BBQ Beer Brat Tailgate Pizza & How To Prep A Grilled Pizza For Tailgating

I grill pizza more often than I grill anything else. Unless you have a pizza oven in your backyard, it’s likely your best option when it comes to at home pizza cooking. Or, in this case, parking-lot-back-of-a-truck-with-a-portable-grill cooking. You get those lovely grilled char marks that you want when open flames are cooking your food, and it’s easy to modify to your guest eating persuasions.

Tailgate Pizza Tips:

Prep as much as you can ahead of time. If you’re making more than one pizza, write down the toppings you want for each, prep them all and store them in small containers to take with you. The dough can, and should, be made in advance. Just make sure to punch down the dough every 12 hours (literally just punch the middle of it to deflate, you can also grab the sides and pull to deflate). Pizza dough is best if it’s able to cold ferment in the fridge for a few days.

Don’t forget to bring a surface to roll out the dough. Some people like to use a rolling pin, while others think hand shaping the dough is the only way to go, it’s your call.

Brush the grates with olive oil to keep the dough from sticking. I sometimes oil the dough and flip it onto the grill like a giant pancake, but that’s just me.

You only want to grill the underside until it holds shape. It’s going back on the grill to heat the toppings and melt the cheese, undercooking it the first time will prevent overcooking it the second time.

Pizzas take about 8 minutes to cook, so they are easy to make as-needed. Plus they don’t take up too much room in the cooler, leaving you way more space for beer. Which, really, is the most important part.

I used Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce

Yum

BBQ Beer Brat Tailgate Pizza & How To Prep A Grilled Pizza For Tailgating

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

For the Pizza Dough:

3 cups (360g) bread flour
1 packet (2 ¼ tsp, or 21g) rapid rise yeast
2 tsp (8g) sugar
1 cup (226g) wheat beer
3 tbs (42g) whole milk
1 tbs (14g) olive oil, plus 2 tbs (28g), divided
1/2 (2g) tsp salt

Toppings:

2 to 3 large beer brats, raw
24 ounces beer (wheat, pale ale, or brown ale)
Stout & Sriracha BBQ Sauce (link above)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 roasted red bell pepper, chopped (from a jar is OK)
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley (or cilantro)
Oil for the grill

Instructions

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the bread flour, yeast, and sugar, stir until well combined. In a microwave safe bowl, add the beer. Heat until 120F. Add the beer to the flour and stir until incorporated. Add the milk, salt and 1 tablespoon oil, stir with the dough hook until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Allow to rise in a warm room until doubles in size, about one hour. You can bake the dough at this point, but it’s best to punch down the dough, cover and allow it to rise again in the fridge from 12-18 hours.
Make the beer brats. In a pan with a lid add the brats and the beer, cover and simmer until the brats are cooked through, remove from pan.
Preheat the grill to medium high. Grill the brats until grill marks appear on all sides, about 3 minutes. Remove and slice.
Brush the grates with oil to prevent sticking . Place the dough on the grill (a pizza peel coated in flour or cornmeal will help) until grill marks start to appear. Flip the dough and very lightly grill on the underside, just until the dough holds shape. Remove from the grill, place on a work surface with the lightly grilled side down. Spread an even layer of BBQ sauce over the crust, top evenly with cheese, add sliced brats and red pepper.
Return to the grill, close the lid and cook until the cheese has melted, 3-5 minutes. Remove from grill, sprinkle with parsley (or cilantro), slice and serve.

Notes

Pre-prep (tailgating tips): • Make the dough the night before, let it do a second rise in the fridge. You’ll have to have a space to roll it out when you get to the venue, so bring a large cutting board if needed. It’ll be best if you let it come to room temp before trying to roll out. 10 minutes in a car with the heater on should be fine. • Boil the brats ahead of time, pack them in the cooler, grill and slice them on site. • Have all your ingredients prepped and stored in small containers, ready to go when you need them, it’ll help make the process much easier.

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http://thebeeroness.com/2015/09/11/bbq-beer-brat-tailgate-pizza-how-to-prep-a-grilled-pizza-for-tailgating/

Yogurt and Beer Marinated Chicken Skewers

I’ve decided that the grill is officially open. Regardless of the weather, regardless of the time constraints, regardless of the lack of Meats on Sticks occasions in my near future. The grill needs to be open. Maybe it’s the catastrophic levels of stress in my life right now, maybe it’s my severe vitamin D deficiency since leaving Southern California, or maybe the grill should never be closed at all.

There’s a therapeutic quality to the first grilled food of the season. That delicious char you’d almost forgotten about. Cooking in the great wide open with sun on your face, beer in one hand, ridiculously oversized tongs in the other. And the realization that winter has passed. It all adds up to one of the most satisfying meals of the year.

Although I am considering not closing the grill at all next winter, but I’ll report back to you once the snow hits.

Yogurt and Beer Marinated Chicken Skewers

Ingredients

1 cup plain Greek yogurt
½ cup pale ale
1 tsp dried crushed red peppers
1 ½ tsp sweet smoked paprika (or 1 tsp sweet and ½ tsp smoked paprika)
2 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 large garlic cloves, grated with a microplane
2 1/4 pounds skinless boneless chicken (thighs or breast), cut into cubes
vegetable oil for the grill
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley

Directions

In a large bowl stir together the yogurt, beer, red pepper, paprika, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and garlic. Add the chicken cubes, stir until fully submerged and coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24.
Preheat grill to medium high.
Remove chicken from marinate and thread onto metal skewers (or presoaked wood skewers), discard marinade.
Brush the grill with oil to prevent sticking.
Grill the chicken skewers on each side until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving, if desired.

http://thebeeroness.com/2014/04/21/yogurt-beer-marinated-chicken-skewers/

Chipotle Stout and Chorizo Chili Topped with Pork Rinds

I’m so glad I can share this recipe with you. I’ve been working like a crazy person to develop and test recipes that I fall in love with but I can’t share them with you because I need to save them for the cookbook.

And, of course, I’m putting a tremendous amount of pressure on myself to make each recipe a home run.

Because once you buy the book, and actually pay for the recipes, I want them all to be amazing. This, my friend, is a huge amount of pressure on me and the limits of my culinary creativity.

But then I get these crazy ideas, like putting crushed Chicharrones on top of chili and I can’t even wait to share it. I have to post it as soon as possible, even pushing back a more “seasonally appropriate” post because I want to show you this.

And Chorizo, with it’s spice and fatty goodness, is perfect in chili. In fact, I pretty much raided the “C” section of my local mexican food market (there isn’t a “C” section, by the way, but there should be) to bring you a dish with chipotle, chorizo, chicharrones, cilantro, cheddar and cumin.

And then I ate three bowls before I could even share it with anyone.

If I was planning on tailgating anytime soon, I would make this in huge vats. But I live in LA, a great city with a tremendous amount of things to do, but without a local football team, tailgating isn’t one of those things.

And if you are a “beans in your chili” kind of guy, go ahead and throw some in, I won’t mind.

Or add some sour cream, if that’s your thing.

Chipotle Stout and Chorizo Chili Topped with Pork Rinds

Ingredients

2 tbs olive oil
½ white onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 red bell pepper, chopped, stem and seeds removed
6 oz chorizo, raw, removed from casing
1 lb ground beef chuck (80/20 lean to fat)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup Chipotle Stout
14 oz stewed diced tomatoes (canned is fine)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo (from can), minced plus more if desired
1 tsp adobo sauce
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Toppings:

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
½ cup cilantro, chopped
2 cups Chicharrones (pork rinds), lightly crushed
(Makes 4-6 servings)

Directions

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until onion softens but isn’t browned, about 5 minutes.
Add the chorizo and beef, cook until meat starts to brown. Add the garlic and stir.
Add the beer, diced tomatoes, one chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, smoked paprika, pepper, cumin and Worcestershire sauce. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes, until thickened. Add additional chipotle peppers as desired to raise heat level.
Pour into bowls, top with cilantro, cheddar and Chicharrones.

http://thebeeroness.com/2012/12/04/chipotle-stout-and-chorizo-chili-topped-with-pork-rinds/