with herbs. Pour this mixture over the meats in the roasting pan. Cover and bake for about 3 hours, or until meat is tender.
Final Touch: Remove meat, and drain liquid from beans and veggies. Blend some of the mixture to thicken the liquid. Adjust seasoning. Lay sliced meat on beans, sprinkle breadcrumb mixture, and broil until the top is lightly browned.
Because cassoulet is meant to be rich and substantial, it pairs beautifully with a salad of dark greens and a citrusy (or mustardy) vinaigrette to add some acidity to the meal. Also, don't forget to serve your cassoulet with plenty of crusty baguette pieces for dipping!
Originating in the South of France, cassoulet is a profoundly hearty peasant dish that typically includes white beans, duck (or goose) confit, and sausage, through specific preparations vary from town to town. It also is supposed to take a couple of days to put together, as the flavors of the meat develop slowly.
Part of what makes cassoulet so special is the golden brown crust that forms on top of the stew near the end of the process. But when asked what forms this crust, most home cooks would probably give the wrong answer.
The sauce has garlic, thyme and lemon, and has so much flavor," Garten says. "And the whole thing takes like 5 minutes to put together... The best thing about this is that it makes the chicken and the sauce at the same time." Serve it over rice or quinoa, and the grains can absorb all of the sauce, Garten recommends.
The cassoulet needs to bake uncovered to develop a crisp crust. Baking sheets All of the ingredients for a cassoulet are cooked before being combined and baked again. The meat can be cooked in any number of ways; here, the pork and lamb stew meat is roasted on rimmed baking sheets so that it browns.
Saucisse de Toulouse - The Best Sausage. Toulouse Saucisse (Toulouse Sausage) is a fresh sausage made in Toulouse, France, in the southwest. It's a classic French pork sausage cooked with white wine and onions. Cassoulet is a fantastic way to use it.
You can serve cassoulet on its own with a salad and bread on the side, but it's traditional to accompany it with something colorful . . . usually greens of some sort. If you're looking for a great meal to prepare for the colder weather, try making a cassoulet.
Cassoulet is divided into three types depending on which meats are used. Prosper Montagne, a famed culinary artist, called these three various cassoulets the “Trinity.” He designated the “Father” as coming from Castelnaudary, the “Son” from Carcassone and the “Holy Ghost” from Toulouse.
Mary Anne here. Preparing a traditional French Cassoulet (a la Julia Child) is incredibly time-consuming and can be fairly pricey since it requires hard-to-find ingredients like goose and mutton.
The one meal Ina simply couldn't live without is roast chicken. She even cites it as one of the reasons her husband, Jeffrey, proposed marriage in 1968.
Ina cooks her roast chicken uncovered in the oven, then tents it with foil for 20 minutes once the bird is done cooking. This keeps the meat moist until it's ready to carve and serve.
Ina loves her All-Clad stainless steel cookware and has had some of her All-Clad pans for over 40 years. She loves that it cooks food evenly, keeps the heat and is easy to clean.
It goes like this: one-third of ragout mixture, half of the sausage and duck meat, another third of the ragout mixture, remaining sausages and duck meat, then remaining ragout mixture. Sprinkle most—but not all! —of the breadcrumbs on top.
A cassoulet, of course, is something else entirely, and usually refers to that long-simmering stew from southwest France of duck, lamb or pork, and white beans. Confused? Maybe it will help if you roll up your sleeves and bake this cassolette recipe—a luscious gratin of chicken and noodles rife with French flavors.
Introduction: My name is Arielle Torp, I am a comfortable, kind, zealous, lovely, jolly, colorful, adventurous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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