Bean Cassoulet

This is a interesting sounding cassoulet (casserole or stew).
I'll probably never make it though. Seems to take quite a bit of time and effort.

The classic French bean stew features goose, duck confit, pork and pork sausages. I adapted the recipe for meats that could easily be found in the supermarket: chicken thighs, bacon and kielbasa.

Ingredients
½ pound kielbasa
½ pound chicken thighs, boned but skin attached
¼ pound bacon slices, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ pound small white beans
1 large onion, divided
2 cloves garlic, divided
1 bunch parsley, divided
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 sprig thyme
1 cup chopped canned tomatoes
Bread crumbs

Preparation:
1. Rinse and drain beans. Place in a large stock pot. Peel ½ the onion and half again through stem. Add to pot along with ½ clove of garlic (peeled but not chopped), about 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley, bay leaf, ½ tablespoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cover with water by 2 inches, bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, until beans are just starting to be tender. This can take anywhere from 40 to 90 minutes after pot comes to simmer. Add kielbasa, and cook until beans are tender and ready to eat, about 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in large Dutch oven, fry bacon over medium heat until it has rendered most of its fat and is lightly browned. Remove, drain and set aside, but keep pan over medium heat. Cut each chicken thigh in half, and season both sides with salt and pepper. Place pieces, skin side down, in rendered bacon fat. Leave thighs alone for at least 5 minutes. When skin side is nicely browned, flip and cook other side for 5 minutes. Remove from pan.

3. While thighs brown, chop remaining onion and about 3 or 4 sprigs of parsley.

4. If bacon fat has no burned bits, use it to saute vegetables. Otherwise, pour it out of pan, wipe pan clean and add olive oil to film bottom of pan. To olive oil, add chopped onion and parsley, chopped celery, and carrot and thyme. Turn heat to medium, cover pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are limp, about 20 minutes. Mince 2 cloves of garlic, and add along with tomatoes. Stir and cook 5 more minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. When beans and kielbasa are cooked, remove kielbasa, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices and reserve. Remove from beans the onion, garlic, parsley and bay leaves. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the beans into the vegetable pot. Mix well, and add enough bean-cooking liquid to make mixture a bit looser than you want the finished dish to be. Remove any thyme sprigs you can find. Taste for salt.

6. Into one large casserole dish, or a few smaller ones, spoon half of beans and spread out evenly. Nestle chicken thighs, sliced kielbasa and reserved bacon into beans. Top with remaining beans, and cover with foil. Cook until mixture begins to bubble, 45 minutes to 1¼ hours, depending on how warm mixture was before it went in. When it bubbles, remove foil, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and drizzle crumbs with oil. Bake for 30 more minutes until top is nicely browned. Makes 4 to 6 servings.