Cassoulet is fancy and French but you can make this Kitchen Cassoulet in a cinch –

Kitchen Cassoulet up close

Oh who needs to go through the fuss, toil and cost of making a Cassoulet. The traditional slow cooked casserole typically contains pork sausages, goose, duck, sometimes mutton (animal protein) and white beans. Once considered peasant food, today this little dish can set your wallet back more than a few duckets. I am all about budget friendly and health conscious meals on this blog and I have one

for you – one that I created in my humble little kitchen.
Kitchen Cassoulet (I had to come up with a fancy name too) is budget friendly, delicious, hearty, full of rich flavor and its quick and simple to make. Chances are, many of the ingredients you may already have in your panty or fridge. And if you don’t you should – just in case you want to whip up a quick meal for your family or unexpected guests.

Kitchen Cassoulet – yep I like that name. And you will love this easy dish. Don’t forget to make the corn bread.
Ingredients

Kitchen Cassoulet and Corn Bread

1 pound smoked turkey sausage sliced
Rotisserie chicken breast cubed
2-15 ounce cans pinto beans, undrained
1-15 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1-8 ounce can tomato sauce (or spicy tomato sauce, picante sauce)
½ water or chicken stock
1 medium onion, chopped (or 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic (chopped) or 1 tablespoon jarred
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon thyme (optional)
2 tablespoon oil (corn, canola, rice bran)
Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a non stick skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent and not brown. Remove from heat and empty into Dutch oven pan.  To Dutch oven pan add undrained beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken stock or water, bay leaf and thyme. Stir well, cover, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat or 30 minutes.
While ingredients simmer, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a same pan over medium heat. Place ½ of sliced smoked turkey sausage in pan and cook both sides until brown. Remove from pan when brown and add second batch and repeat. Remove from pan when done.
Remove both breast lobes from the Rotisserie chicken and cut into cubes. After contents have simmered 30 minutes, stir cubed chicken and sausage into simmering ingredient, cover and heat an additional 15 minutes on low heat. Serve with fresh parsley and honey corn bread (recipe below).

Honey Corn Bread

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/3 cup oil (olive, corn, canola, rice bran)
1 egg
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup honey
½ teaspoon vanilla butter nut extract (or vanilla if you can’t find it)
1 cup evaporated milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease an 9-inch baking dish.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.

Next add egg, evaporated milk, honey, oil and vanilla butter nut exact. Fold mixture together until there are no dry spots (the batter will still be lumpy). Pour the batter into the grease 9-inch square baking dish.

Bake until the top is golden brown and tester inserted into the middle of the corn bread comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the cornbread from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Note: you can use whole wheat flour or half whole wheat and half white flour for a heartier flavor.