Beer doesn't play a huge role in my everyday life. When the weather's hot, I'll share one with friends in the backyard, and when we go out for Mexican or Indian food, I generally order beer. But recently while traveling in New Jersey, I started to think about beer quite a bit. It seemed that lots of restaurants, family, and friends were cooking with beer. From chicken to kabobs to grainy baguettes, I noticed it everywhere.
There are a lot of reasons people bake and cook with beer. I think first and foremost is the flavor: beer contains hops and malt, so it imparts a very subtle sweetness that compliments pork and chicken dishes nicely. A lot of cooks say that the yeast in beer also makes baked goods lighter and springier. From salad dressing to caramels and bread, we have a few great places to start experimenting with beer in the kitchen.
Try a Recipe:
• Blackened Beer-Brined Chicken Breasts (as pictured), via Emma Christensen for The Kitchn
• Orange and Ale Vinaigrette, via The Bitten Word
• Cheddar Beer Dip with Smoked Sausage, via CHOW
• Beer-Poached Grilled Sausages, via Whole Foods Market
• Beer-Brined Grilled Pork Chops, via Epicurious
• Soft Pretzels, via Martha Stewart
• Beer Bread, via My Baking Addiction
• Chocolate Beer Cheesecake with a Pretzel Crust, via The Beeroness
• Ale and Pretzel Soft Caramels, via Sprinkle Bakes
• Chocolate Beer Cake, via Fifty Two Cakes
Related: Beer For Dessert: Have a Beer Float!
(Image: Emma Christensen)
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This is my all time favourite cooking with beer recipe: Beer Braised Chicken Recipe from Claire Robinson. It goes great with egg noodles!
there is a beer bread recipe from Food Network that only has 3 or 4 ingredients and is so easy and good. we've used it with beer that we didn't love when we tried it and needed to use up the rest of the 6 pack. it's been good with everything we've tried, but especially seasonal/fruity beers.
Just cooked up some homemade pork sausages with smoked cheddar and jalapeno in some hoppy pale ale, I love to cook iwth beer. You can do so much with it.
Beer can chicken- having it tonight!
I threw together a three-sausage and sauerkraut slow cooker dish for Fathers' Day that included a healthy helping of Guinness Stout Ale. It was really, really good, and outside of the fact that I overcooked the sausage (some of it exploded) I think the beer is what made the dish as savory as it was.
love cooking w beer! did you know you could freeze it and bake with it as well? i did that w my chocolate beer bread:
http://theactorsdiet.com/2011/10/04/chocolate-beer-bread/
Lucy Saunders has been writing about cooking with craft beer for at least 20 years - her cookbooks are wonderful. Plus, she's a really cool lady, to boot.
Any good beer sauce recpies? I just got back from a vacation in Germany and the beer sauce was amazing but I haven't been able to recreate it.