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!

Stuffed Crust Pizza

I have very fond memories of my family ordering delivery "Stuft-Crust" pizza when I was growing up.  I was a SUPER picky eater and the cheesy faux-mozzarella crust was my prize; it was the best part of the pizza, hands down.  Making pizza is a lot of fun so I thought I would experiment making my own cheese stuffed crust pizza.

Greasy, cheesy nostalgia

Only a little cheese leakage but still, do as I say, not as I do- Freeze that cheese!

I normally try and make things from "scratch" but since this was an experiment, I bought pre-made bagged pizza dough and used string cheese for the filling.  Fresh mozzarella or even cheddar would probably be much better, but I kind of wanted the slightly artificial, highly processed taste from my childhood "Stuft Crust" experiences.  It worked out well!

Yep, string cheese.  Don't judge me!

An important tip to avoid cheese leaking out from the crust is to pop the string cheese in the freezer for at least 15 minutes before getting ready to bake.  I didn't do this step and had a bit of ooze.  Oh well!  Lesson learned.

Fold the crust alllll the way around the frozen cheese to avoid leaks

It's normally a BIG no-no for me to roll out pizza dough.  I read that somewhere, I think- to always stretch it by hand.  But in this case, I wanted enough coverage to completely cover the cheese while still having lots of surface area for toppings.  Plop the string cheese around the edge and wrap them completely with the outer dough, making SURE to tuck the excess dough under the cheese for full coverage!

Topped and ready to bake

Top your pizza and place in a very hot oven, preferably with a preheated baking stone.  Done!

CHEESE STUFFED CRUST PIZZA

Ingredients:

1 lb pizza dough (I used bagged fresh dough found in deli section)

Pinch of corn meal

7-10 mozzarella sting cheese snacks, depending on how thin you roll the crust

Sauce and toppings of your choice

Method:

Put string cheese in freezer ~15 minutes

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

Sprinkle parchment paper with a little cornmeal

Roll out pizza dough to large circle

Line outer edge with very cold string cheese

Roll excess dough over and fully around each stick

Season, sauce, and top pizza with your favorite toppings

Place parchment paper with pizza on bottom rack of oven, bake ~12 minutes

Move pizza stone to center rack, bake another ~10 minutes

Done!

Simple Roast Chicken Method

Roasted whole chicken is a great weekday meal- Everyone can choose their favorite part of the chicken, plus in our case there are normally a ton of leftovers to work with the next day!  Today I'll be showing the method I use.  This is a no-frills, simple way of cooking a plain ol' refrigerated chicken, but if you prefer, you can smush herby compound butter under the skin or brine that sucker.

Finished product with bonus asparagi and mac n' cheese

I always use a cast iron skillet to cook my chicken, but any heavy roasting pan works.

The most important bit of this method is the super duper scientific calculation you must make to time the cook!  So fancy!  [Weight in lbs x 20] + 10 = Minutes in the oven at 350* F.

Example Chicken!

So, for example, with my chicken tonight, [4.83 x 20] + 10 = ~107 minutes (AKA 1 hour and 43 minutes)  Thank you, phone calculator!

I like to add whatever veggies I have laying around to the pan, nestled up against the chicken.  The fat flavors them wonderfully and you can always make a more flavorful gravy if you feel so inclined! 

The key to getting a nice crisp skin without using super high temps is to make sure the chicken is thoroughly dried, before applying a little oil and the spices.

Raw and ready to roll

As you can see, simply dressed.  Rubbed with a squirt of olive oil on each side, stuffed with onion scraps and a few garlic cloves (unpeeled is fine), seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and thyme.  Thyme is such a chicken-y herb.  Make sure you season both sides, and if you remember, some seasoning on the inside of the bird as well.

I "truss" legs in a really rudimentary way- I just tie them together nice and tight.  This apparently helps prevent dryness in the breast meat.  I don't keep kitchen twine handle so I use hemp strings.  It works!

Now you're all set!  Plop that badboy in the oven at 350* for your calculated time.  Once done, make sure to let it rest at least 5 or so minutes so the juices can redistribute.  I hope you find this method helpful!