Mexican Cassoulet

In response to yet another snowy stretch in March, Ann and I were looking for something warm and comforting. One of us suggested a White Chicken Chili, an easy-to-make slow cooker dish that we eat somewhat frequently in the winter. It's a simple stew of dried white beans, chicken thighs, onions, poblanos, chopped cilantro, garlic, and Mexican oregano with water to cover. I throw into the slow cooker in the morning and it cooks itself all day. The prep work is trivial: dicing the onions and chiles and peeling and mincing garlic, a matter of five to ten minutes. The results are wonderful for such a minor investment in prep.

A Bowl of "Mexican Cassoulet"

This time, rather than using the usual if unspectacular Great Northern Beans, I remembered that we have a big box of beans from Rancho Gordo in the pantry, so I went fishing in that box and pulled out a pound of Rebosero Beans. I don't know these beans from Mexico at all but they seemed like they would make a nice pot of beans with chicken and green chiles.

Somehow between putting the beans on to soak overnight and the next morning when I started to cook the beans, I decided to cook the chili in the style of cassoulet just like I had done recently with the Tarbais beans that I got from Rancho Gordo.

Rather than dump everything in the slow cooker, I proceeded just like cassoulet. Step one was to par-cook the beans with two cloves of garlic and two bay leaves. Step two was to brown the bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. Step three was to cook the mirepoix (poblanos, onions, and minced cilantro stems) with a bit of Mexican oregano and garlic. Step four is to mix the beans with the mirepoix and put half of them in a casserole. On top of this, I layered in some very spicy green chile that Rob and Dyce brought back from their last trip to Santa Fe.

Next, in went the chicken and then the rest of the beans on top. The final step was to pour all the bean cooking liquid over the top and then put the uncovered casserole into a very slow oven for about six or seven hours. Unlike a traditional cassoulet, I did not punch the crust down and let it re-crust, for the simple reason that we were not home.

Rebosero Beans Soaking Overnight

Par-Cooking the Beans

The Finished "Mexican Cassoulet"

The results were quite astoundingly good. And I'm in love with these rebosero beans. They are certainly my new favorite bean for refried beans, far surpassing Mayocobas, my previous favorite.