Serves 2
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 large boneless chicken breasts, skin on if possible (if not, it's okay)
- salt and pepper for seasoning chicken
- olive oil for sauteing
- 1 small to medium sized white onion, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 4-inch links of chorizo sausage, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 15-ounce can white beans, well drained
- 3-4 cups loose packed baby spinach
- approx. 1/2 cup chicken stock
- salt and pepper to taste
Dan Eaton shows us how to make Chicken Cassoulet, a fast and simple version of a classic French cassoulet!
PROCEDURE:
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and, once that has come up to temp, place a heavy bottomed, oven proof pan, or cast iron skillet on the stove top on medium high heat. Add a little olive oil to the skillet and season the chicken breasts with a little salt and pepper and place them in the hot pan, skin side down if they have skin. You want to let that go for 3 or 4 minutes, to give the skin a chance to start browning up, and then turn the heat off and place the whole thing into the preheated oven to finish.
While the chicken is in the oven, you'll have plenty of time to chop up a medium white onion and mince a couple of cloves of garlic and also cut a couple of links of chorizo sausage into bite sized pieces.
Depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts, they could take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to cook through and then you want to take them out of the pan and put them on a clean plate to rest, with the skin side up so it stays nice and crisp.
Nest, being careful of the hot handle on the hot skillet, turn the heat back up to medium-medium high on the stove top, add the onions and the garlic and the chorizo sausage to the hot skillet and cook that until the onions start to soften up.
Then add 1 well drained, 15-ounce can of white beans and a big handful or two of baby spinach and let that wilt down and also add a splash of chicken stock to add a little moisture to the dish. Season the cassoulet with a little salt and pepper to taste and serve it up with the sliced chicken right on top.
HINTS:
To get chicken breast with the skin on you may need to buy split breasts and then use a knife to remove the rib cage. Otherwise, skinless breasts will be fine. Use any kind of sausage, even raw sausage, instead of the cured and smoked chorizo, just make sure the raw sausage is cooked all the way through.