Beer Brats- Bratwurst boiled in beer!

Bratwurst is delicious on its own, but even better when simmered in beer, spices, and plenty of onions!  Full disclosure:  I did not make the bratwursts themselves.  I've never made sausages by hand, ever.  But these were raw, fresh brats someone else made.  I can live with it.

Mmm, breath bombs

This method is super easy!  All you do is combine beer, sliced onion, and a pinch of some spices.  Bring to a boil, add your brats.  Reduce heat, simmer brats.  Sear cooked brats.  Put on buns.  Add the cooked onions.  Voila!

2 cans beer, 1 sliced onion, spices.

Maybe snag a couple sips of beer before pouring them in.  You are the kitchen master, after all.

Not so appetizing.  Just give it time...

Plop in your brats once the beer mixture boils.  Cook them on medium for 20 minutes, flipping halfway.

Cast iron forever!

Once the brats are cooked, remove them and sear in another pan- I like cast iron but any kind will work!  Keep the beer/onion mixture on low heat.  Just a few minutes on each side and you're ready to eat!

Finished brats waiting on their onions

Place the brats in buns and top with onion mixture.  I like to serve with spicy brown mustard, but that's just me.  If you're avoiding bread, just chop up the brats and eat with the onions mixed in!

BEER BRATWURST

Ingredients:

4-6 bratwurst

2 cans/bottles of beer (24 oz)

1 yellow or white onion, sliced into strips

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1/2 t garlic

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Buns

Spicy brown mustard (optional)

Method:

Mix beer, onions, and spices in pan large enough to fit brats in 1 layer

Bring to a boil over high heat

Add brats, reduce to medium

Simmer 20 minutes, turning brats halfway through cooking time

Remove brats, keep onion/beer mix on low heat

Add brats to separate pan on medium-high heat, searing each side for about 2 minutes

Serve on buns with onion mixture (strain some of the beer out)

Mustard on the side is great!

DONE!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Finished product~

OK, first legitimate recipe, yay!  Hubs and I love spicy food, and enjoyed buffalo chicken pizzas at Buffalo Brothers for the first couple years of dating. However,  it's much cheaper to make at home and tastes great!

First of all, if you want to be O.G. about it, you gotta use Frank's Red Hot sauce.  It's the original hot sauce used in Buffalo, New York for the first "hot wings" made.  It's a great sauce and very versatile (awesome on eggs!)  Also, we are blue cheese fans.  Blue cheese is my FAVORITE kind of cheese, and I was a cheesemonger, so I've eaten way more cheese than I'd like to admit.  But I do understand that it's not for everyone, and so ranch can easily be substituted for this pizza, so no worries!

Sometimes I make my own pizza dough, but most of the time I don't.  That's a recipe for another day.  For this, I used the bagged pizza dough found in the deli section of my grocery store.  The Pillsbury stuff in a can is fine too, but I prefer the texture of the bagged stuff!

Whatever butters your biscuit!

For the chicken, I used bone-in thighs because they were cheap.  But use whatever you'd like as long as you soak it in that sweet sweet Franks.

Before hitting the hot oven

Aw yes, cheesy goodness

RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 ball of pizza dough

2 cups diced chicken, mixed with 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot

1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce, for drizzling on top of pizza

3/4 cup chunky blue cheese dressing OR ranch dressing

2 cups mozzarella cheese

3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese

1/4 cup diced green onions

1 teaspoon cornmeal

Salt, garlic, and cayenne to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 450* F, with pizza stone heating on bottom rack

~If no pizza stone, that's fine!  Just add 2 minutes to bottom rack cooking time and use a cookie sheet!~

Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with corn meal

Stretch dough ball into desired pizza shape, coating the bottom with the cornmeal

Sprinkle dough with tiny pinch of salt, garlic, and cayenne pepper

Use the bottom of a spoon to spread dressing on the pizza as a base/sauce

Evenly distribute mozzarella on top

Place Frank's soaked chicken pieces all over

Sprinkle crumbled blue cheese over top of pizza

Drizzle Frank's Red Hot evenly over pizza

Put parchment paper with the pizza on the heated pizza stone, bottom of oven rack

Cook 5 minutes

Move pizza stone to center rack, cook 7 minutes or until golden brown crust and bubbling cheese

Remove and sprinkle with diced green onions

Cut pizza (just on parchment, never on the stone)

DONE!