Guinness Beer Bread

I was making Crockpot Guinness Beef Stew and had a fair amount of beer leftover. I figured it wouldn't be the best idea to down the rest of the beer at 8 in the morning, so I decided to bake bread with it.  The bread was so easy, no rise time necessary!  You have fresh baked bread in about an hour, which is the best thing about beer bread.  Miss F was wary of the bread, but once she slathered it in butter, she was sold.  This recipe is adapted from The Black Peppercorn.

Guinness Bear Bread

3 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
⅓ cup oats
⅔ cup dark brown sugar
12 ounces Guinness
1 tablespoon oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and set aside. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, 1/3 cup oats and brown sugar. Slowly beat in the Guinness, do not overmix the batter and make sure there aren’t any lumps. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the tablespoon of oats on top. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

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Crockpot Guinness Beef Stew

I am doing a fantastic job imagining it's fall around here. Even though the thermostat reads in the 90s. And I am pretty sure that after we close on our new house this week, we will go swimming in the pool this weekend.  Crockpot stew is an easy way to pretend it's fall.  I loved making it in Aspen, it was perfect to come home to after a day of skiing.  Though here in Houston, it is more like a day of swimming, in October.  I adapted this recipe from Blissfully Delicious.

Crockpot Guinness Beef Stew

1 pound stew beef
¼ cup flour
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
½ onion, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
¾ cup Guinness Draught
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
5 carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 russet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
4 mushrooms, quartered
2 cups frozen peas
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Toss the stew beef with the flour, turning well to coat. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add the beef and crown on all sides. Transfer the beef to the crockpot. Add the onions to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes. Add the broth, Guinness, tomato paste, sugar, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Transfer the skillet contents to the crockpot and add the carrots, potatoes and mushrooms. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, stir in the peas for the last 20 minutes of cook time. Season with salt and pepper to taste, serve.

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Crockpot Beer Carnitas

I always know a meal is a success if C eats the leftovers. He ate the leftovers of these Carnitas as a snack, so I knew it was a winner. Crockpot cooking is perfect for busy days and this recipe is no exception. We had guests stay at our condo while we were out of town and they left a ton of Corona, I knew it was meant to be. I used a smaller pork should, about 3 pounds, so mine cooked in about 8 hours on low. The Carnitas were great in crunchy taco shells, but they would be equally good on flour tortillas or even on a torta with a bolillo bun. I used the leftovers on nachos, which was amazing.  Miss F added beans to hers, no surprise there.  This recipe is from How Sweet It Is.

Crockpot Beer Carnitas

2 teaspoons cumin
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 onion, peeled and chopped
5-6 pounds pork shoulder roast (or butt)
8 ounces of beer, I used Corona

for serving: taco shells, guacamole, shredded jack cheese

Combine cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper together in a small bowl and mix until combined. Spray the inside of the crockpot with cooking spray and layer the onions over the bottom. Add pork to the crockpot and sprinkle the seasonings all over. Pour in the beer, then cook on low for 10 to 12 hours. Check once or twice if possible and if needed, add more beer. Shred the pork with two forks and return to the crockpot for 20 minutes more. Serve in taco shells with guacamole and shredded cheese.

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Beer Braised Chicken Thighs

One of my most favorite meals in the crockpot is Barbecue Beer Chicken Thighs. It has a nice vinegary kick that I adore. This recipe uses beer and chicken thighs, but it tastes entirely different. The sauce is deliciously thick and the chicken is so tender from being simmered with the beer. I used a bottle of Fat Tire, which provided a great flavor to the sauce. This recipe is very loosely based on the one here created for Terrapin Beer. You cannot go wrong with anything involving a turtle. Much love to the University of Maryland Terrapins, my dad's alma mater. I didn't find that this needed any seasoning at the end of the cooking, mainly because the Tony Cacheres provides a very salty flavor. I am going to make this again with Old Bay in place of the Tony Cacheres.

Beer Braised Chicken Thighs
1 tablespoon Tony Cacheres
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
½ onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of chopped green onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ cup flour
1 bottle beer
1 handful of parsley, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh Thyme, roughly chopped
¼ cup half and half
Salt
Pepper

Clean chicken thighs and remove unnecessary fat. Pat them dry and coat with Creole seasoning. Heat oil over medium-high heat in heavy braising pot or Dutch oven. Once the oil is hot, add chicken thighs and brown on each side for 2-4 minutes. Once the thighs are browned, add chopped onions and sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Mix onions, and garlic together while scraping up browned bits from pan. Add flour and mix. Once mixture has thickened, add the beer. Once pot begins to boil lower heat, cover and lightly simmer chicken for 45-50 minutes until chicken pulls apart easily. After the chicken is done, remove each thigh and turn heat back to medium-high. Add parsley, thyme, and half and half. Cook until sauce reduces and is thick. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to your taste. Serve chicken and sauce topped with chopped green onion.

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Barbecue Beer Chicken Thighs

These were incredibly easy and very yummy. The meat nearly fell off the bone, even Miss F got to try her first pieces of chicken. No longer a vegetarian!

I served mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas with it. The chicken had a nice vinegary kick to them, which tasted incredible, but made the garlic turn blue. Apparently, the acidity in the vinegar can do that. It was the oddest sight, luckily, it doesn't affect the edibility.




Barbecue Beer Chicken Thighs

4 chicken thighs
1 cup beer (I used Pilsner Urquell)
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worchestire sauce
2 teaspoons mustard
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
Hot sauce to taste

Combine all ingredients except the chicken thighs in the crockpot. Stir together to incorporate. Add the chicken thighs and spoon the sauce over to coat. Set the crock pot to high and cook for 5 to 6 hours.

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Beer Can Chicken

This recipe is beyond easy. And you can really adapt it to whatever flavors your like best. I used Old Bay for the first time this week, but I think I really prefer the Tony Chacheres. I will leave the Old Bay for crabs and crab cakes, it just doesn't have enough heat for poultry.

The chicken was so moist, we ate the entire chicken at one sitting.







Beer Can Chicken

1 three to five pound whole chicken
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons spice mix of your choosing (I recommend Tony Chachere's)
1 can of beer of your choosing (I used Bud Light because it was what we had in can form in the beer fridge)

Heat coals in your grill until they turn white. Separate the coals into to piles on either side. Drink (or dispose of) about 1/2 of the can of beer. Add one tablespoon of the spice mixture to the can. Cut off the top of the can. Place the chicken over the can of beer. Rub the outside of the chicken with the oil and season with the remaining spice mix. Grill in the center of the grill, not over the coals, for one to 1.5 hours, until internal temperature reaches 170. Let the chicken rest for ten minutes before carving. Serve.

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Beer Batter Chicken

A long time ago, a friend's boyfriend left her one of the most hysterical messages I have ever heard. He was trying to entice her to come over and in order to do so, he listed off a ton of food choices that he pretended to have had at his place. One of the things listed was "beer batter onion rings". Seriously, would that really cause you to rush over to a guy's house? Well, maybe, okay, probably would...

C's review was that the chicken frying should be left to the pros at KFC and Church's. Ah well, it would entice me over to anyone's house anytime!



Beer Batter Fried Chicken

1 3/4 c. sifted all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 can (12 oz.) beer
8 chicken thighs
Vegetable oil

Combine flour, salt and pepper in a medium size bowl. Beat in beer with a wire whisk or rotary beater until smooth. Let stand 30 minutes.

Pour enough vegetable oil in a large skillet or saucepan to make a 1 inch depth. Heat to 375 degrees on a deep fat frying thermometer or until a cube of bread turns golden within about 60 seconds. Dip chicken pieces into beer batter a few at a time, allowing excess to drain back into bowl.

Fry chicken pieces, turning once, for 30 minutes, or until chicken tests done. Place on paper towels to drain.

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