The countdown to my favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day, is on and that means my kitchen has been filled with the delicious smells of traditional Irish foods, including Dublin Coddle.

My Ancestry DNA kit might say that I'm not as much Irish I always believed that I was, but I am proud to celebrate the bit that I am, and this means each year around St. Patrick's Day, my little family celebrates a weeklong tradition of eating foods that represent my family history.

Dublin coddle is most often associated with the capital of Ireland, Dublin. Most Americans turn to mac and cheese when they need to be comforted, but in Ireland, the big thing to turn to is Dublin Coddle. This dish is actually really easy to make and will warm your soul when you need a touch of soul-warming. This recipe was adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet.

Ingredients:
1 lb bacon slices, cubed or more of you're obsessed with bacon
2 lbs pork sausage links
2 large onions, thinly sliced
4 large potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/2 inch thick
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped into big chunks
6 carrots, peeled and sliced nice and thick
Pepper and salt to taste
4-6 cups of chicken broth
Fresh parsley and/or basil to taste

Directions:
Place the cubes of bacon into a very large pot or dutch oven and cook it over medium heat until the bacon is nice and crispy. I like a lot of seasoning on my food and so I use peppered bacon instead of regular, but you can use what you like. Once the bacon is cooked well, remove it, pouring off most of the grease, but not all of it. You want to leave just enough grease in the bottom of the pan to coat it.

To the pan, add the sausage and brown them on both sides over medium-high heat (you might need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your pan). Once the sausage is browned, remove it from the pan, but again, you want to leave a little bit of grease in the bottom of the pan. Add the sliced onions and garlic to the pan and cook until both are soft. Once the onions and garlic are soft, add the bacon and sausage back into the pan along with the carrots and potatoes. Season with pepper and add enough chicken broth to pretty much cover everything.

Simmer (but DON’T boil!) for an hour and a half to two hours, covered. But here's the thing- you need to remember to stir the pot every once in a while so that nothing sticks to the bottom. Once the cook time is up, slice the sausage into easy to eat bites and serve with the rest of the mixture in a bowl. Top with parsley and/or basil.

[Recipe adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet]

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