Tradition is a wonderful thing in the kitchen, and for Jessica Rothacker, it’s also the norm. Southern family food traditions are reflected in the recipes and culture at her Athens, Georgia, restaurant, Heirloom, which features “supper” on its menu rather than dinner and serves familiar comfort food like mac ’n’ cheese and a barbecue pork plate with collards and black-eyed pea salad.

As a chef, Rothacker also recognizes that tradition is frequently a jumping-off point to create something new. Her good luck cassoulet, with stewed field peas and turnip green gremolata, is based on the traditional New Year’s meal of hoppin’ john and collards. “It is something that we have served as a New Year’s Eve dinner,” she says, “with the idea of it being kind of a take on the eating beans and greens on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day to bring good luck in the following year.”

The cassoulet starts with a confit chicken leg and thigh seasoned with juniper berries, similar to a traditional duck confit. The dried berries are ground up and mixed with chopped and crumbled herbs for an aromatic rub; Rothacker says you can let it cure for several days or even just overnight before brushing off most of the rub.

Then, in the roasting pan, surround the chicken with plenty of olive oil and top it with duck fat—more olive oil also works as an alternative—and “when you put it in the oven with foil on top, it’ll melt the duck fat and then slowly cook the leg and thigh and make it nice and tender and juicy.” For presentation, she prefers a bone-in thigh with leg, but, she adds, “you can certainly do it boneless and it would still be delicious.”

The trick with the chicken is cooking it “low and slow,” which is not only delicious but practical: The rest of the dish is assembled while the chicken cooks. Rothacker dices the aromatics for the field peas and gets those on the stove to sweat. For sourcing fresh, rather than dried, peas during winter, she suggests checking the frozen foods aisle—“or you can save them from your summer harvest.” This element of the dish can also be made vegetarian by subbing in vegetable broth for chicken broth.

While the peas are cooking, she makes the gremolata. “You wouldn’t usually use turnip greens for this, but in this case we are using them to give everybody that good luck and money.” She likes to chop the greens slightly larger than the minced parsley, then mixes all ingredients, adding “a splash of red wine vinegar to make it pop.”

When the chicken is done cooking, Rothacker roasts the vegetables and sears the chicken on the stove to create a crispy brown finish. After tasting the peas and adjusting the seasoning, she assembles the cassoulet in a deep plate or pasta bowl, “or you could use a cast-iron skillet if you wanted to be a little home-style with it,” she suggests. Layer cooked field peas first, then lay the roasted vegetables around and on top; lean the leg and thigh up against those and garnish with a generous dollop of gremolata.