Cooking: Mom's Chicken Cassoulet for Sunday Dinner

We had my extended family for dinner this evening (and debuted our new playroom! more on that later...) and a cold day in March seemed the perfect time for my mother's Chicken and Sausage Cassoulet recipe. I always loved this when she made it and it's an easy one-pot meal for a crowd. I served it with an antipasto salad--and received a bit of grief from my husband from mixing my menu with European countries, but I was in the mood for this type of salad, and again, very little work... The salad is simply:

• Romaine lettuce (I cut it...)
• Marinated mushrooms, sliced in half
• Marinated artichoke hearts, cut in 1/8ths
• Good olives, sliced (not the canned black ones...)
• Roasted red peppers, sliced (from a jar)
• Grape tomatoes, cut in half
• Balsamic dressing (bottled, or 1/2 c olive oil, 1/2 c balsamic, 1 Tb dijon)
• Combine and toss...

Here is my mom's recipe for the Chicken Cassoulet (serves 6):

• 1 whole roasted chicken

• 6 spicy italian sausages (cut into large quarters)

• 2 Tbs. olive oil

• 1 large onion, diced

• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 14-16 oz. cans stewed diced tomatoes

• 1 can (14 oz) chicken stock

• 1 cup white wine

• 1 tsp. dried thyme

• Pinch red pepper flakes

• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 15-19 oz. cans white beans (Navy, Great Northern)

* add more wine/broth during simmer 

 1) brown sausage, fully cook, and set aside (when it is cooled, slice into 1/4" pieces)

2) sauté garlic and onion in olive oil 

3) add tomatoes with juice, thyme, salt and pepper, and bay leaf. Cover and boil 

4) reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, for 10 min. 

5) rinse and drain beans and add to pan with wine and chicken stock 

6) Let mixture simmer for 4-6 hours 

7) An hour before serving, add roasted chicken (torn in pieces) and sliced sausage and let warm through

Garnishes: toasted bread crumbs, chopped bacon, chopped parsley, parmesan.