Brown Ale

Honey Chili Beer Chicken

27.12.2013 33 Comments

I see how you get here. The keyword searches that bring you to this little blog of mine. Most of these keyword searches make sense, like "Beer recipes," "Cooking with beer," and even "The Beeroness." This past year nearly 8,000 people came to my blog with the keyword "The Beeroness," or it could have been just one guy searching for me eight thousand times. If that was you, thank you and you’re creepy.

Sometimes those keywords don’t make sense, like the person that found my blog while searching, "fun recipes for toddlers" or all those people looking for "healthy quick meals." I am not the top pick for either of those catagories. But it’s post holidays, and we are in that ill fitting week between Christmas and New Years that feels like the calendar equivalent of the end of a loaf of bread and you all seem to want something at least semi healthy.

Me too, I did eat three cinnamon rolls yesterday in about 5 minutes. I could use a little not-as-bad-for-me one pot meal.

So here it is. One pot. Not completely unhealthy. Quick and easy. But for the "fun for toddlers" part you’re on your own.

Honey Chili Beer Chicken

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Ingredients

3 tbs olive oil
6 boneless skinless chicken thigh filets
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1-2 tbs flour
½ cup sliced sweet white onions
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup brown ale divided in half
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tbs honey
½ tsp red chili sauce such as Sriracha plus additional if desired

Instructions

In a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat add the olive oil.
Sprinkle the chicken thighs on all sides with salt, pepper and flour.
Cook the chicken thighs until browned on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Remove, and set aside.
Reduce heat to medium-low, add the onions and caramelize over medium heat until golden brown, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Stir in the garlic then add ½ cup brown ale, balsamic vinegar, honey and chili sauce. Simmer until reduced and thickened. Add the chicken back to the pan along with the remaining ½ cup brown ale.
Cover loosely with a lid, lower heat to maintain a simmer and allow to cook until chicken is cooked through, about an additional 10 minutes. Turning once during cooking.

I highly recommend this cast iron skillet. I use my almost every day (affiliate link).

Buttermilk Beer Pancakes & How to Make Super Fluffy Pancakes

Pancakes are my first food memory. I’m one of 8 kids (all girls, wrap your head around that) and one of about 27 cousins (I don’t even know the actual number) which made alone time with my grandparents really special.

Salted Beer Caramel Sauce plus 5 More Edible Homemade Beer Gifts

03.12.2013 21 Comments

'Tis the Season.

To drink too much, eat too much and blame it all on seasonally appropriate Holiday Cheer. I can get behind that, excess seems to agree with me. And while we’re at it, DIY’ing a few holiday gifts infused with beer is another great excuse to break into that beer stash. After all it’s better to give, right? Especially if a byproduct of that giving is figuring out what to do with that "leftover" beer. It can’t go to waste, that just doesn’t make economical sense.

1. Chocolate Pretzel Beer Toffee

A surprisingly easy to make candy that’s always a big hit. It also makes a great addition to a cookie tray, but be careful it’s hard to stop eating this stuff, it has a crack like presence.

2. Stout & Sriracha Beer BBQ Sauce

A little break from all the sweet treats, this is a great sauce to pass along to friends and family. Don’t forget to print out a few recipe ideas to go along with, like these Oven Roasted BBQ Beer Ribs or these Oven Baked BBQ Chicken Wings.

3. Chocolate Stout Truffles

These are pure decadence. A beerified version of a traditional holiday favorite.

4. Beer Caramel Corn

A little treat reminiscent of childhood, with a grown up flavor of craft beer.

5. Beer Candied Pecans

Bring Beer Nuts to entirely new level.

6. Salted Beer Caramel Sauce (recipe below)

Ice cream socials will never be the same.

Salted Beer Caramel Sauce

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Ingredients

2 cups sugar
½ cup beer see note
8 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, cut into cubes
1 cup heavy cream room temperature
1 tsp flakey sea salt

Instructions

Add the sugar and beer to a very large heavy bottom saucepan over high heat (caramel will bubble up to 10x's it's original volume). Stir just until the sugar has melted then stop stirring.
Allow to boil untouched (you can swirl the pan a few times to evenly distribute caramel but stirring will cause crystallization) until the caramel reaches a deep amber, almost reddish color.
Add the butter, stirring continuously until all the butter has melted. Remove from heat.
Slowly whisk in the cream and salt until well combined.
Return to heat, cooking until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes
Allow to cool for ten minutes before transferring to a glass jar.
Keep refrigerated until ready to use, heat the caramel to thin, if desired.

Notes

You want a beer with some maltyness. Look for a brown, red or amber ale that has a strong malt backbone.

Bruleed Pumpkin Beer Pie

15.11.2013 5 Comments

I know what you’re thinking.

You think that I put a Pumpkin Ale in that pie. It’s a fair assumption, and not a bad route to take when beerifying (that’s a word) a pumpkin pie. Sure, you can use that. Go ahead, be my beer-cookin' guest, it’s not a bad choice. But for this I wanted to play up those brown sugar flavors with a nice barrel aged brown ale. So that’s exactly what I did.

Brown ales don’t get enough air time. They are often forgotten in the beer-of-the-moment hype. Browns are the George Harrison’s of the beer world. The Willem Dafoe’s of the beer world.

But brown ales have a lot of potential, a lot of great flavors, a lot of depth. Especially when they’ve been aged in a bourbon barrel. Like this Palo Santo Marron from Dogfish Head which has unleashed that underrated brown ale potential in a way that will remind the Beer Snobs that it’s here to play. Or make pies. Or maybe both.

I used this Kitchen torch, because it’s amazing, easily one of my favorite kitchen tools. (affiliate link)

Bruleed Pumpkin Beer Pie

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Ingredients

1 Pale ale pie crust
¾ cup heavy cream
2/3 cup packed golden brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
5 large egg yolks
¾ cup brown ale preferably a barrel aged brown ale
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups of pumpkin purée
1 tbs cornstarch
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
White sugar for brulee topping about 3 tbs

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375.
Roll the pie dough out on a lightly floured surface and line a 9-inch pie pan. Place in the fridge to chill until the filling is ready.
In a pot over medium heat, add the cream. Heat until the cream starts to bubble around the edges.
In a large bowl whisk together the white sugar, brown sugar and egg yolks. Whisking continually, slowly pour the hot cream into the eggs. Whisk until well combined.
Add the remaining ingredients (other than the brulee sugar), whisk until well combined.
Pour into the prepared pie pan.
Bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes or until the filling puffs slightly and has set around the edges (the center will still be wobbly). Chill until set, at least 4 hours.
Just prior to serving, sprinkle the remaining white sugar over the top of the pie in an even layer. Using a culinary torch brulee the sugar until melted and turned a dark amber color.

For this recipe I use The Pale Ale Pie Dough

Beer Brat Carbonara Pasta: An Oktoberfest Recipe

24.09.2013 11 Comments

Although it seems like most of America sees Oktoberfest as The Festival of Barely Contained Breasts And Bad Beer In October, it really isn’t meant to be any of those things. Oktoberfest began more than 200 years ago as a wedding celebration, it’s morphed into a celebration of local food and drink.

In Germany, they take that local notion seriously. Only beer brewed within the Munich city limits is allowed to be served at the festivities, and last year nearly 7 million liters were served up. Which may explain why 37 kids were reported missing, as well as a live rabbit, during last years event (all children and furry creatures were found safe and sound).

The authentic Oktoberfest festivities take place in Munich Germany, starting around mid-September and ending the first Sunday in October, making this year’s event well underway. To celebrate in my own house, far, far from the Bavarian epicenter of the German Beer Lovers Fest, I made a hearty pasta, full of beer brats and brown ale.

The bratwurst began as a peasants dish, using all the scraps left over once the more expensive cuts were taken, which makes it a perfect addition to carbonara pasta, which has its own humble beginnings on a peasants table in Europe.

To sum it up, my friends, celebrate in an authentic fashion: strap on some lederhosen, drink local beer, cook some sausages in beer, but just don’t forget where you put your kids or woodland creatures.

O’zapft is!

Beer Brat Carbonara Pasta

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Ingredients

5 ounces gaunciale or 6 strips thick sliced bacon
1 sweet white onion sliced into rings
1 tbs olive oil plus 2 tbs, divided
6 bratwurst raw
12 ounces brown ale
1 lb spaghetti
2 Roma tomatoes chopped
1 cup fresh grated Pecornio or Parmigiano-Reggiano
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
4 large eggs

Instructions

In a large pot over medium high heat, cook the gaunciale (or bacon). Remove from pan, chop. Pour off about half the pork fat, leaving about 2 tbs still in the pan. Add 1 tbs olive oil and onions, cook over medium heat until the onions start to caramelize, about 8-10 minutes. Remove onions from pan, set aside.
Increase heat to medium high, add the bratwurst, cooking until browned on both sides. Add the beer and reduce heat to medium low, simmering until the bratwurst are cooked through, 10-12 minutes. Slice into rings.
While the bratwurst are cooking, cook the spaghetti in lightly salted boiling water until al dente, drain and return to pot.
Add sliced brats, chopped gauncaile (or bacon), caramelized onions, tomatoes, cheese, salt, pepper and remaining 2 tbs olive oil to the spaghetti, toss to combine.
One at a time poach the eggs in simmering water until the whites have set but the yolks are still runny.
Divide the pasta between 4 bowls, top with poached eggs. Serve immediately.

Beer Brined Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Orange Chili Sauce

08.05.2013 20 Comments

I’ve started to think about dishes that have made an impact on me over the years, a salt roasted whole fish I ate in italy, curried soup I had in New York, even pancakes from my Grandfather. I didn’t grow up in a culinary family, I grew up in a defrost-and-feed family and decided I wanted to figure out this cooking thing when I was in High School. I met a guy who was older than me, SO old, in fact, that he had his own apartment. I wanted to impress him, so I offered to cook him dinner. Newly licensed, I drove to the grocery store all by myself for the first time. I had planned to buy steak and try to figure that out, but a combination of seeing these tiny chickens and realizing how expensive good steak was made the decision easy. Two "tiny chickens" were only $4, and I peeled the price tag off so that he wouldn’t know how cheap I was.

I just rubbed them with butter (probably margarine, to be honest) and salt and pepper, and cooked them until I thought they were done. They turned out amazing, I think I was more impressed than he was. It was my first official Kitchen Win, Roasted Cornish Game Hens at 16 years old, in the kitchen of a crappy post war era apartment off George Washington Way.

I haven’t made them since (until now), and I can’t even tell you why. I make roast chicken all the time, and this is just as easy, and if you are having a dinner party, it’s really impressive, everyone gets their own tiny chicken. You don’t even have to tell them how cheap they are.

A beer brine is incredible, the combination of the subtle flavors and the meat tenderizing properties of beer give you a fantastic final product. I usually use brown ale, I love the notes of molasses and nuts that are easy to find in brown ales. I remembered Brother Thelonious from North Coast, a strong, dark, Belgian Style Abbey Ale . The notes of nuts, fruit, malt, brown sugar and cherries, along with a relatively high ABV of 9.3%, it was exactly what I was looking for. North Coast is a stellar brewery out of Northern California, that has brought us such hits as Old Rasputin and PranQster. North Coast has been preaching the craft beer gospel for 25 years, producing beer that is diverse and on point, you’ll never hear anything but praise out of me for North Coast.

Another reason to enjoy the Brother Thelonious is that a portion of the proceeds go to support the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, It’s a beer with a mission.

The sauce can be made with what you have "leftover" from the beer brine, but let’s be honest, it probably won’t last that long. You can also use a lighter wheat beer, or a pale ale. Just a warning, alcohol intensifies heat so the higher ABV you use, the higher the heat level will be. Removing the seeds from the pepper gives you a greater control over the sauces final heat level. Most of the heat of a pepper is found in the seeds, with almost no flavor.The flesh of the pepper still has significant heat, but also contains the flavor of the pepper. If you are worried about the heat not being high enough, reserve some of the seeds and add them into the sauce as needed.

Beer Brined Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Orange Chili Sauce

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Ingredients

For the chicken:

12 ounces Belgian ale wheat beer, or brown ale
¼ cup kosher salt
2 tbs white sugar
1 tbs whole cloves
2 cups ice
2 Cornish game hens 1.75 to 2 lbs each
1 large lemon
2 tbs melted butter
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

For the sauce:

1 habanero chili
2 cara cara oranges juiced (about 1 cup)
1 tbs corn starch
1 tbs white sugar
¼ cup wheat beer
1 tbs white vinegar
1 tbs red chili flakes

Instructions

In a pot over medium high heat, add the wheat beer, salt, sugar and cloves. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar and salt have dissolved, remove from heat. Add the ice, stir until dissolved.
Rinse the game hens inside and out, place together in a large bowl. Pour the brine over the hens, refrigerate for 6 to 12 hours.
Preheat oven to 425.
Remove hens from brine, rinse thoroughly and pat dry.
Place in a roasting rack of a roasting pan or on a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. Cut lemon into quarters. Place one quarter into each hen, place the remaining two in the roasting pan beneath the hens.
In a small bowl combine melted butter, salt and pepper.
Brush the hens liberally with the butter mixture.
Roast at 425 for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165.
While the hens are roasting, make the sauce. Using gloves remove the seeds from the habanero, discard seeds and stem, chop remaining pepper.
Add habanero, orange juice, cornstarch and white sugar to a saucepan over high heat, whisk frequently until mixture has thickened. Remove from heat, add beer and vinegar, bring to a boil just until re-thickened, stir in about half (1-2 tsp) of the 1 tbs chili flakes. Taste sauce, add additional red chili flakes for a higher level of heat.
Serve the orange chili sauce in small sauce dishes along side the hens for dipping.

Notes

This recipe makes an abundance of sauce, enough for 4 to 6 servings. If you make more Game Hens, you won't need to double the sauce unless you make 8 or more servings. If you are worried about the heat not being high enough, reserve some of the seeds and add them into the sauce as needed.

Mirin Stout Glazed Roast Chicken with Maple Sweet Potatoes topped with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

26.04.2013 20 Comments

When I first got into food blogging I had this idea that I would just take pictures of my dinner and post the recipe online. Somewhere between installing Google Analytics and starting an LLC, I realized that I was cooking in order to develop content rather than just posting what I was eating.

I guess that’s inevitable when I started to earn an income and see my website as a small business. I also realized that although I often stray from who I am as a cook in order to cultivate blog hits, I love cooking, I love food and I got in this business because of those things. When the recipes you love get ignored and the ones you don’t have strong feelings about go viral, it’s hard not to just continue to post those Pandering to the Masses recipes that go viral, but I know that I am the most happy when I cook the food I want to cook and hope that you love it, too.

I loved the way this came out, even though I know it wont go viral. It’s how I like to eat, and how I like to spend my time in the kitchen, hope you don’t mind too much.

Mirin Stout Glazed Roast Chicken with Maple Sweet Potatoes topped with Caramelized Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

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Ingredients

For the Brine:

2 cups water
3 tbs kosher salt
12 ounces brown ale
2 cups ice
4 chicken leg quarters or 1 whole roasting chicken, cut into quarters

For the Glaze:

1 cup stout
2/3 cup mirin
¼ cup soy sauce
½ tsp chili powder
1 tbs cornstarch
3 tbs honey

For the Sweet Potatoes:

2 large shallots sliced (2/3 cup)
2 tbs butter plus 4 tbs divided
1 tbs oil
3 large sweet potatoes peeled and sliced
2 tbs real maple syrup
2 tbs heavy cream
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ salt
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 tbs balsamic gaze

Instructions

In a pot over medium high heat, add the water and the salt. Stir until salt has dissolved, remove from heat, add the beer and ice. Stir until ice has dissolved and brine is at room temperature or below.
Add the chicken quarters to a large bowl. Pour the brine over the chicken, cover loosely with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 3 hours and up to 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 425F.
Add the stout, mirin, soy, chili powder, cornstarch and honey, whisk to combine. Add sauce pan to high heat, allow to boil until slightly reduced and thickened, about 5 minutes.
Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, place a wire rack over the foil lined baking sheet.
Remove chicken from brine, discard the brine. Rinse the chicken well and pat dry. Place chicken on the wire rack.
Brush liberally with the glaze.
Roast at 425F for 45 to 55 minutes, brush with glaze every 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven when the internal temperature reaches 175F.
While the chicken is cooking make the sweet potatoes. In a saucepan, melt the butter with the oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook over medium-low heat until caramelized, about 20 minutes.
Boil the potatoes in a pot of lightly salted water until fork tender, about 12-15 minutes. Drain, return sweet potatoes to the dry pot. Add 4 tbs butter, cream, maple syrup, salt, and nutmeg, mash with a potato masher until well combined and potatoes are well mashed, transfer to a serving dish. Top with caramelized shallots, chopped pecans and drizzle with balsamic glaze.

Notes

Balsamic glaze can be bought at the store, often by the balsamic vinegar, or you can make it by reducing 1 cup balsamic and 1 tbs white sugar or honey in a saucepan until reduced and thickened.

Soft Batch Beer and Brown Sugar Cookies

23.04.2013 32 Comments

How do you like your cookies? For me, cookies need to be soft and chewy. Did you know there is a bit of a personality test that goes along with cookie preferences? Here it is:

Chewy: You’re generally flexibly and easy going

Crispy: You like to be in control

Soft center: You tend towards the sentimental

Cakey: You tend to be emotionally sensitive

Flat: You don’t like surprises

Puffy: You tend to be chatty

Actually, I completely made that up. Slow news day over here, forcing me to resort to trickery. Was it true for you? My assessments are based solely on the people I know with those cookie preferences, a fairly small sample that will never meet statistical significance.

Just like the theory I formed about the link between cowboys, their beer preferences and their truck choice:

Coors people like Ford

Budweiser people like Chevy

That theory was formed while growing up on a (Ford, Coors and New Holland) farm. These days I can’t really say I know many people in any of those four camps, but I still maintain that theory has validity.

So what car goes with Russian River?

For this recipe I like an American Brown Ale, something that will kick you a bit more hops than the standard English Brown Ale.

Soft Batch Beer & Brown Sugar Cookies

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Ingredients

¾ cups unsalted butter softened (12 tbs)
1 ¼ cups golden brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
½ tsp vanilla
1/3 cup American brown ale
1 ¼ cups All purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 ¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cornstarch
¼ tsp cinnamon

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and brown sugar. Mix on high until very well combined. Add the egg yolk and the vanilla, beat until light and fluff. Add the beer, beat until well combined.
In a separate bowl, add both kinds of flour (bread flour is used to make chewier cookies), baking soda, baking powder, salt, cornstarch and cinnamon.
Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough slightly smaller than a golf ball onto cookie sheets that have been covered with parchment paper.
Place the cookies in the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes (this prevents them from spreading too much during baking).
Preheat oven to 325.
Bake at 325 for 12-14 minutes or until the edges just start to turn golden brown (for a puffier cookie bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes). Immediately pull the parchment paper off the cookie sheet onto the counter and allow the cookies to cool to room temperature.

Brown Ale And Cheddar Grits With Pancetta And Crispy Sage

20.12.2012 19 Comments

I like homebrewers. Mostly because they give me beer, but also because there is this fascination with flavors and a "What Would This Taste Like?!" attitude that is at the core of every food bloggers culinary soul. I feel like they get me. They have an understanding of why I write down crazy ideas, unexplored flavor combinations that may be doomed to fail, just to see if it can be done.

I’m not a homebrewer, its actually a little intimidating to me. Someday, when my life is a little less hectic, I want to take the Mash Tun Plunge. But for now, I’ll setting for drinking the concoctions of others. I did learn recently that the more recent rise in popularity of brown ales has been credited to the massive increase in homebrewing and the popularity of the style with the homebrewer. I’d never though of it, but it seems to be true. Most of the brown ale I’ve had in the past few months has come from someones closet. I do love a great brown ale, to drink with as well as to add to my cheese grits. I guess saving the Brown Ale from extinction is another reason I can love the homebrewer.

Brown Ale And Cheddar Grits With Pancetta And Crispy Sage

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Ingredients

2 ½ cups whole milk
¾ cups brown ale
1 cup regular corn grits not instant
1 cup smoked cheddar
½ cup whole milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
pinch cayenne
3 tbs butter diced
3 oz diced pancetta
5 Sage leaves chopped (about 2 tbs)

Instructions

Add the milk and beer to a large pot, bring to a gently simmer, slowly whisk in the grits. Allow to simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 20 minutes.
Slowly whisk in the cheese, milk, salt, pepper, onion powder and butter, stir until completely combined.
In a separate pan add the pancetta and cook until browned and most of the fat has been rendered, do not burn. Add the sage and cook for about 30 seconds or until crispy. Drain.
Serve grits topped with pancetta and sage.

Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Beer Sauce

06.11.2012 12 Comments

Today is November 6th, Election Day.

As Americans spend the day thinking of little else, wedged firmly between Barack and a hard place, I wanted to give you a little motivation to get through this day.

We will soon find ourselves at the end of this exhausting Election Season, our feelings of separatism from those who disagree with us will fade. We will find Facebook to be a friendlier place, and those Someecards of a political nature will ebb.

Regardless of the outcome, you have a reason to grab your favorite beer. Either in celebration of your guy winning the mad race to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, or as a way to console yourself over the fact that the other guy came out ahead.

Given that you may be too distracted to spend all that much time in the kitchen tonight, this meal only takes about 20 minutes.

And, I’m pretty certain it has bipartisan support.

For this recipes, I like a brown ale, a blonde, a pale or a wheat beer. Be aware that using an IPA will kick up the beer flavor considerably and may be too bitter in the end.

Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Beer Sauce

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Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken thigh fillets
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 tbs butter
1/4 cup onions chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
5 oz wild mushrooms such as Shiitake (not dried)
1/2 cup beer
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup shredded parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

In a pan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Sprinkle chicken thighs on all sides with salt and pepper. Add chicken to the pan and cook on both sides until browned, about 4 minutes per side. Remove chicken from pan.
Add onions and saute until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes.
Add garlic and mushrooms, cook until mushrooms are soft and have darkened, about 5 minutes.
Add the beer, scraping the bottom to deglaze the pan.
Reduce heat to medium, add the cream and stir.
Add half of the cheese, stir until melted. Add the remaining half, stir until combined.
Add the chicken and allow to cook until sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, serve over rice or pasta.

Beer Braised Chicken Sliders With Hoisin Beer Barbecue Sauce

10.05.2012 39 Comments

There’s a good chance that when you think about cooking with beer, a meat recipe comes to mind. Your Dad’s beer marinated ribs? Beer can chicken? Beer braised pork? There’s a good reason for that.

Not just for the spectacular flavors that craft beer can impart on the meat, but because beer, especially high acid beer, acts as a meat tenderizer by breaking down tissue.

For this recipe you are free to run the spectrum of beer styles. Most recipes I write will be accompanied by stern warning about using any beer other than the type called for, this isn’t one of those recipes. That IPA I keep shaming you into avoiding? You can even give that a try. My gut instinct with a recipe like this was to use a light, high acid beer with herb notes (basil, sage, oregano) but I opted for a porter to test my "Any Beer Goes" theory.

The porter effect, as I am now calling it, gave a "meatier" quality to the chicken. Which turned out wonderfully, and gave this a bit of a pork taste.

The beer I used for this recipe was the Payback Porter by Speakeasy. It’s a fantastic choice for a porter because the notes are similar to those I see in barbecue sauces and rubs: smoke, coffee, cocoa, and molasses.

Next time I’ll use a beer with a high acid content for a little contrast, but as far as the beer that you pick, experiment and let me know how it goes.

Beer Braised Chicken Sliders With Hoisin Beer Barbecue Sauce

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Ingredients

For the Barbecue Sacue:
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves fresh garlic minced
1 cup hoisin sauce
1 tsp chili powder
¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
1 cup beer
For The Braised Chicken:
2 tbs canola oil
3 chicken breasts boneless and skinless
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups beer
1/2 cup chicken broth
15 mini Hawaiian bread rolls
Yield: 15 sliders

Instructions

Heat 2 tbs canola oil in large pot or Dutch oven. Sprinkle the chicken with salt on all sides. Place in the pot and cook on each side until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Cover with 1 1/2 cups of beer and 1/2 cup chicken broth, cover and cook for 15 – 20 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked.
While chicken is cooking, prepare barbeque sauce by warming olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds; add 1 cup beer, hoisin sauce, chili powder and soy sauce. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until thickened and reduced, remove from heat.
When chicken is cooked, remove from pot and allow to cool. Using two forks, shred chicken to as thin slices as possible, then add to hoisin barbeque sauce pan, tossing well to coat.
Split rolls in half across the middle to resemble small sandwich buns, fill with chicken.

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Chocolate Pretzel Beer Toffee

01.05.2012 23 Comments

The best part about visiting a brewery is the opportunity to sample those special release beers that never make it into bottles. Those brews that are only made in small batches, put into casks that sometimes make it to local pubs or events but will never make it into bottles in your local distributors shelves. Like those songs your favorite band will never record but will occasionally play live if you happen to catch a show on the right night, these are beers that make you feel special for having been granted the experience. In a world where it seems everything is accessible with the right google word search, these near mythical concoctions are only available to those who happen to be in the right place at the right time.

One of my favorites is the Habanero Sculpin from Ballast point. Because of the process they use, the heat is fresh and bright. An uncooked scorch that isn’t shy. Habaneros are an extremely unpredictable ingredient, with heat levels that vary widely from pepper to pepper, making every cask of Habanero Sculpin different from the last. If you ever make it down to San Diego, stop in for a pint and count yourself among the special few.

Since I wasn’t able to get my hands on any Habanero Sculpin, I found myself fixated on this Ballast Point Calico Amber Ale. And the result was a toffee that I couldn’t stop eating. So addictive, and it only takes about 20 minutes to make. I already have plans to make and hand this out as Christmas gifts, if I can wait that long to make it again.

Chocolate Pretzel Amber Ale Toffee

Chocolate Pretzel Beer Toffee

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Ingredients

Toffee:

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Butter 2 sticks
1/2 Cup Amber Ale

Topping:

2 Cups Pretzels Smashed
2 Cups Dark Chocolate Chips 60% caco content
1/4 Cup Amber Ale or Chocolate Stout

Instructions

In a large pot over high heat add the sugar, butter and 1/2 cup amber ale, it will triple in volume during the cooking process so make sure to use a large pot. Stir until the mixture starts to boil. Allow to boil untouched until the mixture starts to darken and thicken at about 230 degrees. Stir continuously until it turns a very dark amber and hits 290 degrees. This process will take between 15 and 20 minutes from start to finish. pour onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or a Silpat. Allow to cool.
Add the chocolate to a large bowl. Heat the beer until hot but not boiling. You can heat it on a pot on the stove or microwave it in a microwave safe bowl. If you use the microwave, know that the beer will foam up once it reaches it's boiling point. Pour the hot beer over the chocolate chips and stir until well combined and melted.
Pour the chocolate over the toffee and smooth out in an even layer. Sprinkle the crushed pretzels over the chocolate and chill until the chocolate has set. Cut into pieces.

Notes

If you use a chocolate with less than 60% cocoa content, it will have higher levels of milk solids, because of this it will have a more difficult time hardening once the beer is added. Try to fine 60% and chill it to set.

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Chocolate Beer Cream Puffs

27.04.2012 5 Comments

I want you to start thinking of beer as an extract. A complex amalgamation of flavors that functions in a recipe as an extract. If you were baking a fabulous caramel cake recipe, and the recipe calls for vanilla extract and all you had was mint would you just go ahead and use that? I wouldn’t, but then again a traumatic trip to Morocco has implanted a serious mint aversion in me. Think of beer the same way. If a recipe calls for a stout, an IPA isn’t going to work, you’re implanting an entirely different database of flavors. Stick with a stout or something similar, a porter maybe? If the recipe calls for a pilsner don’t use a porter, but you can always use a similarly flavored blonde ale.

This recipe is the best "first timers" recipe when cooking with beer. It takes about 15 minutes, it can be thrown together at the last minute and its simple. This is what you can go to if you have a beer themed party, easy, elegant and beautiful beer flavors that are subtle enough to be loved even by those "non beer people" in your life. You might even convert a few.

I use Flying Dog Road Dog Porter. With rock and roll good looks, a unbreakable tie to the incomprehensibly talented Hunter Thompson, and profanity right on the label, this is a beer that needs to be acknowledged. Its both full of flavor and easy to drink, this is a beer to seek out.

Chocolate Beer Cream Puffs

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

1 cup heavy cream

3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 to 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tbs porter

1 cup dark chocolate chunks

1/2 cup porter beer

2 tbs heavy cream

preheat oven to 400.

Place the puff pastry on a floured surface and roll in each direction, making it wider and longer. Using a 2.5 inch circle biscuit cutter, cut out 20-25 circles and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

Bake at 400 until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add 1 cup of heavy cream, 3 tbs cocoa powder, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, and 2 tbs porter. Beat on high until soft peaks form. Taste, add addition sugar if desired, beating to combine, put in a piping bag.

Split the puff pastry circles in half to resemble buns and pipe the whipped cream into the center, replacing the top.

In a microwave safe bowl, add 2 tbs heavy cream and 1/2 cup porter. In a separate bowl, add the chocolate chips. Microwave the cream/porter mixture until hot and steamy. Pour over the chocolate and stir until melted. You’ll reach a point where the ganache looks like chunky hot chocolate, it’s fine, just keep stirring until well combined.

Spoon the ganache over the cream puffs.

Drink the rest of the porter and enjoy your handy work.

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Disclaimer: These are not traditional cream puffs, or profiterole as they are called in Greece and Italy, but the name "cream puff" seemed to describe them to the closest approximation of what they actually are. Feel free to re-name them Puff Pastry Whipped Cream Bites if this bastardized version of a traditional dessert bothers you. I don’t mind at all.

Beer Brined Roast Chicken

25.04.2012 6 Comments

Why do I cook with beer? What is it about this fantastic beverage that drives me to create recipe after recipe with beer as a star ingredients? Flavor. Beautiful and complex flavors that take months, even years to perfect by brewers. Aside from that, beer is a natural meat tenderizer, making it the perfect choice for a brining liquid and explaining that Beer Can Chicken recipe you keep seeing at tailgate parties. Due in no small part to the beer in the brine, it’s flavors and tendering properties, this recipe gives you a juicy bird, crispy skin and the perfect level of beer taste. That’s why I can’t stop cooking with beer, it’s just so perfect.

For this recipe I used Alaskan Brewing Company White Ale due to the flavors of citrus, coriander, and a slight sweetness, this beer is a fantastic choice. Choose a beer with similar flavors and low hops, please no IPA’s.

Beer Brined Roast Chicken

5 lb whole roasting chicken

4 cups water

3, 12 oz Alaskan White (or similar white ale with citrus notes, and low hops)

1 tsp whole cloves

1 tbs whole black peppercorns

1/2 cup kosher or sea salt

1/2 red onion

1 whole lemon

1 tsp black pepper

In a pot over medium heat, combine the water, beer, cloves, peppercorn and salt. Cook until the salt has dissolved, and the liquid starts steaming, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool, adding a raw chicken to hot brine will start to cook it prematurely.

Rinse the raw chicken, removing anything that is in the cavity. Place in a large stock pot, bucket or dutch oven that is just taller than the top of the chicken. Pour the cooled brine over the chicken until submerged. Place in the fridge and allow to soak for 12 hours. If the chicken isn’t fully submerge, turn every 4-6 hours to re-distribute the brine.

After 12 hours, remove from brine and rinse thoroughly, pat dry. Place in a roasting rack in a roasting pan and allow to sit, uncovered in the refrigerator until the skin has dried, about 12 to 24 hours. This final step will allow the skin to become crispy during cooking, while the meat is juicy.

Preheat oven to 450.

Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the chicken, place the spent lemons inside the chicken cavity along with 1/2 an onion. Sprinkle the outside of the chicken with pepper.

Roast for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 160 degrees, or the breast meat is at 180 degrees. If the chicken starts to brown too quickly, tent with aluminum foil.

Beer and Brown Sugar Pancakes

17.04.2012 24 Comments

I’m in the process of developing a beer scale for the recipes I write. A scale that lets you know how much beer flavor comes through upon the final result. From the low end being, "Mild Hints of Beer Flavors" to the high end of "Strong Bold Forward Beer Taste."

Some people want to be smacked in the mouth with the flavor of beer, while others want the flavors to fly under the radar, yielding a treat they serve to unwitting non-beer lovers. This pancake recipe falls right in the middle. Beer that is tastable, but mild.

The difficulty with a scale such as this is that the type of beer you use has a direct result on the "beery-ness" of your final product. While the most important aspect of choosing a beer for your recipes is matching flavor profiles between your beer and the recipe, the second aspect is finding the right level to suit your desired level of beer taste.

There are a few tricks you can use to adjust the levels of beer taste to suit your needs. If you want to increase the amount of beer you taste, simply adding more beer may not work due to the fact that you will be increasing the amount of liquid in the recipe by doing so. If the recipe calls for "1 cup of beer" then try putting two cups of beer in a pot on the stove and cooking until it has reduced to 1 cup. This will remove water from the beer and intensify the beer flavors. One thing to keep in mind is that beer is often used as a leavening agent and cooking your beer prior to adding it to a recipe can remove those effects.

If you want to decrease the beer taste, substitute some of the beer for a non-beer liquid such as broth, water or juice, depending on the recipe. Or, if the beer is being used as a leavening agent (as in this pancake recipe) try to substitute with carbonated soda water.

If you want to increase the flavor of beer, look for beers that have a strong "malt forward" or "hop forward" taste notes, but beware of too hoppy beers (Such as IPA’s) because when reduced, they are very bitter.

Cooking and baking with craft beer is a journey, there will be a certain level of experimentation, success and failures that you should expect when trying forage ahead in a field that is growing with huge popularity, but with very few who have gone before us. In a lot of ways, this is uncharted water. We should learn from every batch, making note of what works and what doesn’t. Thanks for joining along the road.

For this recipe, I choose Mission Amber Ale because it has notes of caramel and malt, but with a balanced hop flavor. If you want to make this recipe and can’t find Mission Amber Ale, look for an amber with notes of caramel, maple, brown sugar, cloves, or cinnamon with low or balance hop notes.

Beer and Brown Sugar Pancakes

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg plus 1 additional yolk

2 tbs canola oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup Amber Ale Beer

(makes 10-12)

In a bowl add the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder, whisk to combine.

In a small bowl, add the egg, the additional yolk, vanilla and the oil whisk until well combined.

Make a well in the dry ingredients, add the egg mixture and beer to the center and whisk to combine.

Heat a skillet or griddle until hot. Spray with butter flavored cooking spray or brush with melted butter. Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the hot griddle. Once bubbles appear in the middle of the pancakes and the edges start to look dry, flip the pancakes and cook on the other side until cooked through, about 5 minutes total (2.5 minutes per side).

*For this recipe, plain Grade A Syrup just didn’t seem to be enough for me. I put 3/4 cup of syrup and 1/2 cup of the Amber Ale in a pot on the stove over high heat for about 10 minutes and it thickened and reduced to a caramely syrup that was perfect.

Chocolate Beer Cheesecake With A Pretzel Crust

10.04.2012 55 Comments

Choosing a beer for a recipe isn’t as arbitrary as it may appear. It also isn’t difficult, but it does require thought and planning. Substituting your favorite beer in a recipe isn’t always a good idea, and may result in an end product that is nowhere near the intentions of the recipes author.

Where do you start? The recipe or the beer?

A fair question, and it’s a toss up. Which ever way you begin, the recipe or the beer, make sure to be mindful of the flavors. Dark beers go well with "dark" recipes. If that beer you want to cook with is a stout, look for a recipe that calls for "dark" ingredients: chocolate, beef, bacon, etc. If the beer you love is a Pilsner, look for a recipe with "light" ingredients, lemon, chicken, fish, etc. There is some room to move around with this rule, but finding complimentary flavors is the key to success when cooking with beer.

Be careful with IPA’s. It’s incredibly difficult to cook with high hop beers due to the fact that the hops reduce to a very bitter product. If you are in love with an IPA, or another high hop beer, strong starches and sugar mellow hops a bit. Try a pumpkin muffin, or a sweet potato pie. Or look for recipes where the beer won’t be reduced, like marinades, beermixology cocktails, or dips.

If the recipe is where you want to start, make note of the flavors and try to find a beer that mimics those. If you want to bake a chocolate dessert, for example, look for a beer with chocolate notes, or coffee, or malt. Look at the list of flavor notes that the beer has and try to imagine those in your dish. Most large chain retailers of craft beer (like BevMo or Total Wine) have cards near the beers that explain the flavors in that beer and give you a fairly accurate flavor profile. If you are making a chicken soup, for instance, you might look for a beer with lemon or basil notes, not a beer with coffee and caramel notes.

Now that you have had your crash course in beer recipe development, please, go cook your beer loving hearts out. And don’t forget to share.

For this recipe, I choose Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot. I had four craft beers, mostly stouts, that were in the running for this recipe, and all would have made great choices. In the end, it came down to a gut feeling. Lagunitas WTF won out, although loosly categories as a "brown? ale" and more hops that I would generally recommend for this recipe, the flavors of chocolate and malt were an incredible fit for this recipe. This is a beer to keep an eye out for, it’s smooth and bold and fantastic. A fabulous drinking and cooking beer.

A chocolate stout makes an excellent choice for this recipe as well. I’ve made it with both and although I love the WTF, a chocolate stout seems to give more consistent results as far as a general beer style.

If you can’t get your grubby little hands on some WTF, a stout with notes of chocolate would make a great substitution.

Chocolate Beer Cheesecake With A Pretzel Crust

Chocolate Beer Cheesecake With A Pretzel Crust

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Crust:

4 standard sized graham crackers
1 cup pretzel rods
2 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs melted butter unsalted

For the filling:

7 oz dark chocolate 60%
1 cup Chocolate Stout or Laguanitas WTF
3, 8 oz packages of cream cheese softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tbs flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 salt
1 tbs espresso powder

For the Sour Cream Topping:

1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbs Lagunitas WTF

Instructions

Place one oven rack in the middle position, with one rack below. Preheat oven to 325.
In a food processor add the graham crackers, brown sugar and the pretzels and process until it's the consistency of crumbs. Turn the food processor on, remove the stopper from the lid and slowly add the butter and process until it resembles wet sand.
Coat the inside of a 9 inch spring form pan with butter. Pour the crust into the spring form pan. Using the bottom of a heavy, flat bottom glass, press the crust very well into the bottom of the pan until well compacted.
In a pot over medium high heat, add the beer and the chocolate, stir until melted and remove from heat. Allow to cool.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the cream cheese and the sugar and mix until smooth. One at a time, add the eggs, scraping the bottom of the bowl between additions. Pour the cooled chocolate into the mixer and beat until well combined. Lift the head of the mixer and sprinkle the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder and salt over the batter, stir on low speed until just combined.
Pour the batter into the pan over the crust.
Place the pan in the oven in the middle position. Place a baking dish on the rack below the cheesecake, fill with water.
If you have experience with a water bath, feel free to use that technique instead of the water pan below the cheesecake.
Bake the cheesecake until the center just slightly jiggles, but doesn't slosh, when you shake the rack, about 60-75 minutes. This isn't a situation where a tooth pick inserted in the middle should come out clean, you just need the center to set and it will continue to set as it cools. Remove from oven.
For the sour cream topping: add the ingredients to a bowl and whisk until well combined. Top the cheesecake with the sour cream topping and return to the oven for 8 minutes. Remove cheesecake and chill in the pan until ready to serve, at least 3 hours.

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Irish Beer Brownies With Mint Sour Cream Frosting

13.03.2012 8 Comments

This week will be full of recipes for Guinness. Although I will always favor local craft beer, I do harbor a soft spot for Ireland and their World Famous Brewery. Just out of college I scraped together enough money to put myself on a flight from LAX to Dublin. I landed in Ireland on a drizzly morning, jet lagged and confused. I had no idea where to go, or how to get there. Before I really knew what was happening, I was being dragged though the streets of Dublin by a charming Irishman, clad in a newsboy cap and green wool sweater. Through his thick accent I was able to discern that he was taking me to a youth hostel at the foot of the Guinness brewery. Once we arrived at our destination, he said goodbye with a smile and a cheerful wave and he was on his way, leaving me to realized that this kind stranger had walked at least a mile in the wrong direction just to make sure I found a bed for the evening.

Although most of you will be breaking out the famous Irish Stout this weekend, I will be sticking with beer brewed a little closer to home. Rogue Brewery makes several beers that would be perfect for this recipe, including the Chocolate Stout, the Double Chocolate Stout, or even the Hazelnut Brown Nectar, I choose to go with the Mocha Porter although the idea of the Irish Lager almost drew me in.

Whatever you decide to consume on St. Patrick’s day, just remember:

Good beer does not need green food dye.

Drink well.

Irish Beer Brownies With Mint Sour Cream Frosting

For the brownies:

12 ounces dark beer, such as Rouge Mocha Porter

1 stick unsalted butter

10 ounces dark chocolate

3 whole eggs plus 2 additional egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

For the Mint Sour Cream Frosting:

2 sticks of butter, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp mint extract

In a sauce pan over medium high heat, cook the beer until reduced to about 3/4 of a cup, about 10 minutes.

Add the butter, stir until melted. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, stirring until melted, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the eggs, additional whites and sugar. Beat on high until very light and frothy, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. While the mixer is still on high, slowly add the chocolate mixture in a slow stream. Once about half the chocolate mixture has been added to the egg mixture, dump the remaining chocolate into the stand mixer allowing to mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and stir on low until just combined, don’t over mix once the flour has been added or your brownies will be tough.

Generously spray a 9×12 inch glass baking dish with butter flavored cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes or until the surface of the brownies begin to look dry and cracked and a tester inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.

Make the frosting:

Softened butter is important to this process. If you use cold butter your frosting will have the consistency of ground beef, but melted butter will give you frosting that is too soft.

Add the softened butter and the sour cream to a stand mixer and beat until well combined. Add the sugar and beat on low until the sugar is mostly mixed in. Add the mint and beat on high until frosting is light and fluff.

Allow the brownies to cool before frosting.

Beer Brined Turkey

Beer Brined Turkey will give you the juiciest, tastiest bird you’ve ever had! This recipe also tells you how to also get a crispy skin. You’ll never make it another way again!