Yes, You Can Have Cassoulet On a Weeknight with This Easy Recipe! (2024)

Recipes
Dinners
Comfort Food

This quick cassoulet with white beans, chicken, and sausages comes together in about 45 minutes.

Sally Vargas

Sally is the author of four cookbooks and is a regular correspondent for the Boston Globe Wednesday Food Section. She also is a food photographer.

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Updated July 13, 2023

How to Make Cassoulet on a Weeknight

Cook the bacon, onions, and garlic, and brown the bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and Italian sausages in a skillet. Throw them into a Dutch oven with canned beans and tomatoes. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and pop it under the broiler for a minute or two. Walk the Dutch oven straight to the table for a beautiful presentation. It’s that easy!

Yes, You Can Have Cassoulet On a Weeknight with This Easy Recipe! (4)

The Best Beans for Easy Cassoulet

White beans are best. There are four readily available types of canned beans to choose from for this recipe. Don’t drain and rinse the beans—add the liquid in the can into the cassoulet.

Navy beansare small and oval-shaped and famous for their use inBoston baked beans.
Great northern beansareslightly larger than navy beans. They hold their shape well when cooked and have a mild flavor. These are my favorite for cassoulet.
Cannellini beansare the next size up from great northern beans and a little meatier than the first two.
Butterbeans(akababy lima beans) are the largest of the four.

If you prefer tocook your own dried beans, use 3 1/2 cups cooked beans with some of the cooking liquid instead of two cans of beans.

The Chicken and Sausages

This recipe calls for bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for a boost of flavor. Could you use chicken breasts or boneless thighs? Yes, you can. They tend to overcook faster, so keep your eye on them as they cook.

Fresh Italian pork sausages are easy to find at the grocery store and make a good substitute for the traditionally usedToulouse pork sausages. You could also use garlic sausages or Andouille sausages.

While fresh sausages are preferable, you could use precooked ones. Browning them would be purely for aesthetics, so you can skip that part and add them to the beans, cooking them just long enough to heat them through.

Yes, You Can Have Cassoulet On a Weeknight with This Easy Recipe! (5)

Serving Suggestions

Bring the whole pot of cassoulet to the table! Scoop some beans and broth into bowls and top each with a piece of chicken and a sausage. Try not to disturb the crunchy and delicious crumbs on top when you scoop. Serve it with a simple salad withthis dressingand a baguette for swiping up the delicious juices.

To Store and Reheat

Store any leftover cassoulet in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat the cassoulet in a small pot on the stovetop until heated through. You could also microwave individual portions until heated through.

To freeze, spoon leftovers into an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost it in the refrigerator overnight and reheat it as described above.

Yes, You Can Have Cassoulet On a Weeknight with This Easy Recipe! (6)

More Easy Casseroles to Try

Sausage, Pepper, and Potato Bake
Broccoli Cheese Casserole
Tuna and Tomato Pasta Casserole
Marge Perry and David Bonom’s Easy Skillet Lasagna
Polenta Sausage Mozzarella Casserole

Easy Cassoulet

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time35 mins

Total Time45 mins

Servings4to 6 servings

Ingredients

4 ounces thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs(about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 sweet Italian pork sausages(about 12 ounces)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 (14.5-ounce) cans great northern or navy beans
1 small handful fresh thyme, tied together with kitchen twine
1 1/2 cups coarsefresh breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
Baguette, for serving

Method

Cook the bacon:
In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon for 3 to 4 minutes stirring frequently, until it renders much of its fat but is not yet crisp. Transfer the bacon to a large plate.
Prep the chicken and sausages:
Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and season both sides with salt and black pepper. Prick each sausage with the tip of a paring knife in a couple of places. This will prevent them from bursting as they cook.
Cook the chicken and sausages:
In the same skillet used to cook the bacon, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and heat it over medium-high heat. No need to drain out the bacon grease. Add the chicken, skin side-down, and the sausages. You may need to do this in batches if the skillet is not large enough. Cook the meat until golden brown on both sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer them to the plate with the bacon one by one as they look ready.
Cook the onions and garlic:
Pour off and discard all but a thin layer of fat from the skillet. Return the skillet to the stove over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the onions soften.
Assemble the cassoulet:
Transfer the cooked onions and garlic into a large (at least 4-quart) Dutch oven. Stir in the tomatoes, beans with their liquid, and thyme sprigs. Nestle in the bacon, chicken thighs, and sausages.
Bring the cassoulet to a simmer over medium heat. Adjust the heat to a steady simmer and cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes, until the chicken and sausages are cooked through. The chicken should measure 165ºF when an instant read thermometer is inserted into the thickest part of the meat.
Turn on the broiler:
Set a rack about 8 inches from the broiler element and turn on the broiler.
Make the breadcrumbs:
In a small bowl, toss the breadcrumbs with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and parsley.
Broil the cassoulet:
Remove and discard the thyme sprigs from the cassoulet. Evenly sprinkle in the breadcrumbs and place the Dutch oven into the oven to broil for 1 to 2 minutes, until the top browns. Watch it carefully—this only takes a minute or two. Remove the cassoulet from the oven and sprinkle in more parsley, if you’d like.
Serve the cassoulet:
Ladle some beans into 4 shallow bowls. Top each bowl with a sausage and a chicken thigh. Serve with a baguette on the side and a large spoon to scoop up all the delicious juices.

Comfort Food
Casseroles
French
Chicken Thighs
Winter

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
1156	Calories
47g	Fat
117g	Carbs
70g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4to 6
Amount per serving
Calories	1156
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 47g	60%
Saturated Fat 13g	67%
Cholesterol 206mg	69%
Sodium 2472mg	107%
Total Carbohydrate 117g	42%
Dietary Fiber 19g	70%
Total Sugars 10g
Protein 70g
Vitamin C 12mg	60%
Calcium 249mg	19%
Iron 11mg	62%
Potassium 1439mg	31%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.