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Entree

Beer Battered Shrimp Tacos with Chipotle Lime Crema

There are a few things you don’t realize you’re giving up when you leave LA. You know you’ll miss the weather, the sunny winter days spent sunbathing on the beach, the fact that every band always has a tour stop in your town, and the unlimited Girls Night Out options.

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Roasted Duck Legs with Porter Cherry Sauce

Roasted Duck with Porter Cherry Sauce

I didn’t grow up in a cooking household. With two working parents and seven sisters it was more of a defrost and feed the masses situation. It was culinary triage every day.

I never saw a head of garlic, or a homemade cake, or real whipped cream my entire childhood. The focus was on feeding the herd of people who lived at my house, while still trying to pay the bills. Homemade fancy sunday supper wasn’t at the top of that hierarchy of needs.

Which is why meals like this mean so much to me. Being able to throw my figurative heart and soul into a meal, take a few hours doing it, and serve it to people I care about. Even if it’s on a Tuesday night.

Especially if it’s on a Tuesday night.

Roasted Duck with Porter Cherry Sauce2

Roasted Duck Legs with Porter Cherry Sauce

Ingredients
  

  • ¼ cup rendered duck fat can sub olive oil, divided
  • 4 duck legs skin on
  • salt and pepper
  • ¼ cup chopped shallots
  • 3 cloves garlic grated with a microplane
  • ½ cup porter beer
  • 10 wt oz 1 ½ cupsdark sweet cherries, fresh or frozen (such as bing)
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbs honey

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375.
  • Heat 2 tablespoons duck fat (or olive oil) in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
  • Sprinkle the duck skin with salt and pepper.
  • Place the duck legs into the hot pan, skin side down, cook until skin has browned, about 6 minutes. Flip the duck legs overs.
  • Place the cast iron skillet in the oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until the duck reaches 165F degrees. (If you don’t have a large enough cast iron skillet, just brown the duck legs and then transfer them, skin side up, to a baking dish). You can reduce the oven to 200 and keep the duck in the oven until ready to serve for up to 1 hour. To crisp the skin back up (of it becomes soft in the oven), preheat the broiler and place the duck under the broiler for a few minutes, keeping a very close eye to make sure the duck doesn’t burn.
  • While the duck is cooking make the cherry sauce. In a pot over medium high heat add the remaining 2 tablespoons duck fat. Add the shallots and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic. Add the porter, cherries, smoked paprika, black pepper and honey. Allow to boil, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 8 minutes.
  • Spoon the sauce over the duck just prior to serving, or serve alongside.

I use this Duck Fat (affiliate link) because it’s well priced and good quality. A little goes a long way so one jar will last a while. Also, if you cook duck in duck fat, you can save the rendered fat for later use. Like these potatoes, or this Duck Confit.

I also use this Microplane (affiliate link) all the time. Perfect for grating garlic in seconds, much easier than mincing with a knife.

Roasted Duck with Porter Cherry Sauce3

Irish Red Ale Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate

Irish Red Ale Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate

When you write a cookbook, you fall in love with some of the recipe. You don’t love them all the same, you don’t even remember them all the same. Recipes aren’t like children, you’re completely allowed to have favorites.

When I wrote The Craft Beer Cookbook (affiliate link), there were a few recipes I immediately feel love with, like Hefeweizen Brioche Pull Apart Bread (page 82), and the Porter Osso Buco (page129), and Amber Ale Carrot Cake with Mascarpone & Beer Spiked Cream Cheese Frosting (page 179) and a few I added because I was already in love with them, like the Beer Pecan Cinnamon Rolls (SO GOOD! page 26) and this soup.

craft beer cook

This was a soup that I’d been making for years, with and without beer. Gleefully sprinkling the bowls with two of my culinary guilty pelasures: goat cheese and pomegranate seeds. Adding in the hop bitterness of an Irish red ale gave a great balance to the creamy decadence.

Now that we are around the corner from Saint Patricks day, I’m sharing this recipe with you. It’s a new way to celebrate the Irish, and a vegetarian friendly one at that (if that’s your thing). After all, corned beef isn’t even a tradition in Ireland. But beer always is.

Irish Red Ale Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate

Ingredients
  

  • 1 3.5 to 4 lb butternut squash
  • 1 head garlic
  • 6 tbs olive oil divided
  • 2 shallots sliced
  • 2 ½ cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup red ale
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • pinch cayenne
  • ½ cup cream
  • 3 ounces goat cheese
  • ½ cup pomegranate seeds

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400.
  • Cut the squash down the middle lengthwise, scoop out and discard the seeds. Place cut side up on a baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tbs olive oil.
  • Rub most of the white papery skin off the garlic head. Cut the tip off the head of garlic, exposing the cloves. Place garlic on a small square of aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1 tbs olive oil, fold aluminum foil up over the garlic to form a tight packet. Place garlic on baking sheet with the squash.
  • Place baking sheet in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the garlic and allow to cool. Continue to roast the squash until fork tender, about an addition 20-30 minutes (total of about 1 hour). Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to handle. Gently scoop out the flesh (should be between 4 and 4 1/2 cups).
  • In a pot over medium heat, add the remaining 3 tbs olive oil and the shallots. Allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots have caramelized, about 15 to 20 minutes (do not cook at too high heat or the shallots will burn). Add the broth and the beer and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the roasted squash, add the soft garlic cloves (discard the rest of the head) and stir until well combined.
  • Use an immersion blender to puree until smooth (you can also work in batches to puree in a food processor or blender). Add the salt, pepper, turmeric, cayenne and cream, allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Ladle into serving bowls, garnish with goat cheese and pomegranate.

You can buy The Craft Beer Cookbook at cookbookBarnes & Noble and Urban Outfitters.

Irish Red Ale Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate

IPA Crab Salad Sliders with Apple Daikon Slaw

IPA Crab Salad Sliders 2

There are some rules to Party Food.

Not a lot, just a few. After all, parties are about lack of restrictions.  First, there needs to be a bit of portability involved. One hand, no utensils type of portability. If you’ve every tried to navigate the consumption of food that requires a knife and fork while trying to mingle, you understand the hard and fast nature of that rule.

You also need something low maintinace. Something you can set down and leave for your guests to grab, sans explanation.

Lastly (only three rules, after all, this is a party), you want something fairly quick and easy to put together. After all, you have other dishes to make, and dishes to wash, and people to mingle with.

But if you can work in beer, there are some bonus points involved.

IPA Crab Cake Sliders with Apple Daikon Slaw

Ingredients
  

For the Slaw

  • ½ large honey crisp apple cut into thin matchsticks
  • 3 ounces daikon peeled and cut into thin matchsticks
  • ¼ cup green onions sliced
  • 2 tbs IPA
  • 1 tbs raw honey
  • ¼ tsp mustard powder

For the Crab:

  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 2 tbs IPA
  • ½ tsp Old Bay seasoning
  • ¼ tsp onion powder
  • pinch chili powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 tbs IPA
  • 8 wt oz lump crab meat
  • 10 Slider Buns

Instructions
 

  • Whisk together the IPA, honey and mustard powder in a small bowl. Add the apples, green onions and daikon, toss to coat. Set aside.
  • In a medium bowl add the sour cream, IPA, Old Bay, onion powder, chili powder, salt, pepper, and IPA beer, stir until combined. Fold in the crabmeat.
  • Spoon crab meat into slider buns, top with slaw.

IPA Crab Salad Sliders_

Molasses Stout Glazed Salmon with Herb IPA Mashed Potatoes

Molasses Stout Glazed Salmon with Herb IPA Mashed Potatoes2

No matter how often you move, there are things that you forget. Every time. You forget that you won’t know which drawer to put Sharpie markers and batteries in (they always end up in the same drawer), you’ll turn to grab the knife from where is "used to be," you won’t know where the Target is, or where to take your dry cleaning, or where to buy the best prosciutto and you can forget about that guy who offered to sharpen your knives for free if you bring him cookies THAT guy doesn’t exist in your new land.

I have a gypsy soul, I’ve never missed my own bed, I don’t have the home sick gene, I’m never nervous about new roads or new words or new food. I look forward to building a new database of people and place. But there is a learning curve with a new place. Things I didn’t know that I didn’t know. I’ve had to adapt to a new climate, one that was not 80 degrees on Christmas, and involves a near wardrobe change when I need to run out to the car to grab the beer I left in the back.

But the upside is that beer would have been overly warm in my old land, in this place, it was the perfect 43 degrees and ready to drink.

Now I just need to find a guy to trade knife sharpening for baked goods and I’ll be half way there.

Molasses Stout Glazed Salmon with Herb IPA Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients
  

For The Potatoes

  • 2 lbs russet potatoes peeled and chopped
  • 6 tbs unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp sage minced
  • ½ tsp thyme. minced
  • ½ tsp rosemary minced
  • 3 tbs IPA beer

For the Salmon

  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • ¼ cup shallots
  • 2 tbs soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup stout
  • 2 tbs molasses not blackstrap
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika
  • ¼ tsp chili powder
  • ¼ tsp onion powder
  • 4 4-6 ounce Salmon fillets

Instructions
 

To Make the Potatoes:

  • Add the potatoes to a pot of lightly salted boiling water. Allow to boil until fork tender. Drain and return to pot.
  • Add the remaining potato ingredients, stir and mash with a potato masher until well combined.

To Make The Salmon:

  • Preheat oven broiler.
  • Add the oil to a pot over medium high heat until hot but not smoking.
  • Add the shallots, cook until softened and slightly browned, about 3 minutes.
  • Add the soy, stout, molasses, smoked paprika,onion powder and chili powder. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened, about 6 minutes.
  • Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray lightly with cooking spray (or drizzle with vegetable oil.
  • Place salmon on the foil, skin side down.
  • Brush liberally with glaze.
  • Broil for 3 minutes, re-brush with glaze, and place under the broiler for 3 more minutes. Repeat (re-brushing and broiling) until the salmon is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork.
  • Serve over potatoes.

Molasses Stout Glazed Salmon with Herb IPA Mashed Potatoes_

Chicken Thighs with Rosemary Tomato Beer Sauce

Chicken Thighs in Rosemary Tomato Beer Sauce2

In high school I had a guidance councilor ask me what I thought I would be when I grew up. Not "what do you want to be" but "what do you think you will be," much different questions for a kid, and much more accurate window into the future.

I thought about it for a minute. What do I think I will be? I thought about the way I normally answer the question when it’s phrased the other way, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I wanted to help sick animals. But when I was asked where I thought I’d end up, it made me realize that I didn’t even believe that I’d end up as a vet.

I paused for a minute and said I thought I’d have a job that wasn’t invented yet, "You know, something that isn’t included in those check boxes in those forms," was my response. Non-comital, vague, but for the first time, I actually believed my response. He wasn’t so sure. He leaned back in his old wheeled desk chair and looked at me like I was a genuine crazy person.

"Hasn’t been invented? There are jobs that haven’t been invented? Like a robot mechanic?"

Now I got to look at him like he was the genuine crazy person, "I’m pretty sure that robot mechanic exists. And I think the world is changing enough that there are jobs that aren’t invented yet." He quickly dismissed me, apparently I had reached the maximum level of guidance that he had for the day.

I thought about this today, as I was being filmed for a feature-length documentary about the craft beer industry. Among other titles that I hold, I’m a food blogger. A job that had not been invented was I was a freshman in high school. A job that I couldn’t be happier to do. After years of forcing myself into the check boxes on the high school guidance counselors forms, there is an absolute freedom in breaking away from that. A freedom in inventing my own job, and working tirelessly to make it happen.

It took me too many years to chase this dream, and the change happened years after I left that cluttered office in the last semester of my first year of high school.

The change happened when I stopped asking, "Who am I to want a job like that?" and starting asking, "Why not me?"

 

Chicken Thighs with Rosemary Tomato Beer Sauce

Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 4 chicken thighs bone in and skin on
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 cup chopped red onions about ½ a large onion
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/2 cup wheat beer
  • 1 14.5 wt oz can diced tomato
  • 1 tbs minced fresh rosemary
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Chopped parsley or chives for garnish optional

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400.
  • In a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, add the olive oil until hot but not smoking.
  • Sprinkle the skin of the chicken thighs with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
  • Place in a skillet, skin side down until skin has browned and fat has rendered, about ten minutes. Turn over and cook until the bottom has browned.
  • Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
  • Transfer chicken to baking sheet, place in oven until sauce is ready, about 10 minutes.
  • Add the onions to the skillet and cook until browned, about 3 minutes.
  • Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the beer, scraping to deglaze the pan. Cook until slightly reduced about 2 minutes.
  • Add the tomatoes, rosemary, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.
  • Cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.
  • Add the chicken thighs back into the skillet, simmering until chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
  • Sprinkle with parsley or chives before serving, if desired.

Notes

Serve over rice, mashed potatoes or pasta

I’m a big fan of this cast iron skillet, it’s amazing and I use it several times a week (affiliate link).

Chicken Thighs in Rosemary Tomato Beer Sauce

White Bean White Ale and Ham Soup

White Bean Beer and Ham Soup

Most of the phases of life we live fade in a way that we don’t really know the exact moment it ends. We don’t always  know the day we stopped being children or the moment we fell out of love, or the day a big friendships started to drift away.

With moving, you know. You know the last day you lived in that house you loved so much. The last day you were a resident of city. And you know the day you started a new life in a new city.

The boxes are starting to get packed, the nonsense I’ve accumulated over the past few years has started to find it’s way to the donation centers, and my days as an LA resident are counting down. I’m saying Goodbye to things I didn’t know I’d miss, the warm weather is being reveled in, and the I’m finding more still moments to just enjoy the view. Even on the packed LA freeways.

I’m also preparing to live in a world were I’ll eat a lot of cold weather comfort food. Like slow cooked soup. I’m starting now, cooking big pots of warm soup, made with beer, and topped with fresh produce. Because some habits die hard.

White Bean Beer and Ham Soup2

White Bean White Ale and Ham Soup

Ingredients
  

  • 3 tbs unsalted butter
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • ½ cup chopped shallots
  • 1 lb dry great northern beans
  • 4 1/2 cups chicken broth
  • 12 ounces white ale
  • 1 ham bone
  • 2 cups chopped precooked ham
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 cup fresh shaved parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup baby arugula

Instructions
 

  • In a large Dutch oven over medium heat melt the butter with the olive oil. Add the shallots and cook until caramelized, about 15 minutes (make sure the heat is rather low, if the heat is too high and your shallots will burn before they caramelize, patience is key).
  • Add the beans, broth, beer and ham bone to the pot, bring to a low simmer.
  • Allow to simmer until the beans are cooked through, about 2 hours.
  • Add the ham, salt and pepper, simmer for about ten minutes.
  • Ladle into bowls, top with parmesan and arugula before serving.

I use my Dutch oven all the time, it’s essential in my kitchen (affiliate link).

White Bean Beer and Ham Soup3

Hello Seattle + Spicy Steamed Mussels in Beer

 

Photos in this post were taken in Seattle with vintage Polaroid cameras by my  incredibly talented sister Kim van Groos 

Check out her Flickr, it’s very impressive.  

Space Needle Kim vanGroos Polaroid

I told you last week that I’m in the process of saying goodbye to Los Angeles. A process made easier by the fact that it will end with a move to Seattle, a city that I’ve loved for years. A city with a vibrant love for food, people who are aware and grateful, plus a craft beer scene that is one of the best in the world.

Colorful Grass Kim vanGroos Polaroid

I’ll get to discover a new city, fall in love with the local beer, cook with the incredible produce. I’ll also be near my sister who took all these photos, as well as my other sister who almost died with me in Morocco. I’ll be around the world’s best hops and the country’s best seafood. The idea of wandering around a new city, losing myself in the streets and the strangers is incredibly exciting. Especially a city like Seattle that has so much to offer.

Pikes Place Kim vanGroos Polaroid

I’m not limiting my explorations to Seattle. The entire Pacific Northwest, from Medford to Bellingham, has an incredible craft beer scene that I can’t wait to explore. The beer, the people, the pubs and the events, I plan to jump in with both feet, grab a pint, and become a part of what’s happening up North.

I want to share it all with you. Not just on the blog, but also on Instagram and Twitter. I want you to see the beer I find, the salmon I catch, the people I meet, the butcher shops, the breweries, the farmers markets, the coast and everything else that’s waiting for me up there.

Glare Kim vanGroos Polaroid

As I pack the boxes and say goodbye to Los Angeles, I wanted to make something that has a bit of Seattle in it, a reminder of what I have to look forward to.

Seafood and beer it is. Can’t wait to dig in.

Spicy Steamed Mussels In Beer

I start my trek North in two weeks. Join me, it’s going to be a big move and a big adventure. I’d love to have you along for the ride.

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Spicy Steamed Mussels in Beer

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 2 entre portions, or 4 appetizer portions

Ingredients
  

  • 4 strips thick cut bacon
  • 1 cup diced white onion
  • 4 tbs unsalted butter
  • 5 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 lbs diced tomatoes about 2 large
  • 1 jalapeno sliced
  • 1 tbs red pepper flakes
  • ½ cup pale ale
  • 1 lime juiced
  • 1 ½ lbs black mussels cleaned and de-bearded
  • ¼ cup green onions diced
  • Bread for serving

Instructions
 

  • In a large pot or deep skillet cook the bacon over medium high heat. Remove the bacon from pot, chop and set aside. Pour off about half of the bacon grease, leaving about 1 tablespoon still in the pan.
  • Add the butter and cook until melted.
  • Add the onions, cook until slightly browned.
  • Stir in the garlic, then add the tomatoes, jalapenos, red pepper flakes, beer, lime juice and chopped bacon. Bring to a low simmer.
  • Add the mussels, cover and allow to cook until mussels have opened, about 5 minutes.
  • Discard any that didn’t open. Sprinkle the green onions over the pan.
  • Serve with crusty bread.

Adapted from Epicurious

Spicy Steamed Mussels In Beer3

 

Goodbye Los Angeles + Avocado Wit Beer Alfredo

The photos in this post  were taken with a vintage film camera

in or around Los Angeles over the past 10 years.

I took them with a 1965 Nikon F (excluding the pasta photos)

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Los Angeles has become a part of me, imbedded itself into my soul and grew me into the person I have become. Leaving feels heavy. It’s hard to say goodbye, to walk away, but I’m ready. I’m excited to take the next step into a new phase of my life even with the feeling of grief I have over leaving the City I’ve been in for so long.

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I’ve done more than just live here or even thrive here. LA has been more than just the backdrop to the majority of my life. She is a part of who I am and I love Los Angeles. I will fiercely defend her when outsiders can’t see past the Hollywood Portrayal of a very small side of the city I’m in love with.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

I was born in LA, briefly left, making my way back in my late teens behind the wheel of an old Ford Bronco packed with little more than a suitcase.

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I know LA, in a way that you can’t if you’ve never lived here. Like outsiders can never really know what it’s like to grow up in your family: it’s flawed and dirty and beautiful and yours. This is LA.

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LA has been good to me. She’s seen me fall in love, become broken, find myself, find a love for food, chase my dreams. But I’ve seen her change too.

 Viper Room

I’ve watched my friends go from homeless musicians to Grammy winners. I’ve worked with gang members in Compton. I’ve cried with holocaust survivors in Beverly Hills.  I’ve smoked cigars on the roof of Chateau Marmont with literal rock stars. I’ve eaten bacon wrapped hot dogs outside The Short Stop and burritos on Sunset at 3 am. I’ve watched the sunrise over an empty beach in the middle of winter. I’ve been trapped inside a broken down car on the 405 at rush hour. I’ve watched the beer scene go from non-existent to thriving. I’ve played Guitar Hero with famous musicians at Sound City Recording Studio. I’ve worked a waitress job for a money launderer. I’ve bartended a party at a crumbling Frank Lloyd Wright house.  I’ve stuck the Troubadour VIP sticker on the thigh of my jeans many, many times. I’ve spent the afternoon talking to homeless vets on the streets of Downtown. I’ve gotten lost on the worthless Metro. I taught a homeless kid how to drive a stick shift at 5am in a mall parking lot. I’ve eaten dinner on stage at The Hollywood Bowl. I’ve been an extra in a movie and witness a drive by shooting in the same day. I walked a catwalk in nearly nothing at a low-budget European designers US press show.

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The moments haven’t all been pretty, but they haven’t been dull. There is this feeling in LA, that if you find the right place and stand there long enough, the entire world will walk past you. And it’s with a heavy heart that I leave. But I’m taking LA with me. The person I’ve been made into, the food I’ve fallen in love with, the beer that is a part of my story and a part of my life.

This isn’t Goodbye, LA. Not really. I’m moving North, LA, but a part of me will always be your girl.

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I want you to join me on this journey. I’ll be posting on Instagram and Twitter. Follow me, give me your advice, show your support, watch me move and then explore a new city.

I’ll tell you more about where I’m going next week, come back and I’ll tell you all about the new city that I’ll be writing The Beeroness from and the great beer they have.

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If you’re in Los Angeles, come join me for one last pint at Basin 141 in Montrose, February 19th from 6 to 9PM. I’ll be signing books and the kitchen will be making some of my dishes. The fantastic Eagle Rock Brewery will be there too, taking over all the taps.

Today, lets eat some pasta. With beer from one of my favorite Los Angeles breweries, Angel City, as well as Avocados, which might as well be California’s official State Fruit.

Avocado Wit Beer Alfredo Pasta

 

Avocado Wit Beer Alfredo

Ingredients
  

  • 4 servings of pasta of choice about 1 pound
  • ½ lbs avocado about 1 large or two small
  • ½ cup cream
  • ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese 2 wt. oz
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 3 tbs wit beer
  • 1 cup arugula
  • 2 large tomatoes diced

Instructions
 

  • Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente, drain and return to pot.
  • In a food processor add the avocado meat, cream, parmesan, pepper, salt and beer, process until very smooth.
  • Add the sauce to the pasta pot, return to heat, stirring until warmed, about 3 minutes.
  • Plate, top with arugula and tomatoes before serving.

Angel City Wit

 

Like The Beeroness on Facebook and Instagram to follow all the post from my move and into my new city! I might be leaving LA, but The Beeroness is coming with me. I will continue to write, post, cook, eat and drink.

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Drunk Shrimp Diablo

 

Drunk Shrimp Diablo. 15 minutes, spicy, beery and delicious.

I have a confession to make.

I’ve been hiding my Instagram account from you under a different name. I changed my Instagram name to The Beeroness last week after I realized that you want to see my life. This is the hang-up for me, the part that’s so hard to wrap my brain around: that invisible people on the other side of the computer actually want to see what my life is like. Sure, it speaks to a hideous level of insecurity on my part, but why wouldn’t I let you in?

Drunk Shrimp Diablo. 15 minutes, spicy, beery and delicious.

After all, you trust me with your Thanksgiving turkey, and to give you a Beer Cheese Dip for your football party, and you even ask my advice on what to do with the remains of the Blueberry Kolsch homebrew that didn’t exactly go as planned.

Drunk Shrimp Diablo. 15 minutes, spicy, beery and delicious.

So why has it taken me so long to show you pictures of my dog, or the behind-the-scenes of my cooking segment on CBS, or that time I stole wood from a construction site to make a prop table? Maybe I still can’t believe that I’m a person that people would want to know about. That you care about me as much as I care about you coming to visit my blog.

After all, you are the reason I’m able to spend my life cooking and drinking beer.

I owe you a lot.

Drunk Shrimp Diablo

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs butter
  • 1 cup diced white onions
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 tbs tomato paste
  • 2 tbs garlic chili sauce
  • 2 tbs red chili flakes
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • ¼ tsp cayenne
  • 2/3 cup IPA or Pale Ale beer
  • 1 lbs raw shrimp deveined (shell removed if desired)
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes sliced

Instructions
 

  • Heat the olive oil and butter to a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic.
  • Add tomato paste, chili sauce, red chili flakes, chili powder, cayenne pepper and beer, Stir over medium heat until well combined.
  • Add the shrimp and tomatoes, cook until shrimp are pink and have curled, about 6 minutes.

I use this Chili Garlic Sauce from Huy Fong, and this amazing cast iron skillet that I can’t get enough of (affiliate links).

Drunk Shrimp Diablo. 15 minutes, spicy, beery and delicious.

 

 

Beer Fried Chicken

Beer Fried Chicken

I’ve told you that in my Past Life Pre Blogging Existence I worked with gang kids in South Central LA. Like this kid, and this one. As a skinny, blonde haired, blue-eyed, 21-year-old, I didn’t exactly blend seamlessly into Compton and Watts. My  Stand Out appearance was obvious to me, but it was other oddities about the Girl From The Farm persona that were more of a surprise to me, and food was one of those things.

In my culture, while at someones house, this is the expected exchange:

Host: "Can I get you somethings to eat?"

Me: "No thanks, I’m fine."

In my Middle American Culture, this is what is expected of me and I said it without hesitation, it was polite. Except that it wasn’t. Because I wasn’t in Lunchmeat Small Town USA, I was in Compton and unknowingly offending people who wanted to feed me. It was rude to refuse food, "What? You too good for my food?!". Before I was shoved against a locker by a co-worker and schooled on the non-WASPy response to food offerings, I was offered fried chicken in a trailer park in South Central LA.

It was late afternoon on a Wednesday and my first session with a sweet 12 year old kid that had found his way from juvenile detention to a foster family living in a 1970’s mobile home, run by a short, kind, plump woman who took her job of Foster Mom as seriously as a heart attack. She was the best I’d ever seen. The house wasn’t fancy (a few weeks later I helped her install peel-and-stick vinyl that she’d found behind a dumpster onto the kitchen floor), six people lived in 400 square feet, and there was no heat or air, but she was pure love. And the woman could cook. She turned the small food budget into a feast.

I made my way up the steel steps of the house as she ushered me into the kitchen to the smell of fried chicken. "You want some?" The no thanks I’m fine standard response stuck in my throat. I did want some. I hesitated, my eyes widened, I had the look of a cartoon dog salivating over a steak plastered on my face.

"Don’t pretend like your skinny ass don’t want some of this. Sit."

So I did. I sat my skinny ass at the small kitchen table surrounded by mismatched chairs. She joined me, along with her new foster son freshly freed from Kid Jail with the remainder of a GTA still hanging on his juvenile record.

We spent the next few hours talking, laughing, and eating the best fried chicken I’d ever had.

Before I was walked to my car by an older kid who wanted to make sure I was safe, I asked her what her secret was, "Always double up on the flour. Two dips in the flour, two dips in the buttermilk." I’ll take it. She knew what she was doing.

Beer Fried Chicken2

Beer Fried Chicken

Ingredients
  

  • 3 lbs chicken legs
  • ¼ cup kosher salt
  • 1 sweet white onion sliced
  • 1 ½ cups buttermilk
  • 12 ounces pale ale
  • 2 tsp red chili sauce such as Sriracha or Tapatio
  • 2 ½ cups flour
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tbs brown sugar
  • oil for frying

Instructions
 

  • Arrange the chicken in an even layer in a large baking pan.
  • Sprinkle evenly with kosher salt. Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. Rinse the chicken and pan thoroughly of salt, return the chicken to the baking dish along with the onion slices.
  • 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 medium sized bowl stir together the flour, black pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder and brown sugar.
  • One at a time remove the chicken legs, dredge in the flour mixture then gently re-dip in the marinade and recoat with the flour mixture (double coating of the flour mixture will give you a crispier chicken), set on a baking sheet.
  • Allow the coated chicken to sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes.
  • At the oil to a large pot until about 6 inches deep, heat to 350 degrees using a cooking 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.

Beer Fried Chicken3

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken Tacos with Jalapeno Slaw

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken Tacos

I’ve often been accused of going overboard.

Of being one of those people who just does too much. But it’s all smoke and mirrors in a way. I’m not as organized or even as interesting as I’d like you to think. I leave dishes in the sink far too long, my pantry is a mess and I am incredibly behind on what should be common business practices.

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken Tacos2

But I always make tortillas from scratch, so that’s impressive, right? I still have to figure out how to organize my life, and I can often be a little too relaxed with the domestic chores, but I will dazzle you with soft tortillas that took way less time than you think. And the five minutes it takes to get this in your slow cooker will make you think I have this all under control.

Because taco nights and beer fix most minor life crises.

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken Tacos3

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken Tacos with Jalapeno Slaw

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients
  

For Jalapeno Slaw

  • 1 cup shredded green cabbage
  • ½ cup red onions thinly sliced
  • 2 jalapenos chopped (seeds and membrane removed)
  • 2 tbs IPA beer
  • ¼ cup sour cream
  • ½ tsp salt

For the Chicken

  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • 2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp brown sugar
  • pinch cayenne
  • ¾ cup pale ale
  • 3 tbs tomato paste
  • 1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs* cut into bite sized pieces
  • tortillas for serving

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl gently stir together the slaw ingredients, refrigerate until chilled.
  • In a small bowl whisk together cornstarch, cumin, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar, cayenne, beer and tomato paste.
  • Add the chicken to a slow cooker, pour the beer mixture over the chicken.
  • Cook on low for 6 hours or until chicken is cooked through. Stir at least once during cooking.
  • Spoon chicken into tortillas, top with slaw.

Mushroom Orzo and Stout Soup

Mushroom Stout Orzo Soup_ Have I told you about the time I made a complete spectacle of myself on an international flight?

It all started after I missed my perviously scheduled flight out of Spain, which is another story that involves churros and a bull fighting poster, and found myself in the middle of a sold out Madrid without a bed for the evening. Every room was booked, even those large mixed dorms that make you want to sleep fully clothed with your valuables tethered to your leg.

I was able to find a room about three blocks from Plaza Mayor in the home of an elderly couple that spoke no English. After a few weeks in Spain my Spanish language skills had risen to the level of a demented toddler and I was able to communicate Tarzan style enough to pay for the windowless converted closet and obtain a set of keys.

After spending the next few hours fighting with the airline I was safely booked on a flight the next day and happily wandering the afternoon streets near the Prado. I wandered into a bookstore looking for something that would keep me occupied on a 17 hour flight. The only English language book I could find was Tuesdays with Morrie. Fine, I’ll take it.

That night I hardly slept. I was so nervous about missing my mid-day flight that I woke up every hour to check the clock. Finally at 5am I gave up. I packed my bags, left my keys on the overly polished dining table and headed for the two trains that would take me to the airport.

Many hours and cups of strong coffee later I was settled into my aisle seat on a jam-packed jumbo jet headed for LAX. Exhausted but unable to sleep (remember I told you I sleep as well as a homeless prostitute?) I pulled out the book. Only minutes in I started to cry, half hour later I was sobbing. Not just pretty girls tears,but hysterical, ugly, snot and weird noises sobbing. People started staring.

I put the book down, pulled myself together, but couldn’t stop reading. This continued for most of the flight. Read, become so hysterical I can’t see over my own tears, feel like a crazy person, put the book down, repeat. A few rows ahead of me a girl flagged down a flight attendant and said, "Ummm…I think there is something wrong with that girl."

A few minutes later the flight attendant comes by, says nothing, sets down a plate of food: a small baguette, some cheese and a small bowl of soup. She pulls a package of Kleenex out of her pocket and sets it down. She leaves very quickly without a word. I felt ridiculous, but comforted. Soup and carbs seems to do the trick.

January, a historically hideous month in my personal life, calls for some comfort food.  Bring it on January, I have soup and carbs. Mushroom Stout Orzo Soup 2

Mushroom Orzo and Stout Soup

Ingredients
  

  • 1 sweet white onion sliced
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs unsalted butter
  • 8 wt oz sliced crimini mushrooms about 2 ½ cups
  • 3 wt ounces shitake mushrooms about 2 cups
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh sage
  • 3 cups beef stock
  • 12 ounces oatmeal stout
  • 1 cup dry orzo
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • salt to taste

Instructions
 

  • In a pot over medium heat add the onions, olive oil and butter, cook stirring occasionally until onions have caramelized, about 20 minutes (do not let the heat get too high or the onions will burn before they caramelize).
  • Add both kinds of mushrooms and sage, cooking until the mushrooms have softened and darkened, about 5 minutes.
  • Add the stout and stock, simmer for fifteen minutes.
  • Add the orzo and black pepper, cooking until orzo is cooked through, about 8 minutes. Salt to taste.

I use my Dutch oven all the time, it’s essential in my kitchen.

Mushroom Stout Orzo Soup 3

Tomato Herb and Beer Poached Cod with Caramelized Fennel

Tomato Herb and Beer Poached Cod with Caramelized Fennel_

I started this adventure masked as a blog just over two years ago. I decided when I first hit publish that this wasn’t a "let’s see how this goes" endeavor. This is was a full force, every piece of my life, both feet, all chips on the table undertaking. I was all in.

My stack of "I Need To Figure This Stuff Out" was much larger than my "I’ve Got This" pile and the more I fought towards the goals I set, the larger that first stack got. Lucky for me, my reaction to "You can’t do that" has always been, "You watch me." And somewhere along the road I stop hearing people say "no" to me and started to hear them say "Someday I’ll wish I’d said yes to you."

I guess it’s working, and I have a few gold stars to show for it. The first printing of my book,  The Craft Beer Cookbook (affiliate link), sold out in less than three months, I’m a regular beer expert on a radio show, I have people from all over the world share photos of the dishes they have made from my site with me over Facebook and Twitter (I LOVE this, keep doing it, highlight of my day), and in the past year I’ve been interviewed by dozens of magazines all over the world. I’m humbled by this in an enormous way, that what I’ve worked nights, weekends, poured so much time and money into is being realized. That I’m able to do this, share this love with you, and find a place in craft beer.

A few days ago an interview I did with the print magazine Imbibe hit newsstands. I stood in Barnes & Noble, trying really hard not grab the guy perusing motorcycle magazine standing next to me and yell, "THAT’S ME!" and shove page 21 in his face. I refrained.

So I’m doing it to you instead, I’m shoving page 21 in your face and yelling. But to you, I’m yelling "Thank you."

Beeroness in Imbibe_

Tomato Herb and Beer Poached Cod with Caramelized Fennel

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 fennel bulb sliced into ¼ inch slices
  • 3 cloves garlic mined
  • 1 cup white ale or wheat beer
  • 28 wt oz crushed tomatoes
  • 1 tsp crushed red peppers
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tbs chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 4 cod fillets 4-5 ounces each
  • Rice potatoes or pasta for serving

Instructions
 

  • Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the fennel slices and cook until caramelized on each side, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic, stir for about 30 seconds. Add the white ale, scraping to deglaze the pot.
  • Add the crushed tomatoes, red peppers, paprika, basil. tarragon and salt, bring to a low simmer.
  • Add the cod fillets, pushing gently to submerge.
  • Simmer until cod is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, about 8 minutes (Note: do not boil or fish will become tough, keep tomato sauce at a low simmer).
  • Using a slotted spoon, remove cod from the pot, add to a serving platter.
  • Bring the tomato mixture to a strong simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced about 10 minutes.
  • Plate the cod, top with tomato mixture.

Tomato Herb and Beer Poached Cod with Caramelized Fennel 3

Beer Carnitas Pizza

 

Beer carnitas pizza

When I was kid Mexican Pizza involved ice burg lettuce and cheap ground beef. Possibly the perfect example of how neither Mexican food or pizza were given proper credit for the potential they had to compete in the Fine Food arena. They were both disregarded as low brow for far too long, but then again, so was beer. It took America awhile to see what Mozza did for pizza, what Rick Bayless did for Mexican food and what the craft beer industry as a whole did for beer.

It’s good thing we all woke up to the fact that we need to up our pizza night game. It’s a win for all of us.

Plus, it goes better with the good beer we’re now drinking.

Beer carnitas pizza3

 

I use this Beer Pizza Dough recipe, unless I fail to plan ahead, then I use this One Hour Beer Pizza Dough recipe.

Beer Carnitas Pizza

Ingredients
  

  • 4 lb pork shoulder trimmed and cut into 5 inches pieces
  • 1 tbs kosher salt
  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • 1 cup IPA
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • pinch cayenne
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1 lb pizza dough
  • 1 cup black beans
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 chipotle pepper in adobo
  • ½ cup shredded cheddar
  • ½ cup shredded mozzarella
  • ¼ cup chopped cilantro
  • ½ cup chopped tomatoes
  • ¼ cup Mexican Crema

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 325.
  • Sprinkle the meat all over with the salt. Add to a shallow dish, cover and refrigerate for 12 hours and up to 3 days (if you skip this step make sure to salt the meat well before proceeding).
  • In a large Dutch oven, or roasting pan over two burners, heat the olive oil until hot but not smoking. Add the meat and cook on all sides until very well browned, working in batches if necessary. Remove the meat and allow to drain on a stack of paper towels.
  • Pour the beer into the pan, scraping to deglaze the bottom, turn off heat. Add the water, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, and smoked paprika. Add the meat back in the pot.
  • Bake uncovered at 325 until falling apart, about 3-4 hours. Pull into bite sized pieces using a fork.
  • Add a pizza stone to the oven, increase heat to 425.
  • In a food processor add the black beans, olive oil and chipotle pepper, process until well combined.
  • On a lightly floured surface roll out the pizza dough, transfer to a pizza peel that has been well covered with corn meal.
  • Spread the black bean puree over the pizza in an even layer.
  • Top with cheese, then carnitas (you will have more than enough, save the remaining meat). Transfer to the pizza stone, bake at 425 until the crust is golden brown, about 12-15 minutes.
  • Remove from oven, top with tomatoes, cilantro and crema.

Adapted from David Leovitz Carnitas, and Spike Mendelsohn Mexican Pizza

Beer carnitas pizza2

Honey Chili Beer Chicken

Honey Chili Beer Chicken 2

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 3

Honey Chili Beer Chicken

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).

Honey Chili Beer Chicken_

Stout Pot Roast & How To Make Pot Roast

How to Make Pot Roast10

This is an exercise in patience.

You can hurry a lot of things but pot roast isn’t one of them. If you aren’t going to take the time to cook it low and slow, you might as well just make something else. Or have take out.

The rules of pot roast, the American Grandma’s Saturday Night Special, are few but unyielding, ignore them and you’ll have shoe leather.

Step one: Caramelize the carrots and then the onions.

How to Make Pot Roast

Caramelizing the vegetables in a hot pan gives another level of flavor that you won’t get by just tossing them in the pot with the roast.

How to Make Pot Roast2

Step two: Season the crap out of your roast, then flour it. 

How to Make Pot Roast3

Use a lot of salt, it’s imperative to getting the results you want. Use good kosher or sea salt (stop buying that iodized table salt already), and don’t be shy with it. Add some garlic powder as well, and then rub in some flour.

How to Make Pot Roast4

Step Three: sear the meat in a hot pan until browned on all sides. 

How to Make Pot Roast5

Step Four: deglaze the pan with beer, it also acts as a meat tenderizer. 

How to Make Pot Roast6

Step Five: add back in the roast, vegetables, some broth and herbs. Cook slow and low for lots of hours.

Don’t boil, it’ll turn that roast tough. Cook it slow and low, I’ve even heard of people cooking their pot roast for up to 12 hours.

How to Make Pot Roast7

Step six: Be patient, it takes a while.  

How to Make Pot Roast9

Stout Pot Roast

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 tbs unsalted butter
  • 5 large carrots cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 2 sweet white onions quartered
  • 1 4 lbs chuck roast, well marbled
  • 1 to 2 tbs Kosher or sea salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 tbs flour
  • 12 ounces stout or porter beer
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 2 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 sprigs thyme

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 250.
  • In a large dutch oven heat the oil and butter until hot but not smoking.
  • Add the carrots, cook until browned, remove from pot and set aside.
  • Add the onions, sear until browned, remove from pot, set aside.
  • Sprinkle with roast on all sides with salt, garlic powder and the flour. Rub the flour in evenly.
  • Sear in the pan until browned on all sides, remove from the pot.
  • Pour the beer into the pot, scraping to deglaze the pan.
  • Add the meat and vegetables back into the pot. Add broth, rosemary and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer.
  • Cover with an oven safe lid, transfer to the oven and cook until fork tender, about 4 hours and up to 8.

I use this Dutch oven all the time, it’s a staple in my kitchen (affiliate link)

How to Make Pot Roast11

Beer Brined Paprika Chicken with IPA Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce + Giveaway

Beer Brined Paprika Chicken with IPA roasted red pepper cream sauce

When you decided to dedicate your life to cooking with beer, people ask questions. Sometimes those questions follow puzzled looks at the grocery store at 8am while pushing a cart full of beer.

More commonly it’s during interviews, which have become more and more frequent over the past year (apparently I’m the foremost leading expert in cooking with beer). The questions are usually similar: "How did you get into cooking?" "What’s your favorite beer?" "How is that you’re not fat?"

The past three interviews I’ve had a new question come up all three times: "What are your favorite kitchen items?"

I did an entire interview for the May issue of Imbibe’s print magazine about things I can’t live without. To be honest, the answer changes a bit from moment to moment, but one thing that always seems to fall into that Can’t Live Without category is my Le Creuset cast iron skillet. I’ve cooked everything from cake to steak in mine and it’s my go to for quick dinners. Without hesitation it’s the pan I’d choose over all the others.

red skillet

With a little inspiration from that question, and the upcoming gift giving festivities, I’m giving some of my favorite things away. A cherry red Le Creuset cast iron skillet (my absolute favorite), an autographed copy of my cookbook: The Craft Beer Cookbook (affiliate link)., and salt that I love so much I carry some around in my purse: Smoked Maldon Salt.

I’m even sharing a recipe from my book that I make in that go-to cast iron skillet. It even tastes great made with some of that smoked salt I love so much.

Beer Brined Paprika Chicken with IPA roasted red pepper cream sauce2

Beer Brined Paprika Chicken with IPA Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

Ingredients
  

For the Chicken:

  • 1 cup IPA beer
  • 1 cup Chicken Broth
  • 1 tbs kosher salt plus ¼ tsp, divided
  • 3 lbs chicken bone in, skin on (thighs, legs, wings)
  • 1 tbs smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tbs olive oil

For the sauce:

  • 2 ounces cream cheese
  • 2 tbs sour cream
  • 2 tbs IPA
  • 1 roasted red pepper from a jar is fine
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • Rice for serving

Instructions
 

  • Add the beer, chicken broth and salt to a bowl, stir to combine. Add the chicken, place bowl in the refrigerator for 3 to 6 hours. Remove chicken from the brine, rinse, pat dry.
  • In a large bowl, mix together the smoked paprika, sweet paprika, onion powder, nutmeg, and cayenne. Add the Chicken, toss until well coated. Allow to sit at room temperature for 10 to fifteen minutes.
  • Heat the olive oil in a large cast iron skillet. Add the chicken, fat side down, and allow to brown, about 4 minutes. Turn chicken over and place cast iron skillet in the oven, cook at 425 for 18 to 20 minutes or until cooked through. (If you don’t own a large enough cast iron skillet to accommodate the chicken, brown chicken in batches and place on a baking sheet that has been covered with aluminum foil. Place baking sheet in the oven, cook at 425 for 18 to 20 minutes.)
  • While the chicken is cooking, add all of the sauce ingredients to a food processor, process until smooth.
  • Plate chicken on top of rice, cover with sauce prior to serving.

 

Favorite Things GIveaway

In the spirit of Holiday Giving, I’ve teamed up with some pretty fantastic bloggers to give away a few of our favorite things.

Enter my giveaway by using the Rafflecopter widget below, but don’t forget to check out the other blogs and enter those giveaways as well.

1. Bakeaholic Mama 2. Pineapple and Coconut 3. Fabtastic Eats 4. The Lemon Bowl 5. Foodness Gracious 6. Rachel Cooks 7. Dine and Dish 8. Big Bear’s Wife 9. Nutmeg Nanny 10. Savory Simple 11. What Megan’s Making 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway