Did you notice a French theme happening on the blog?  As soon as I remembered the French onion soup recipe I taught a few years ago, it also occurred to me that I had never posted this chicken and white beans recipe which I developed for a teaching trip in Southwest France many years ago.  Cassoulet is an incredible, hearty French dish (actually it refers to the recipe as well as the vessel it’s cooked in) with duck confit and sausages and chicken and white beans all stewy and luscious together.  It also requires tons of time, like at least a full day +.  And I’m not saying it’s not worth it, but it’s not realistic for me or most of the universe to spend that much time on dinner.

So I came up with a version that can be made quickety quick on a weeknight and although it doesn’t have the richness and depth of a traditional cassoulet (which coincidentally was posted in the New York Times this week by Sam Sifton — check it out here), this one is also lighter and more in line with how I like to eat, i.e. not feeling super weighed down like I need a 3-hour nap after I eating, which is what I did after I ate real cassoulet in France.

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