Chicken

Chili Beer Chicken Tacos with Pineapple Salsa + Best Summer Beer Tub Beers

20.07.2016 5 Comments

20 minute dinner: Chili Beer Chicken Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Stocking a beer tub for a summer party is as important as planning the food. Beer sets a tone and fuels conversation. It’s as much about offering your friends their favorites as it is about introducing them to new ones.

When planning the brew menu keep in mind the types of drinkers you’ve invited as well as how far you want to push their palates. Offer your guests safe choices, slight pushes in new directions, and a few more extravagant options for the fearless few who want to try something new.

Keep in mind that while you may be drawn to the bold punch of a triple IPA, don’t forget that long summer parties pair better with lower alcohol session ales to keep your guests (or yourself) from becoming a cautionary tale or a viral YouTube video. Keep most of your offerings below 6% ABV to help your guests stay in control.

Wheat beer: This is an important addition to your beer tub. The low hop profile is perfect for the "craft beer is too bitter" guy. Most wheat beer is very low on the bitterness scale and a common gateway for those new to craft beer. Wheat beer is also insanely drinkable and pairs easily with a wide array of foods.

Pilsners: Pilsners are having a moment in the craft beer scene right now. Pilsners are about balance, no one ingredient takes center stage. They are hoppy but aren’t the hop bombing IPA’s or the malt saturated Belgians on the other end of the spectrum. Pilsners are a crisp, drinkable introduction to hops with nice carbonation for summer drinking and burger eating. They are also the perfect way to show Macro Beer Guy that he might actually love a crisp refreshing beer that has a kick of flavor to it.

Session IPA’s. Given that you’ll be the host for a mass beer consumption, you should be mindful of ABV. While many-a guest might scoff at the 4% brew, and feel a manly surge of testosterone when he cracks open a 12 % beast, you know he needs to get home intact. Session beer (beer that has less than 5% ABV) has so much flavor no one will miss the alcohol, or the obnoxious behavior as a result.

Classic Pale Ales. These are the standards, the beers that got us into craft beer. The ones that make us nostalgic and are easy to share. It’s hard to fill a tub without a few of these in the mix.

Sour & Wild Ales. Love ’em or hate ’em, sours are part of the conversation and a rapidly growing style in today’s craft beer market. Grab a few for your guests, you’ll never know who is going to love them, maybe even you.

Chili Beer Chicken Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Print Recipe

Total Time 20

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup 36g chopped white onion
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 teaspoon 6g salt
2 teaspoons 6g chili powder
1 teaspoon 3g garlic powder
1 teaspoon 3g onion powder
½ teaspoon 3g cumin
½ teaspoon 1g smoked paprika
¼ teaspoon 0.5g cayenne powder
12 ounces wheat beer or summer ale (not too hoppy)
1 cup chopped pineapple
¼ cup chopped red onion
1 jalapeno chopped
¼ cup chopped cilantro
pinch salt
½ tsp red chili sauce
juice from ½ lime
12 Good quality corn tortillas

Instructions

Add the olive oil to a pan over medium high heat. Cook the onions until starting to brown.
Sprinkle the chicken breast on all sides with salt. Add to the pan, cook on both sides until seared. Sprinkle chicken chili powder, onion powder, cumin, and cayenne. Add the beer, bring to a simmer, reduce heat to maintain a simmer (do not boil). Cover with a lid, allow to simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 8 minutes.
Remove chicken from the pan, shred using two forks. Return the chicken to the pan, allow to simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from pan, add to a serving platter.
In a serving bowl add the pineapple, jalapenos, cilantro, salt, chili sauce and lime juice, stir to combine.
Serve the chicken in the tortillas, topped with the salsa.

Porter Pulled Duck Burger with Beer Pickled Onions + A Rebrew in Copenhagen

17.06.2016 5 Comments

Porter Pulled Duck Burger with Beer Pickled Onions

“If you’re expecting a new craft beer, with a fist of strong hoppy notes, you would be disappointed,” says Erik Lund, the head brewer from Carlsberg, who shifts his tall, lanky frame on a couch across from me. We’re in a back room of a building in Denmark that could be older than the City I live in, discussing the beer he spent two years developing. A brewing project that, in actuality, started before any of us were born.

133-years-ago Carlsberg brewed a batch of beer, bottled it and distributed it to the people of Denmark.131-years later three of those bottles were discovered in the belly of the ever-expanding Carlsberg campus just outside Copenhagen. Dusty and forgotten, they still held the key to what beer tasted like more than a century ago.

One of those bottles was carefully opened in the Carlsberg lab in an attempt to see if it still contained viable brewers yeast. It begs pausing to give a moment of realization for how damn magical yeast is.

133-years-later, it’s still there, waiting to continue its work for the brewers but only if they know how to tease and tame the beast. With that yeast, a century-old record for grain purchases, floor malting procedures of the day, barley grown to mimic that which was available at the time, and a visit to a far away cooperage, the brewers attempted to recreate the beer as it was the day it went into the bottle, 133-years-ago.

A beer that hoped to give us a small window into what beer tasted like in 1883, when Carlsberg was making groundbreaking strides in the world of beer and the business of yeast wrangling. We know a lot of what happened at the dawn of commercial beer, we know how beer was sold, when it was first bottled, who was brewing and where. We can write books on the first pilsner, or how lager yeast was discovered, but—what did it TASTE like?

The rumor in the press meeting —the one that nearly no one actually swallowed whole —was that neither Erik, or any of the other Carlsberg staff, had sampled this beer until they invited beer press from across the globe to witness the inaugural cask tapping.

I stand in a cluster of beer writers, brewers, and well-respected authors to await my turn at sampling the past. “Is it good?” isn’t the point. It was a moment in beer history – an immensely important building block that allowed us to be where we are in craft beer.

Of course, it won’t be the most innovative beer you’ve ever had because at the time the innovation wasn’t the taste. The innovation was the fact that brewers figured out how to purify yeast to prevent it from making people sick. The innovation was figuring out to malt grain without growing mold, and how to brew with JUST the yeast you intend.

The innovation was brewing for mass distribution. Those strides allowed us to climb the beer hierarchy of needs to indulge in the innovation of flavors. So the taste wasn’t really as important as what beer did 1000-years-ago, 500-years-ago and 133-years-ago, as a building block for what we can do now.

Erik’s apology for the beer is followed by a reminder that the beer did what it was supposed to do—allow us a taste of 1883. This “taste” was merely a step on the evolutionary ladder of beer, and was a building block that allowed us to throw fists full of hops into our brew kettles. Allowed us the brain space to figure out how to work blood oranges into a gose, and how to make a beer that tastes like marshmallows and campfire. We don’t even have to like it, but we should respect it. For what it did for us.

My first night in Copenhagen I battled jet lag and rush hour to make it over to a market for this. I’ve recreated the recipe for you, not in the labor-intensive process that Carlsberg used to recreate their beer, but as an homage to what they did.

The Pulled Duck Burger was fantastic and will always remind me of that first night in Denmark.

Porter Pulled Duck Burger with Beer Pickled Onions

Print Recipe

Servings 4 burgers

Ingredients

For the red onions:

12 oz of IPA beer
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 red onion thinly sliced

For the Sandwiches:

2 lbs duck breast
1 ½ tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon paprika
1 cup porter or stout beer
4 buns toasted
spring greens

Instructions

In a pot over medium high heat add the beer, vinegar, sugar, salt and peppercorns. Bring to a simmer, stirring just until the sugar and salt dissolve, remove from heat.
Add the onions to a jar or storage container. Pour brine over the onions. Allow to sit at room temperate until cooled, cover and refrigerate until chilled. Can be made several days in advance.
Preheat oven to 325.
Sprinkle the duck on all sides with salt. Allow to sit at room temperate for about 15 minutes.
Combine the onion powder, garlic powder, brown sugar and paprika in a small bowl, set aside.
Place duck in a Dutch oven off heat, skin side down (this will help render more fat than adding the duck to a hot pan.)
Cook until the skin is browned and most of the fat is rendered. Sprinkle with spice mixture turn over to sear on the other side.
Pour out most of the fat that has collected in the pan, reserve for an alternate use.
Pour the beer into the pot, cover and bake for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until meat easily flakes with a fork.
Remove the duck, shred with two forks, remove the skin. Return the meat to the braising liquid, allow to sit for ten minutes in the liquid (to make ahead, store the meat in the braising liquid in an air tight container in the fridge. Will keep for four days. Warm before serving).
Fill the buns with meat, top with pickled onions and greens.

Porter Pulled Duck Burger with Beer Pickled Onions 1

Chicken in a Creamy Parmesan Bacon Beer Sauce

14.06.2016 8 Comments

One Pot, Thirty Minutes Chicken in a Creamy Bacon Beer Sauce

One pot, thirty minutes: Chicken in a Creamy Parmesan Bacon Beer Sauce

"It’s because you’re entitled!"

I heard the agent at customs yell through the window. She spits her words at an English woman in front of me, waking up the weary crowd in line to enter Stockholm. I was running on the fumes of two hours of sleep (because of this), and the outburst shook the grip exhaustion had on my brain.

"You have an expired visa, an expired passport, and a warrant! I’m not letting you into the country!"

Seemed startlingly angry for such a passive country. The woman fought back, her words getting lost in the commotion of the airport. Two minutes later guards came to escort her to wherever it is that you take an entitled English woman without proper documentation.

There was, I guess, a relief. That she wasn’t American, that her brash self-importance didn’t speak for me. Relief that it was my turn. And I defaulted, as I do, to an overly nice and accommodating tone as a way to apologize for the previous interaction the agent was asked to endure. I’m sorry, I won’t give you any trouble, all my paperwork is in order, I want my smile to speak at her.

I move on, through the airport, past my short layover, trudging through the waist-high mud of exhaustion and jet lag. Three hours down, 15 more to go before I’m home. And even longer before I can cook again. It’s really the only thing I miss when I travel. I miss cooking. I miss my kitchen. I miss making food and losing myself in the process of it all. Before I get back to the kitchen I’ll need to endure another day of travel, and another customs line. Possibly smile-apologizing for an actual American to another Customs agent.

When I get home, I’ll make chicken the way I do when I want it to taste like comfort, in a cast iron pan with a creamy sauce.

Chicken in a Creamy Parmesan Bacon Beer Sauce

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs
1 teaspoon 6g salt
1 teaspoon 3g pepper
3 strips of bacon chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon 28g flour
½ cup 4oz pale ale
¾ cup 180mL heavy cream
½ cup 53g shaved parmesan
6-8 large basil leaves ribboned

Instructions

Sprinkle the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper. Place skin side down in a cold cast iron skillet. Place over medium high heat until the skin has browned, turn over and cook until chicken is cooked through. Remove from skillet.
Add the bacon to skillet, cooking until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Pour out most of the fat in the pan, leaving about 1 tablespoon still in it.
Stir in the garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds, sprinkle with flour stirring until the flour has been cooked, about 1 minute. Pour in the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan. Add the cream and reduce heat to medium.
A hand full at a time stir in the cheese until well combined.
Add the chicken back into the pan, cooking until chicken is warmed.
Sprinkle with crispy bacon and basil. Serve immediately.

Mushroom Stuffed Hoisin Stout Glazed Chicken Thighs

31.05.2016 2 Comments

Mushroom Stuffed Hoisin Stout Glazed Chicken Thighs

It can be suffocating, really.

This urge that has had a hold of me for so many years to please the people. A strangling grip on my throat that kept any words of disappointment from slipping out. Why is this? Why is someone else happiness (especially strangers) prioritized so far above my own? And how do we pair the idea of standing up for ourselves with the idea that we are selfish?

I wondered this because it seems to be slipping away from me like the shedding of dead skin. Thank God. I’m still overly accommodating, I still can’t put my needs above others, but I’m more able to speak the words that I know will disappoint someone else.

Here’s my case in point. Food related, of course. I was recently at a Portland restaurant with a gorgeous companion enjoying what had been touted as the best steak in Oregon. The price was easily twice what I’d ever paid in the past. Which, I assumed was worth the cost. The dry-aged hunk of meat set before me with a huge smile from the server, she was almost gleeful that I’d ordered it.

And it was…fine. Definitely overcooked, the medium-rare that I wanted was closer to medium-well and it tasted under seasoned. When she came back to ask how my meal was and bask in the glow of my praise for the Best Steak Ever, I had a small urge to give her what she was looking for. This is my thing. I want to make people happy. And since I couldn’t make her a pizza and some cookies, I had the urge to just tell her what she wanted to hear.

"It was ok," I said instead.

Her face fell as if she’d cooked it herself. "……oh. I’ve never heard that."

"It was ok. It wasn’t bad, it was just a bit overcooked and definitely under seasoned. But I have a high bar, I eat a lot of really good steaks." She stood for a second, frozen. She wasn’t sure how to respond.

I resisted the urge to make it better, cover it up. I just made myself sit in that moment, letting her be disappointed. I wanted to tell her how much I liked the other dishes, or compliment her shoes, or tell her that the beer was great. But I didn’t.

And I survived. And so did she.

Maybe it’s a small step. But us people pleasers have to start somewhere. And just sitting in the moment of disappointing someone and learning that we will all survive is a good place to begin.

And then I consoled myself with doughnuts. So maybe I still have some more work to do.

Mushroom Stuffed Hoisin Stout Glazed Chicken Thighs

Print Recipe

Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

1 tablespoon 12g olive oil
½ cup 80g chopped sweet white onion
3 cloves garlic minced
8 wt oz crimini mushrooms chopped (3 ½ cups)
1 teaspoon 3g salt
1 tsp 3g black pepper
1 tablespoon 8g flour
½ cup stout beer plus 1 tablespoons, divided
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
¼ cup 78g hoisin sauce

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the onions, cooking until starting to brown. Stir in the garlic, mushrooms, salt and pepper.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are dark and softened, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with flour, stirring for about 30 seconds.
Add ½ cup beer, cooking until the beer is gone, about 15 minutes.
Lay the chicken thighs on a flat surface. Trim away any excess fat. Cover with plastic wrap, pound to an even thickness with a meat mallet, rolling pin or heavy skillet.
Add one to two tablespoons of filling to the center of the chicken thighs, roll into a log.
Gently transfer chicken to a baking dish, seam side down.
In a small bowl stir together the hoisin sauce and remaining tablespoon beer.
Brush the chicken with sauce, bake for 15 minutes, re-brush with sauce and continue to bake until chicken is cooked through, about 10 additional minutes.

Jalapeno Tortilla Chip Crusted Beer Brined Fried Chicken

19.05.2016 3 Comments

Jalapeno Tortilla Chip Crusted Beer Brined Fried Chicken

Chips, salsa and a beer have always been my version of comfort food. Food that I’d go-to on a regular basis as the perfect version of a grown-up snack that often had a way of turning into a meal of sorts. Something happened along the way. What started out as a beer and chips that sort of taste like every other beer and chips began to morph. Beer became craft beer. My beverage of choice went from one-note, to a huge spectrum of flavors and ingredients, a rabbit hole I still haven’t found an end to. Chips, and to be honest most foods, took a similar course. I wasn’t as excited by just “chips” anymore. I started to seek out craft chips along with the other craft foods that became a source of food-nerd excitement to me. What I ate mattered to me as much as what I drank, ingredients, flavors and the companies I was supporting with my dollars.

Jalapeno Chip Crusted Beer Brined Fried Chicken5

Companies like Food Should Taste Good fall in line with this. Non-GMO, real ingredients with huge flavors just sort of spoke to me the way craft beer hits a cord. It’s the food I’ve always loved, just taken up a notch. It’s easy to see how well good food goes with good beer. Like how the nice crunch and slight heat of the Jalapeno Tortilla Chips is perfectly balanced with the bold hop flavor of a citrusy IPA. It turns “beer and chips” into something that matters. Something you want to repeat and share.

And isn’t sharing beer and food the reason we’re here in the first place?

Jalapeno Chip Crusted Beer Brined Fried Chicken8

Jalapeno Tortilla Chip Crusted Beer Brined Fried Chicken

Pairs well with a citrusy IPA

Print Recipe

Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

3 lbs chicken legs
1 tablespoons kosher salt
1 ½ cups buttermilk
12 ounces pale ale
2 tsp red chili sauce
2 cups flour
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbs brown sugar
1 bag 5.5 w oz FSTG Food Should Taste Good Jalapeno Tortilla Chips
oil for frying canola, peanut or safflower

Instructions

Add the chicken in a single tight layer to a baking pan. Sprinkle with salt.
In a small bowl whisk together the buttermilk, beer and chili sauce, pour evenly over the chicken, cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.
In a large sized bowl stir together the flour, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and brown sugar.
Add the chips to a food processor, process until just crumbs remain, stir into the flour mixture.
One at a time remove the chicken legs, dredge in the flour mixture then gently re-dip in the buttermilk/beer marinade and then dredge in the flour mixture again, set on a baking sheet (double-dipping will give you a thick, crispy crust).
Allow the coated chicken to sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes.
Add the oil to a large pot until about 6 inches deep, heat to 350 degrees using a deep fry thermometer clipped to the pan, adjust heat to maintain that temperature.
Working in batches fry the chicken until golden brown and cooked through, about 12 minutes each.

Notes

Note: to keep chicken warm between batches preheat the oven to the lowest temperate available (about 175F). Add the fried chicken to a wire rack set over a baking sheet inside the oven. Once the chicken is finished, add to the baking sheet until all chicken is fried. Serve once all the chicken is cooked.

This post was sponsored by Food Should Taste Good. Partnerships with The Beeroness and outside companies are rare and only occur when the company’s ideas, quality, and standards meet mine.

All ideas and opinions are my own.

Grilled Beer and Brown Sugar Wings

29.03.2016 9 Comments

Grilled Beer and Brown Sugar Wings

Food people mark the seasons in a different way.

Sure, plant people mark it by what to plant when, and what to prune, what to seed. Fashion people pin the crap out of new wardrobes. The acting crowd doesn’t have weather seasons, they have "pilot season," "award season," "I-hope-my-show-doesn’t-get-canceled season." We all have our things.

Beer and food follow similar patterns. For beer people, we have: "session ale season," "wet hop beer season", "barrel aged beer season," and "fruit beer season."

Food seasons, although weather dependent in most ways, hinge on what we can cook. Sure, you can grill in 10-degree weather, knee deep in snow, but the first time you can do it in flip-flops and a tank top is moment-marker in the year. The first tomatoes of the year that’s grown in the ground remind you of how incredible they really taste when not grown in a greenhouse in New Jersey. The blood oranges leave the store just the peaches start to peek their heads out. It’s thrilling.

Maybe it’s because there are so few connections we have to the many, many generations before us. Sure, our survival is no longer dependent on an early spring, but the feeling of excitement when the first flowers bloom and fruit starts to ripen on wild trees is something that won’t ever see an end.

Grilled Beer and Brown Sugar Wings

Print Recipe

Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

2 lbs chicken wings
2 tbs 36g kosher salt
24 ounces stout beer
1 cup 148g golden brown sugar, packed
¼ cup 68g Dijon mustard
¼ cup 64g stout beer
1 tbs 12g sriracha chili sauce

Instructions

Lay the wings in an even layer in a baking dish. Sprinkle on all sides with salt. Pour the beer over the chicken until submerged (if chicken isn’t submerged add additional beer, cold water or chicken broth until just submerged). Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 6 hours.
Remove chicken from brine, rinse well, lay on a stack of paper towels covered by additional paper towels to dry. Allow chicken to dry for 15 minutes.
Preheat the grill to medium high.
Stir together the remaining ingredients.
Brush the chicken with the glaze until well coated.
Grill the wings on all sides until cooked through, brushing with the glaze while the chicken cooks.

Beer Brined Rotisserie Spiced Chicken Legs

11.03.2016 10 Comments

Beer Brined Rotisserie Spiced Chicken Legs

I spent a few years resenting chicken.

Not chicken in general, beer can chicken. Mostly because when people found out that I cooked with beer for a living, that was the first recipe they thought of. "Like….beer can chicken?" Um, yeah. Or Beer Brined Duck with Stout Pomegranate Sauce and Belgian Ale Sweet Potato Mash.

Over the years, I’ve gotten over it. The truth is, it was my issue. Not theirs, not the chickens, but mine. I was so bent towards pushing the idea of cooking with beer into the space that wine occupies that I lost sight of the fact that beer can chicken is pretty damn good. Not to mention the fact that it’s more accessible than most wine dishes, and it highlights one of the main reasons to cook with beer: it makes poultry taste fantastic.

When people ask me what my go-to cooking with beer recipe is, I always talk about poultry. I decided that it was time to put pen to digital paper and show the world that cooking with beer isn’t JUST beer can chicken, it is ALSO beer can chicken. After all, you can make any wine dish with beer but wine can chicken just isn’t the same.

Get the recipe for Beeroness Beer Can Chicken on eHow.

Beer Brined Rotisserie Spiced Chicken Legs

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

2 lbs chicken drumsticks or wings
2 tbs kosher salt
12 ounces wheat beer
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp baking powder this will help crisp the skin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp brown sugar

Instructions

Place the chicken in a large bowl or baking dish. Sprinkle on all sides with kosher salt. Pour the beer over the chicken until submerged (adding additional beer or water to submerge the chicken).
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour and up to 12.
Preheat the oven to 250.
In a small bowl stir together the paprika, baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, 1 tsp salt, chili powder and brown sugar.
Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse well and pat dry.
Place a wire rack over a baking sheet, spray with cooking spray.
Rub the chicken on all sides with the spice mixture, add to prepared pan.
Bake at 250 in the bottom half of the oven for 30 minutes. Move the chicken to the top half of the oven and bake at 450 for an additional 30 minutes or until cooked through.*

Notes

Although the timing of this recipe sounds like it's too long, it isn't The recipe was adapted from America's Test Kitchen and always yields perfect results. The first 30 minutes is just meant to render fat, not cook the chicken. The second 30 minutes cooks the meat and browns the skin. The baking powder in the recipe helps draw out moisture and crips the skin.

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken + A Case for Proper Glassware

17.02.2016 12 Comments

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken

I’m in a back room of a brewery a few minutes after delivering the keynote address at a beer conference and I settle in to listen to a presentation about glassware. I’m bracing for the typical arguments, still vaguely uncertain that a "proper" glass has anything more than a minimal impact on my experience. Is it possible that it’s a placebo effect? The visual excitement of the glass convinces me that it does, in fact, taste better?

I’m given a Spiegelau stout glass, filled with, well, a stout. I’m also given a shaker pint, filled also with a stout. "Taste the shaker pint," we’re all instructed and we comply. It’s good. It’s a great stout and I like it. "Now, taste the beer in the stout glass." It’s bigger. The flavors are more pronounced and the carbonation is more even, it has a better head that has survived the trip from the tap-room far better than the first beer. These aren’t the same beer, I can tell. The second is a much better beer with bolder flavors. Then comes the bombshell that has firmly convinced me that glassware matters as much as beer storage, "It’s the same beer. It’s a Shakespeare Stout, you can try the experiment again in the tap-room if you don’t believe me." He’s right. It’s such a pronounced difference that it tastes like a different beer.

Proper glassware has a few key impacts on that brew you love so much. First, it protects the carbonation helping it to survive longer, it does the same with the head. The head of a beer acts like a net for oils, fermentation byproducts, yeast and other aroma producing compounds altering the experience you have when you drink it. This is a key reason that flat beer tastes different: there has been a lot that has left the beer. A proper glass helps hold the aroma producing compounds in the glass where your nose will be able to partake, which has an impact on the perception of taste.

Think about it: have you ever drank wine from a coffee mug? Would you? Try this experiment yourself, even if you don’t have proper glassware. Pour half of a stout into a regular glass or mug, pour the other half into a large bowl wine glass or a whiskey snifter. Try them side by side and they will taste different. This doesn’t mean that you need to invest in hundreds of special glasses for each beer you might want, just have a few at your disposal for when you want to open a bomber of the good stuff. If I could only have one beer glass it would be a tulip pint. Start there, spend some time drinking out of a glass that helps your beer stay at it’s best and expand your collection.

Coq au Ale: Drunk French Chicken

Print Recipe

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

6 chicken thighs bone in skin on
salt and pepper
3 tbs all purpose flour
4 oz salt pork or thick bacon chopped
2 tbs chopped fresh thyme
½ lbs mushrooms chopped (crimini and white button)
1 white onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
2 ribs celery chopped
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
2 tbs tomato paste
12 ounces stout beer
1 cup chicken stock or low sodium chicken broth

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 (unless preparing in advance).
Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then with flour. Rub the flour in until well coated. Set aside and allow to rest while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Add the salt pork or bacon to a large skillet over medium heat (medium heat will render more fat than high heat). Cook, stirring frequently until most of the fat has rendered and the pork is crispy, 8 to 10 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and add to the bottom of a large Dutch oven.
Place the chicken in the skillet, skin side down, allowing to cook until the skin has browned and most of the fat has rendered, about 8 minutes. Turn over, cook until just browned. Transfer the chicken to the Dutch oven.
Add the mushrooms and the thyme to the skillet, cooking until the mushrooms have turned a darker browned and softened, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer the mushrooms to the Dutch oven.
Add the onion, carrots, celery, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper, cooking until all the vegetables have softened and started to brown, about 6 minutes.
Add the beer to the pan, scraping to deglaze the bottom. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste, then sprinkle with flour, whisking until sauce has thickened.
Add a strainer over the Dutch oven, pour the sauce into the strainer, straining out the onions, carrots and celery. Pour the chicken broth into the strainer to make the process easier. Using a spoon, press the vegetables to make sure all the sauce and broth gets into the Dutch oven. Discard the vegetables.
If possible, cover and refrigerate for up to three days. This is will give you a deeper, richer flavor but the dish is ready to cook immediate.
When ready to cook,cover and transfer to a 325F oven, baking until the chicken is cooked through, about 30-45 minutes (if the chicken is cold from the refrigerator, the baking will take longer).
Remove the chicken from the pot and add the pot to a burner over high heat, simmer until thickened. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Place the chicken back into the pot.
Serve hot over rice or noodles.

Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean and Beer Chicken Soup

29.01.2016 8 Comments

Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean and Beer Chicken Soup

"You’re not reactionary, you’re rebellious but intentional. You think before you jump off the bridge."

Someone I know well said this to me once. I was the kid your parents warned you about, the one who jumps off the bridge and your parents ask if you’re going to follow me into the cold waters of Lake Washington. "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?" My mom never asked me that questions because she knew I was always the first to jump. But the fact is, I only jump if I know with reasonable certainty that it’s safe. When I was homeless in Hollywood at 19, I had a cell phone, a savings account, and a craigslist ad to house sit for free, as long as it was a nice neighborhood.

When I decided to quit my job as a social worker to pursue my dream of being a writer and photographer, I first spent a year doing both. 80 hours a week doing both my day job and my dream job. Then a year part-time at my day job (which, to be fair I still loved), and full-time hustling to work in writing. I jumped, and it seemed brave, but I had a backup plan.

Maybe it comes from a non-traditional upbringing that required several backup plans, but I’m not afraid to jump. I just need to know what my options are. I can be stranded in a coastal Spanish town at 3 am, or lost in the center of a Moroccan city, my mind will start to formulate a plan, "You’ll be fine, you can figure this out," will be my first thought. I’ve jumped before and it hasn’t gone well. I’ve lost, I’ve failed, I’ve done things I shouldn’t have. But I more regret the things I didn’t do than the things I did.

You’ll never hit the ball if you don’t swing the bat. So, as this year hurdles forward, that’s what you should do. Swing the bat. Jump off the bridge. Maybe you need a backup plan for failure first, but you can do it. It’s better to fail at doing what you want than succeed at doing what you don’t. Grab a beer, make a plan, and swing the bat. Best thing I ever did.

Slow Cooker Tuscan White Bean and Beer Chicken Soup

Print Recipe

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

16 ounces dried Great Northern beans
6 cups chicken broth
12 ounces pale ale
2 carrots diced
2 stalks celery diced
½ cup diced white onion
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbs tomato paste
3 cups Tuscan kale Lacinato kale, sliced into ribbons

Instructions

Add the beans, broth, beer, carrots, celery, onion, chicken, salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, and oregano to a slow cooker, stir to combine.
Cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove the large pieces of chicken, shread with two forks, return to slow cooker.
Add the tomato paste to a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of very hot water, stir to combine. Add to the slow cooker, stir to combine.
Stir in the kale, allow to cook for about ten more minutes on low. Ladle into bowls.

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with Vegan Option)

06.01.2016 10 Comments

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with vegan option). One pot, thirty minutes, lick-the-pan-good.

What I Learned Last Year

If you lower your rates to accommodate someones budget they won’t appreciate you, they will devalue you. You’ll automatically be a bargain item, you’ll be on sale and worth less to them.
I learned how to brew on a commercial brewing system. My main life lesson takeaways were: listen to the guy who went before you, trust your gut, take great notes.
If someone tells you they are an asshole, believe them the first time. They will inevitably prove it to you and you’ll be on the losing end of that lesson. If you’re a person who dates the bad boy or the bitchy girl, figure out how to break that. It’s worth it.
Broken down cardboard boxes make better drop cloths than those thin plastic sheets from Home Depot. Also, painting sucks and I hate it. But I’ll do it again, probably within the next six months.
There are "have stuff" people and there are "do stuff" people. You’ll inevitably prioritize one over the other, general budgeting requires it. I’m a "do stuff person," the new couch can wait when there is a passport that needs stamping.
Immersion blenders fix broken sauces. I’ve known this about cheese sauce, but I’ve also found that when you’re trying to bourbon up a chocolate sauce and it seizes, the stick blender can turn it back into velvet.
I love Galaxy and Mosaic hops the most. Especially with fresh hop beers. Don’t get mad, hops aren’t children, you’re allowed to have favorites.
If you’re not happy now, you never will be. Circumstance doesn’t make you happy, it’s a choice. Feed the right wolf, the wrong one will eat you alive.
Making bread from scratch is worth it, making sausage from scratch isn’t. Just buy the sausage, it’s an art that takes years to perfect. Make bread from scratch at least once a month, the smell alone is worth it.
Michael Pollan was right: plant food is the best food. "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." —Michael Pollan. Although I’ll always eat meat and dairy, I find myself eating more and more vegan food and loving it. I seek it out, and eat plants with more frequency than ever before. Plants are amazing.

Mushroom Stout Skillet Chicken Pot Pie (with Vegan Option)

One pot, twenty minutes, both chicken and vegan options

Print Recipe

Total Time 30

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

2 tbs 26golive oil
½ cup 63g sweet white onion, diced
2 ribs celery 52g, chopped
1 large carrot 63g, peeled and chopped
8 wt oz crimini mushrooms sliced
½ cup 70g corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into cubes (for vegan, see note)
½ tsp .5g rosemary, minced
4 sage leaves minced
1 tsp 6g salt
1 tsp 3g black pepper
¼ cup 32g flour
½ cup 118mL stout
½ cup 118mL chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegan)
1 sheet puff pastry thawed
egg wash 1 large egg, 1 tablespoon water, beaten (for vegan, see note)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425.
Heat the olive oil in a 9-inch cast iron skillet. Add the onions, celery, and carrots, cooking until vegetables are softened and the onions have started to brown, about ten minutes.
Add the mushrooms, cooking until dark and softened.
Stir in the corn, cook until warmed.
Move the vegetables to the side, add the chicken (or potatoes for vegan). Sprinkle with rosemary, sage, salt and pepper, cooking until chicken is mostly cooked through (or potatoes are fork tender.
Sprinkle with flour. Add the stout, scraping the bottom to de-glaze the pan. Add in the chicken broth, allow to simmer until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.
Roll the puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface, transfer to the skillet, making sure the entire top is covered and the pastry is hanging over the sides.
Brush with egg wash. Slit a few holes in the top with a sharp knife. Bake until puff pastry is golden brown, about 12 minutes. Serve warm.

Beer Brined Lemon Garlic Skillet Chicken

09.12.2015 7 Comments

Beer Brined Lemon Garlic Skillet Chicken. 30 minutes, one pot, so good!

They always seem to need to explain themselves to me.

When someone, new to beer or not, tells me they don’t like IPA’s it always comes with a disclaimer at the end. As if the mere fact they don’t respond well to one of the hundreds of beer styles knocks the "beer lover" card out of their hands. IPA’s aren’t the litmus test by which a beer lover is judged, nor are sours, or barrel aged beers or even the enjoyment of an occasional pale lager.

After all, we got into this craft beer drinking game because we enjoy the flavor, not because we were jonesing to drink something we didn’t like. We could do that much cheaper with a macro beer.

You don’t have to like them all, they aren’t your children, it’s OK to have favorites. And least favorites. So what do you do when you’ve tried to like a beer style and can’t? Or if you’ve tried to like beer in general and can’t?

First, realize that you don’t have to. Like what you like because you like it, and leave it at that. But if you do want to, want to like beer, want to like a certain style? Push forward. Be honest at the beer bar about what you are trying to like and ask for tasters. Be willing to try anything, but don’t commit to a pint, you’ll probably end up resenting the tall glass of beer and vow never to do it again. Maybe you don’t hate IPA’s, maybe you just don’t like Amarillo hops. Or you don’t like a cook hop flavor but wet hopped beers are your jam. Maybe you don’t actually hate sours, you just hate that one you had at a beer bar in San Francisco. Be willing to try a few dozen more to see if there might be something there.

A beer lover isn’t build with an unabashed love for every beer ever brewed. There were over 200 categories and subcategories at the Great American Beer Festival this year, no one loves them all. Of course you have favorites, and least favorites. You aren’t a bad beer person for not liking a few. But you are a bit of an asshole for making someone else feel inferior for admitting they don’t like IPA’s.

Beer Brined Lemon Garlic Skillet Chicken

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs bone-in, skin-on
1 tbs kosher salt
1 cup beer plus ½ cup, divided (pale ale, pilsner)
¼ cup diced shallots or white onions
4 large cloves garlic grated with a microplane
1 ½ tbs flour
juice from one lemon about 3 tbs
1 cup chicken broth
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
rice for serving

Instructions

Add the chicken thighs to a shallow bowl, sprinkle with salt, cover with 1 cup beer.
Allow chicken to sit at room temperate for 20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Rinse the chicken well with cold water, pat dry.
Add the chicken to a cast iron skill, off heat, skin side down. Add the pan to medium high heat, allow to cook until skin is golden brown (starting to cook chicken in a cold skillet will render more fat than if you start it in a hot skillet. You do not need any oil, the fat will render quickly making oil unnecessary)
Turn the chicken over and cook until browned on the under side, remove from skillet (chicken will not be cooked through).
Add the shallots, cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, cooking for about 20 seconds.
Whisk in the flour, cooking until all the flour has been dampened.
Add the remaining ½ cup beer, scraping to deglaze the pan.
Stir in the lemon juice, chicken broth, pepper, and salt.
Add the chicken back into the pan, simmer until the sauce has thickened and the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes (if the skin has turned soggy, place skillet under broiler for about 1 minute to crisp up the skin).
Sprinkle with parsley prior to serving.
Serve over rice

Crispy Honey Porter Sticky Chicken Wings

18.09.2015 13 Comments

Crispy Honey Porter Sticky Chicken Wings

This was version 6 of this recipe.

Usually, it doesn’t take me that long to get a recipe right. More often than not, I get it on the first try, maybe a few small tweeks, but this one took some trail and a lot of error.

None of the versions were bad, they just weren’t what I was looking for. Like that guy you dated a few years ago that just wasn’t a fit. Although I’m sure your issue with him had nothing to do with how crispy his skin is, or how thickly glazed he was. Although, I don’t know your life.

I had a very specific vision. I wanted wings that are baked-not-fried, skin so crispy it could hold up to glaze without getting soggy, I wanted a thick glaze that was sticky and sweet, and although I’m Ok with a few steps, I didn’t want it to be a huge pain in the ass. I’ve told you that I’d found the secret to crispy skinned baked chicken wings that are even better and crispier than fried (these crispy chicken wings) so I used that as a base. I brined them in beer, which made a remarkable difference in the fall-off-the-bone texture, and I finally got the glaze right.

This will officially be my go-to chicken wings recipe for this football season. Although I’m sure it won’t be long until I make a spicy version. I tend to do that.

Crispy Honey Porter Sticky Chicken Wings

Print Recipe

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

2.5 lbs chicken party wings
1 tbs 4g salt
12 wt oz 355 ml beer (wheat, brown ale or pilsner)
2 tbs 16g baking powder
1 cup 226g porter or stout beer
½ cup 170g honey
2 clove 8g garlic, grated with a microplane
3 tbs 46g soy sauce
1 tsp 2g black pepper
½ tsp 1g smoked paprika
2 tsp 8g chili powder
2 tbs 16g cornstarch
Chopped cilantro optional

Instructions

Add the wings to a shallow bowl or baking dish, sprinkle with salt. Pour beer over the wings, cover and refrigerate for one hour and up to over night.
Preheat oven to 250.
Remove from the beer, rinse and pat dry, making sure wings are as dry as possible. .
Add the wings to a large bowl. Sprinkle with baking powder, toss to coat.
Place a wire rack over a baking sheet, brush with oil or spray with cooking spray.
Place the wings on the wire rack.
Bake in the lower section of the oven for 30 minutes. Move to the upper 1/3 of the oven, increase oven temperature to 425. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.
While the wings bake, make the glaze.
Add the porter, honey, garlic, soy sauce, black pepper, smoked paprika, chili powder and cornstarch in a pot over high heat. Boil, stirring frequently until thickened, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool.
Add the wings to a bowl, pour the glaze over the wings, toss to coat.
Serve warm.

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders

04.09.2015 7 Comments

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders

This is a sign.

It’s fall. I realize that the calendar technically disagrees with me, but the calendar is wrong. Often. Calendars will frequently tell you that the week starts on Sunday, and that Summer starts the end of June. But according to our guts, the week begins on Monday, and Summer starts the first time it gets over 80 degrees in May. Fall, along these lines, starts with September and football season.

This slider is sign that we really don’t care what the calendar tells us, it’s fall. Sigh for a second, leave your sandals out for one more week, but summer is behind us. Let’s look at the good side of this, not the silver lining. Silver linings imply that there is only a thin layer of good on an entire crap cloud. This isn’t the case, fall is an incredible season. Pomegranates are back in season, football is back on, football food is back in consumption range, you can again wear boots and scarves without getting the side-eye from some Lululemon chick at Starbucks, and you can make sliders in your slow cooker.

Stouts are also back in season. Fall kicks off the releases of my favorite beer, the dark and roasty beast that I wait all year for. Even though I’ll still drink them in August, wearing boots and a scarf, no matter who side-eyes me.

Slow Cooker Honey Chili Pulled Beer Chicken Sliders

Print Recipe

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

¼ cup honey
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
2 tsp red chili sauce
1 tbs chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp salt
2 lbs chicken thighs boneless, skinless
¾ cup beer porter, stout, brown ale, or wheat beer
1 tbs cornstarch
12 slider buns

Instructions

In a small bowl stir together the honey, vinegar, red chili sauce, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and salt.
Add the chicken to a slow cooker, pour the mixture over the chicken.
Pour the beer into the slow cooker.
Cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 3 hours. Remove the chicken, shread with two forks, set aside.
Add the sauce and cornstarch to a pot over medium high heat, bring to a boil. Boil, stirring frequently until thickened, about 8 minutes.
Add the chicken to the sauce, stir to coat (you can add to a slow cooker on a warm setting until ready to serve, if needed).
Add to slider buns before serving.

I use this slow cooker (affiliate link).

Beer Brined Faux-tisserie Roast Chicken

26.08.2015 7 Comments

Fill your glass. Fill your stomach. Fill your heart.

Roast chicken, accompanied by an opened bottled of hard to find beer, is the way to communicate comfort from the kitchen. It’s a dish that’s been made billions of times, with just as many variations, a dish that can grace the silk covered tables of the finest dinning establishments, as well as the wobbly legged formica tables of the humblest of houses. It’s beautiful, perfect in its simplicity, comforting, and elegant without being pretentious. It’s a last meal, a lazy Sunday supper, and a first date dish. It’s a meal I’ll make over and over until I’m hardly able to lift myself into a kitchen to cook anything, well into my 90’s. I do, after all, plan to live to be 100, cooking the entire time.

Roast chicken is a classic dish that every home cook should master. It’s a recipe to make in a traditional fashion, and then after you’ve master the preparation, find your own variation. Maybe the first recipe you invent all on your own. The recipe that you’ll become known for, the one you’ll pass on, as you make your way towards living to be 100.

Beer Brined Faux-tisserie Roast Chicken

Print Recipe

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tbs whole peppercorns
1/3 cup kosher salt
2 cups ice
22 oz wheat beer or brown ale
1 5 lb whole chicken, inside cavity cleared
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp baking powder this will help crisp the skin
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp salt plus additional for potatoes
½ tsp black pepper plus additional for potatoes
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp brown sugar
1 lbs red potatoes quartered
1/2 lbs Brussels sprouts cut in half
1 tbs olive oil

Instructions

Add the water, cloves, peppercorns, and salt to a large stock pot or Dutch oven (this will eventually be the brining vessel for your chicken, make sure it’s large enough to accommodate). Bring to a simmer, stirring just until the salt has dissolved, remove from heat. Stir in the ice, and ale. Allow to cool to room temperate.
Add the chicken to the pot (make sure the liquid has cooled first), cover and refrigerate for 12 hours and up to 3 days (to save time, this step can be done as soon as you return from the market with the chicken, and the chicken can be stored in the brine until ready to use, up to three days).
Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse well, inside and out, pat dry. Allow to sit at room temperate for 20 minuets, to drain and dry.
Preheat oven to 300.
In a small bowl stir together the paprika, baking powder, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, ½ teaspoon salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper and brown sugar, set aside.
Add the potatoes and Brussels sprouts in an even layer in the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet, cut side down. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Add the chicken to the skillet on top of the vegetables. Rub chicken well with the spice mixture on all sides, coating the skin.
Cook the chicken at 300 for 40 minutes (this low heat will help render fat and crisp the skin).
Turn heat to 425, cook for 20-30 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and the internal temperate of the chicken reaches 165. Remove from oven, allow to rest for five minutes before carving.

Notes

The vegetables act as a rack in this recipe, as well as a nice side dish. If you are going to skip them, cook the chicken on a wire rack over a baking sheet, or in a roasting rack in a roasting pan. This will keep the bottom of the skin from getting soggy.

20 minute Chicken in Roasted Tomato Brown Ale Herb Sauce

29.07.2015 1 Comment

We are in transition.

As much as we want to burry our summer heads in the warm beach sand and ignore the impending fall, we’re only a few weeks away for the hectic pace that September thrust onto our slightly sun seared bodies. Take a breath, take a moment, plan your last few weekends, breath in the warm air floating into your car windows as you wind down the road. Make a plan right this minute to take a trip to the brewery you’ve been neglecting, the one with the killer patio and perfect beer flight.

Once the summer starts to slip away, we’ll have brown ales to ease the transitions. Brown ales never get enough credit. They will never be as sexy as a sour, or as hip as a triple IPA, or as seductive as a barrel aged stout, but they might just be the perfect food pairing beer. The roasty flavors, the malty notes, the kiss of hops, it all plays so well with a spectrum of culinary offerings.

Don’t underestimate the humble brown ale, don’t overlook it for the sas of a Belgian dubbel. Give a brown a try with some food, smoked gouda, or barbecued pork ribs, carnitas tacos, jambalaya, roasted chicken, and pretty much anything that includes caramelized onions, brown ales will knock that pairing out of the park. Brown ales might just be what will get us through the transition out of summer.

20 minute Chicken in Roasted Tomato Brown Ale Herb Sauce

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Total Time 20

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

3 tbs olive oil divided
¼ cup chopped shallots
1 lbs cherry tomatoes
2 clove garlic minced
3 tbs tomato paste
2/3 cup brown ale
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
2 tsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
½ tsp salt plus additional for chicken
½ tsp pepper plus additional for chicken
1 lbs boneless skinless chicken (breast of thighs)
½ tsp garlic powder
Rice or pasta for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425.
In a cast iron skillet heat 2 tablespoon olive oil. Add the shallots and tomatoes, cook until they start to brown, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the garlic, then the tomato paste, brown ale, rosemary, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.
Transfer to the oven, cooking until the tomatoes have broken down, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir in the balsamic vinegar.
While the tomatoes cook, make the chicken.
Season chicken on all sides with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken, cook on each side until browned and cooked through. Remove from skillet, slice.
Plate chicken with tomato sauce for serving. Serve over rice or pasta if desired.

Notes

If using chicken breast, filet the chicken pieces to make them thinner. Cut lengthwise so that no piece of chicken is thicker than ½ inch.

Hot Beer Fried Chicken and Pepper Biscuits

24.07.2015 5 Comments

It’s a hectic Wednesday morning and I’m trying to get it all straight in my head. I have emails to answer, deliverables to finishes, calls to make. It makes me want to shut down. I’m not organized, that side of this slightly insane job that I’ve chosen for myself makes me want to crawl under a pile of coats, shut my eyes and pretend like it doesn’t exist. So I do what I do when I’m stressed out, I bake. Fortunately for my skinny jeans, I’m not a stress eater, I’m just a stress baker. I just want to make it, the process calms me down. It’s a small win for me when other things in my life have weighted me down, this tips the boat back upright, even if just for a few minutes.

Chicken and biscuits do it every time. Nothing soothes like an emotional salve the way the comfort food miracle cure of fried chicken does. Of course biscuits have been my go-to for years, just about 8 minutes and the smell of homemade biscuits starts to solve minor emotional problems. You can keep the lavender bath salts and the vanilla scented candles, I’ll take the smell of fried chicken, hot biscuits and a hoppy beer. Someone needs to make bath salts that smell like that. It’s way better than pumpkin spice.

Hot Beer Fried Chicken and Pepper Biscuits

Print Recipe

Servings 8 biscuits

Ingredients

For the biscuits:

3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp sugar
8 tbs unsalted cold butter cut into cubes
1/2 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup wheat beer
2 tbs melted butter
¼ tsp course sea salt

For the chicken

1 cup pale ale
2 cups whole milk
1 tbs hot pepper sauce I used Chipotle Tabasco
1 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cut into 2 inch strips
2 cups flour
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
Honey optional

Instructions

Make the biscuits:

Preheat oven to 425F.
In a processor add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper and sugar.
Pulse to combine. Add the cold butter, process until well combined. Add to a large bowl.
Add the buttermilk and beer. Mix with a fork until just combined.
Add to a well-floured flat surface, pat into a rectangle. Using a cold rolling pin (preferably marble) gently roll into a large rectangle, about 1 inch in thickness, using as few strokes as possible.
Fold the dough into thirds as you would a letter about to go into an envelope. Roll lightly, once in each direction to about 1 inch thickness, fold in thirds again. Gently roll into about 1 1/2 inch thickness (this will give you flakey layers).
Using a biscuit cutter cut out 6 to 8 biscuits. Place in a baking pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Brush biscuits with melted butter, sprinkle salt.
Bake at 425 for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Make the chicken:

Add the pale ale, milk and Tabasco to a bowl. Add the chicken, cover with plastic wrap, place in the refrigerator and allow to chill for at least one hour and up to over night.
Add 3 to 4 inches of vegetable oil to a pot, clip a deep fry thermometer onto the side, heat oil to 375. Adjust heat to maintain that temperature.
In a medium sized bowl stir together the flour, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder and salt.
One at a time remove the chicken from the marinade. Add to the flour bowl, tossing to coat, place it back into the milk bowl until covered with milk, then back into the flour bowl until well coated with flour.
Add chicken to a wire rack that has been placed over a baking sheet. Repeat for the rest of the chicken pieces. Then add to the fryer. Fryer until golden brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes.Return to the wire rack (this will kip it cripsy on all sides, Placing on a paper towel will make the under side soggy. Place in a 175F oven for up to 2 hours to make ahead.)
Split the biscuits adding one chicken per biscuit, drizzle chicken with honey (if desired) before adding top biscuit. .

Grilled Stout Jamaican Jerk Chicken

17.06.2015 11 Comments

Grilled Stout Jamaican Jerk

There is a magic in an old recipe. In a method of preparing food with an origin that’s hard to trace. Jerk meat has been a staple in Jamaica for centuries, but follow the history through a labyrinth of poorly kept records and unsettling invasions of outsiders, it’s hard to get a clear view of how it all began.

It doesn’t matter, it hasn’t changed much between the generations of hands that have cooked it. Traditional jerk is cooked over direct flames, not just from coals but also fresh, green wood. Fire is an important component in the dish. The heat, the smoke, the crisp blackened skin. The result is an addictive plate of chicken that’s smokey, sweet, spicy, and juicy.

The idea to add beer isn’t mine, as much as I’d like to claim it. Years ago I read the book, Blood, Bones and Butter, by Gabrielle Hamilton. I’d been to her restaurant in New York, Prune, and became a bit fascinated with her. Just a few lines in one chapter about her favorite jerk recipes, no more explanation than it had 25 ingredients including Scotch bonnet peppers, stout beer, and honey, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I’ve spent years adjusting this recipe trying to get to that perfect balance of flavors. One thing is for sure, the smoke and heat of the grill is a must, it just isn’t the same made in the oven.

Grilled Stout Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Print Recipe

Prep Time 8

Cook Time 30

Total Time 12 38

Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients

1/2 cup stout or porter beer coffee or coconut stouts and porters work well
3 Scotch Bonnet or Habanero Peppers
6 cloves of garlic peeled
3 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon chopped scallions green and white parts
¼ teaspoon fresh ginger grated with a microplane
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 tablespoon Chinese 5 Spice powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon Kosher or Sea salt
3 lbs chicken wings legs, thighs (bone in, skin on)

Instructions

Add all ingredients (except the chicken) to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
Add the chicken to a resalable gallon sized plastic bag (use two if necessary), pour the sauce over the chicken. Close the bag, removing as much air as possible. Refrigerate over night and up to two days, turning once or twice during marinating.
Preheat grill to medium high.
Grill the chicken, turning occasionally, until cooked through, about 20 minutes. Move to upper rack of the grill to finish cooking once the exterior is as dark as you prefer it.

Beer Brined Lemon Pepper Chicken with Mango Salsa + DIY Beer Dad Fathers Day Gifts

12.06.2015 6 Comments

Add the chicken thighs to a bowl, sprinkle on all sides with 1 tablespoon salt. Cover with beer, refrigerate for 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. In a small bowl stir together the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, lemon zest, pepper, and garlic powder, set aside. In a medium sized bowl add the mango, onion, cilantro, bell pepper, jalapeno, lemon juice and salt. Remove the chicken from the beer, rinse and pat dry. Rub the chicken on all sides with the lemon pepper mixture. Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat (take care not to heat the pan over too high heat, the chicken will burn before it cooks through). Add the chicken to the pan (cooking in batches if necessary), until golden brown on the outside and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Plate the chicken, top with mango salsa.

Beer Brined Lemon Pepper Chicken with Mango Salsa

Let’s say that you’re the type of person that has a dad that likes beer.

And let’s also say that you’re the type of person who has procrastinated so much that you don’t yet have a Father’s Day present for said beer drinking dad.

I’m not here to judge you, I’m here to help you. With not only an easy list of beer infused DIY gifts, but also a quick and easy dinner you can pull off after work while making the thoughtful beer laden gift.

Dad’s aren’t quite as sentimental as the rest of us, mostly they just need to be told how great they are, they need some alone time, they need a cold beer and a sporting event. Dad’s also like to be fed. Give him food, tell him he’s good, pet his head. Maybe that’s dogs. Or both. Either way, they need to be fed and watered. I can help you with the feeding part, and these double as thoughtful handmade gifts that are way better than that popsicle stick birdhouses you made him in 4th grade. By the way, he just pretended to like that.

Because he’s nice. You owe him.

IPA Pickles

Chocolate Pretzel Beer Toffee

Chocolate Stout Truffles

Salted Beer Caramel Corn

Beer Candied Pecans

Stout and Sriracha BBQ Sauce

Beer and Sriracha Candied Nuts

Now, go out there, make that beer gift that dad will eat on the couch with his favorite beer while watching his favorite team play another team while he yells at the TV. And don’t forget to pet his head.

Beer Brined Lemon Pepper Chicken with Mango Salsa

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Chicken

6 chicken thighs boneless, skinless
1 tbs plus 1 tsp salt, divided
12 ounces brown ale
2 tbs lemon zest
2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs olive oil

For the Mango Salsa

1 large red mango diced
½ white onion diced
¼ cup cilantro chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 jalapeno chopped
1 tbs lemon juice
½ tsp salt

Instructions

Add the chicken thighs to a bowl, sprinkle on all sides with 1 tablespoon salt. Cover with beer, refrigerate for 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.
In a small bowl stir together the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, lemon zest, pepper, and garlic powder, set aside.
In a medium sized bowl add the mango, onion, cilantro, bell pepper, jalapeno, lemon juice and salt. Toss to combine.
Remove the chicken from the beer, rinse and pat dry.
Rub the chicken on all sides with the lemon pepper mixture.
Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat (take care not to heat the pan over too high heat, the chicken will burn before it cooks through).
Add the chicken to the pan (cooking in batches if necessary), until golden brown on the outside and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.
Plate the chicken, top with mango salsa.