Simplified Cassoulet with Pork and Kielbasa (CATKTV)

Chicken

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup table salt
• 10 (5-6 ounce) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, trimmed and skin removed [Oops, guess I screwed up a little by leaving the skin on]

Beans

• 1 pound dried flageolet or great Northern beans, picked over and rinsed [Great Northern]
• 1 medium onion, peeled plus 1 small onion, minced
• 1 medium head garlic, outer papery skind removed and top 1/2 inch sliced off plus 2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Ground black pepper
• 6 ounces (about 6 slices) bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 (1-pound) boneless blade-end pork loin roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 (14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 large sprig fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 1/2 pound kielbasa, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices

Croutons [Although I didn't bother)

• 6 slices high-quality white sandwich bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 

Dissolve salt and sugar in 1 quart of cold water in gallon-sized bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Not all the salt and sugar got dissolved and the chicken was still pretty frozen, but I don't think it hurt the dish THAT much.

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels afterward.

Mise en place minus the beans.

Practically the same picture as the previous entry.  Except no bay leaves, less water, the onion's hole, and there's some pepper.  Cook until almost tender, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.  Drain beans and discard onion and garlic.

Fry bacon until it's just beginning to crisp and most of the fat is rendered.  After that, dump half in with the beans and reserve the rest on a paper-towel-lined plate.

Cook chicken until lightly browned.  Start skinned side down or since I screwed up skin-side down.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat and cook pork until lightly browned.

Add onion and cook until softened.

Add minced garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, and pepper and cook until fragrant.

Deglaze with chicken broth and wine.  I sort of did this in stages since I didn't start the beans until later for some stupid reason.  I guess that reason would be not reading through the whole recipe and making the correct logical decision.

Submerge the chicken, bring to a boil, and simmer covered for 40 minutes.  Uncover and cook under pork and chicken are fully tender, 20 to 30 minutes more.

Gently stir in beans, kielbasa, and reserved bacon.  Season to taste.  (Apparently, if I had brined the chicken right, I wouldn't have needed to season with salt as aggressively as I did.) I guess this would be the right time to top with the croutons I didn't make and bake until they were deep golden brown.
When I first made this dish, back before the blog, a previous roommate had said this dish was the best thing he had ever put in his mouth.  I declared the dish a bit too rich for me though still good.  I'm not sure I got as walloped by one serving of this as the first time, but it's still rather more than I'm comfortable with eating multiple times in a day.  It's typically made with duck confit but that's hella expensive and would probably push this even further over my limits.

Good dish, I figure, if one really appreciates French food way more than I do.