Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Beer Sauce

Today is November 6th, Election Day.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Beer Sauce

Ingredients

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

Directions

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

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Oven Roasted BBQ Ribs With Stout Barbecue Sauce

I hate to break it to you but you have probably never barbecued in your life. How dare I say such blasphemous things, you toss burgers and steaks on the grill every weekend?!

That’s not Barbecue, it’s grill. And I would never take away from the fantastic results we can get with a backyard grill, and the amazing flavors that can work their way into your food, but it’s not barbecue.

Barbecue is long, slow and low and the temperature is usually between 240 and 270 degrees. Grill is short, fast and hot, a nice char with a juicy middle.

I wanted to see if I could use my oven to get close the flavors of true barbecue, and while I was missing the smokey flavor, these were some of the best homemade ribs I have ever had. The trick is long, slow and low.

Meat choice is important as well, I used Choice ribs. You know that cute little sticker that sits beside the label on your steak packages, baffling you to some degree with the designation of Prime, Choice or Select, as to why they can’t just be honest and say, “Great,” or “Pretty Good,” and, “Not that great, but it’s cheap!”

Here are the Cliffs Notes:

Prime: The best and most expensive

Choice: Still great, not as good or as expensive as Prime

Select: Not good, don’t bother

Unlabeled: Bad, didn’t even earn the lowly title of Select.

Inspected By The USDA: Don’t be fooled, all meat is inspected by the USDA. Some stores use this to distract you from the fact that it is an ungraded piece of meat, and therefore not any good. Prime is obviously the best, but also the most expensive. When I experiment with a recipe, I usually go with Choice because it is a good cut of meat, but if the recipe doesn’t turn out well I didn’t waste $50 on the venture.

Oven Roasted BBQ Ribs With Stout Beer Barbecue Sauce

4 lbs Bone In Baby Back Beef Ribs (Choice or Prime)

1 tsp salt

1 batch Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce

Preheat oven to 250.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, place ribs on top. Sprinkle ribs with salt on all sides. Brush with BBQ sauce and roast in the oven at 250, turning ribs and brushing with BBQ sauce every 30-45 minutes until fork tender, about 4 hours.

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Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Beer Cheese Dip

(Roasted Garlic & Parmesan Beer Cheese Dip)

There are a few ingredients that I have to restrain myself from adding to everything I make. On that list are the following: Sriracha, bacon, goat cheese and roasted garlic.

As you can clearly discern, beer is not in that line-up. Because I never try to hold back the urge to add beer.

Two of those four ingredients did manage to coerce their way into this dip, bulldozing my yearning for variety with their seductive culinary appeal. Roasted garlic is an amazing substance.

Once you start to roast your own and realize that with less than a dollar and 5 minutes of active time you can create the most addictive and flavorful ingredient with your own hands, you may come to understand why I was powerless to resist.

On a side note, I served this dip at a party and was all at once horrified and flattered to find a guy I barely know licking the bowl. I’ll take that as a good sign, and a validation for submitting to the powers of roasted garlic.

For this recipe, I used Saison du BUFF, a joint effort from Stone, Dogfish Head and Victory breweries. A Holy Trinity of Craft Beer splendor that produced a Saison Messiah to lead us into the new world of craft beer glory. It is out now, try and get your hands on a bottle, while you can.

If you can’t get your hands on the Saison du BUFF, I’ve also really loved this with an IPA.

Yum

Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Beer Cheese Dip

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

2 large heads of garlic
2 tbs olive oil
12 oz cream cheese
1 1/2 cup Reggiano or Parmesan cheese, plus an additional 1/4 cup for top
6 oz smoked Gouda or smoked mozzarella cheese
1 cup Saison or IPA beer
1 tsp red chili sauce (such as Sriracha)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbs cornstarch (very important. Keeps the dip from separating)
1/4 cup chopped scallions (green onions)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425.
Cut the top tip of each head garlic off, just enough to expose all of the cloves. Place each head on a separate piece of tin foil. Drizzle with olive oil and seal the foil around the garlic.
Place both garlic packets on a baking sheet or baking dish. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Reduce oven temp to 350.
In a food processor, add the cream cheese, 1 1/2 cup reggianno, gouda, beer, red chili sauce, salt, pepper and corn starch. Squeeze the roasted heads of garlic until the soft cloves comes out, add the roasted cloves to the food processor, taking care that none of the papery garlic skin is added to the food processor. Discard the empty garlic head. Process until well combined.
Add to a baking dish, top with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese.
Bake at 350 until melted and the top has started to turn a light golden brown, about 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven, stir (it will have puffed slightly) top with green onions, serve warm.

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Stout & Sriracha Beer Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue debates rage on all over the south, even as we virtually speak. The most sweltering of all topics is Sauce versus Rub. Rub people claiming that good meat doesn’t need to be drowned in sauce, and sauce people attesting to the holy balance of flavors between sauce and meat, and then there is the apathetic middle who just shrug and use both.

And even when you eat your way across the Barbecue Belt, sampling the best of both slow cooked worlds, and finally take up residence in a meat preparation camp, the disputes don’t end. If you decide to consort with the rowdy sauce crowd, you have more decisions to make. Are you a vinegar based sauce person or tomato based? Molasses or brown sugar? Mustard sauce or chili sauce?

I’ve decided I’m a sauce girl, but I will never turn away good Slow Cooked BBQ Rubbed Spare Ribs. And although I prefer a deep sweet tomato sauce with a kick of spice, I’ll eat every last bit of a Golden Mustard Pulled Pork Sandwich.

Whether you decide on sauce, or just a great marinade, beer is an ideal addition. Beer is a natural meat tenderizer and a deeply flavored stout is a great way to go.

I used Bear Republic, Big Bear Black Stout. A fantastic stout, and as Beer Store Beer Guy told me last week, “Bear Republic’s Stout is one of the most consistent beers I’ve ever had. It always tastes the same, no matter what batch it came from.” Hard thing to accomplish.

Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce

Yum

Stout & Sriracha Beer Barbecue Sauce

Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients

1 tbs olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
3/4 cup ketchup
2 tbs worcestershire sauce
2 tsp sriracha
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 cup Stout
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp onion powder

Instructions

In a pot over medium heat, add the oil and allow to get hot but not smoking. Add the garlic and stir until you can smell it, about 30 seconds. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Allow to cook until thickened, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.
Store in an air tight container in the fridge.

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Amber Ale Beer Hot Sauce

I have an analog soul, still shooting with a film camera.

I like to read real life paper books.

I write letters with pen and paper.

I like to listen to the scratchy sound of Robert Plants voice spun out of a vinyl record.

I guess I was born too late to enjoy all the good stuff. And little by little my antiquated habits are being digitized. I own a DSLR, an iPod, an iPhone and of course, a MacBook. But I will always shoot with my medium format Yashica, and I will hold out strong with my paper words inside real life pages, and I will always say Thank You with ink and a stamp.

It’s probably my primitive spirit that draws me to beers that have been around a while, staying true to what they have always been. Full Sail Amber Ale has been a pioneer in the Craft Beer world since the 1980’s, earning the distinction of the first craft beer bottled in Oregon. And just as you should all have a fierce respect for film cameras, vinyl records and paper books, you should also put Craft Beer Pioneers among those ranks.

All Hail Full Sail.

Amber Ale Hot Sauce

2 tbs olive oil

5 red jalapenos, stems removed, chopped

2 serrano chillies, stems removed, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, minced

12 oz Amber Ale (Reccomended: Full Sail Amber)

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs rice wine vinegar

1/2 tsp white sugar

In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the jalapenos and Serrano, cook until soften, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, add the beer and then the remaining ingredients. Allow to simmer for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add the blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Store in an air tight container in the fridge.