Hearty Backyard Burgers

From Taste of Home



Ingredients:
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup beer or nonalcoholic beer
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
6 rye rolls or whole wheat hamburger buns, split
6 lettuce leaves
12 tomato slices

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Shape into six patties.

Using long-handled tongs, moisten a paper towel with cooking oil and lightly coat the grill rack.

Cover and grill over medium-high heat or broil 4 in. from the grill for 4-5 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 160° and juices run clear.

Serve on rolls with lettuce and tomato slices.

Comments:
I totally screwed these up. Forgot the beer! How could I forget the beer! Oh well, still a tasty burger.

Beer-Cooked Chicken

From allrecipes.com



Ingredients:
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. To Marinate: Pour 1/2 of the beer into a nonporous glass dish or bowl. Add chicken breasts, toss to coat, cover dish and refrigerate for 30 minutes to marinate.

2. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and saute for 5 to 10 minutes or until cooked; remove from skillet and reserve, keeping warm.

3. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in skillet over medium high heat and add chicken. Saute 5 to 6 minutes each side or until cooked through and juices run clear. Reduce heat to low, pour remaining beer over chicken and add reserved mushrooms. Cover skillet and let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Comments:
I screwed this one up a little. I didn't read the whole recipe and so I dumped the beer "marinade" before I realized I was suppose to add it to the pan later on. Whoops! I just threw in some chicken stock instead. It seemed to turn out alright. I'm sure it didn't give the dish the same flavor, but it worked. Just my luck that I'd used our last bottle of beer to marinate the chicken. *sigh*

Beer-Braised Beef

From Cooking Light



Ingredients:
1 cup refrigerated prechopped onion
Cooking spray
1 pound boneless top round steak, trimmed
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1/2 cup light beer
2 tablespoons molasses
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Place onion in a 3- to 3 1/2-quart electric slow cooker coated with cooking spray.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; coat pan with cooking spray. Add steak; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Place steak over onion in cooker; pour tomatoes and beer over steak. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours or until steak is very tender.

3. Shred steak with 2 forks in slow cooker; stir in molasses and salt. Let steak stand 10 minutes before serving.

Comments:
First of all, there's no way this makes 4 servings. I even had a one-cup measuring cup out and we got maybe 2 and a half. A small half. Lots and lots of juice though...

But anyway. The flavor on this is wonderful. The molasses must add that certain something to the depth. We had this with some rolls instead of mashed potatoes (as suggested in the recipe) since I've given up potatoes for lent. Gah.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

From Beer Cookbook: 101 Recipes with Beer



Ingredients:
3 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder with parsley
6 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup beer
1 10oz package frozen broccoli, thawed and drained
10 oz grated Cheddar cheese

Directions:
In Dutch oven, melt butter and saute onion, seasoning salt, and garlic powder with parsley until onion is tender. Stir in flour. Gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until thickened. Stir in chicken broth and beer. Return to a boil. Add broccoli. Reduce heat and add cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.

Comments:
Adam had ordered broccoli cheese soup a restaurant a few weeks ago and was bitterly disappointed when it was pretty much cream of broccoli soup with some cheese thrown on top. I think this was much more what he was expecting. Pretty simple to make, tastes great. Lots of depth of flavor from the broth and beer. Lots of cheese too, so we'll see how it treats my stomach. :)

Easy Slow Cooker French Dip

From Beer Cookbook: 101 Recipes with Beer



Ingredients:
4 lbs rump roast
1 10.5 oz can beef broth
1 10.5 oz can condensed French onion soup
1 12 oz can or bottle beer
6 French rolls
2 tbsp butter

Directions:
Trim excess fat from the rump roast and place in slow cooker. Add the beef broth, onion soup, and beer. Cook on low setting for 7 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Split French rolls nad spread with butter. Bake 10 minutes or until heated through. Slice the meat on the diagonal and place on the rolls. Serve with the sauce for dipping.

Comments:
This was actually pretty good. Good luck "slicing the meat on the diagonal" though. After 7 hours in the slow cooker it just falls apart. I skipped the butter and oven bit and just put the (non-French) rolls in the toaster oven for a few minutes. And condensed French onion soup? Who knew?

Beer Batter Crepes

From Everyday with Rachael Ray



Ingredients:
6 large eggs
2 cups milk
2 cups lager beer (16 ounces), such as Stella Artois
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1/2 teaspoon for the pan
3 1/2 cups flour
2 pinches salt

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until combined. Whisk in the milk, beer and melted butter. Scatter the flour and salt over the mixture and whisk until smotth, about 2 minutes (the batter should be the consistency of heavy cream). Cover the bowl and let the batter rest for 1 hour at room temperature or refrigerate overnight.

2. In a small nonstick skillet, melt the remaining 1/2 teaspoon butter. Using a ladle, stir the batter and pour a scant 1/3 cup into the pan, rotating and tilting the pan to form a thin crêpe. Cook the crêpe until golden on the bottom, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the crêpe and cook for 30 to 60 seconds more. Repeat with the remaining batter, cooking each crêpe after the first few for about 30 seconds on each side. Cover the crêpes with a towel to keep warm.

Comments:
We filled these with shredded chicken and cheese. It worked well. I halved the recipe so I didn't end up with too many leftovers.

Drunken Chicken

From Paula Deen via Delish.com



Ingredients:
House Seasoning:
1/2 cup salt
1/8 cup pepper
1/8 cup garlic powder

Chicken:
1 chicken (about 3 lbs)
1 can beer (12 oz)
a spring rosemary

Directions:
In a bowl, toss together House Seasoning ingredients.

Preheat grill to high heat. You'll be cooking the chicken over indirect heat, so prep the grill accordingly. Wash and drain the chicken. Coat the chicken inside and out with seasoned salt and prepared House Seasoning.

Open the can of beer and pour off 1/4 cup (or, I don't know, drink it.) Insert a spring of rosemary into the can. Place the beer can into the rear end of the chicken. Place the chicken, standing up, on the grill. Cover and cook until chickens are done, turning occasionally.

Comments:
While pretty simple to make, the chicken took a lot longer to cook on our gas grill than the original recipe said. It has 45 minutes to an hour. Our chicken went almost 2. I figured the time seemed pretty short and planned accordingly though. Nice flavor from both the rub and the beer. And as you can tell, Adam was so eager to get eating I couldn't get a picture before he cut into the bird. :) We also managed to spill quite a bit of beer on the serving plate. Oops.

Grilled Seasoned Bratwurst

From Cooking for 2 Summer 2008. (link is to the original recipe, not the scaled-down for 2 version, which is a subscriber only link.)



Ingredients:
brats
beer
onion
fennel seed (left out - I don't even have this)
buns

Comments:
This recipe is very similar to a crockpot version that we like in that the brats are poached in beer and onions. This version then crisps up the outside on the grill whereas the slow cooker one just cooks them all day. Both are yummy. And easy.

Cheddar Bacon Beer Bread

From Rabbit Creek Products



Ingredients:
Cheddar bacon beer bread mix
beer
butter

Comments:
I had also mentioned this interesting sounding beer bread mix we picked up in Door County. I made it this past Tuesday when I was home for the day on vacation. It smelled heavenly as it baked and tastes just as good.