Cooking With Beer: Chef Inspired Recipes With Craft Beer

In honor of American Craft Beer Week, we’re cooking with beer! Our Executive Chefs from each location competed to submit their best beer-infused dish to be featured company-wide.

Chef Brian Broadwater from City Works in Orange Village and Chef Eric Reichel from City Works in Minneapolis were our winners. We spoke to the chefs about the inspiration behind their recipes, and got their tips on how to prepare their delicious, award-winning recipes at home.

Try these flavorful, craft beer-infused, chef-inspired recipes at home during American Craft Beer Week, for an easy weeknight dinner or fresh new lunch idea.

Chef Brian Broadwater’s Crispy Pork Belly

“My cooking style has evolved as I’ve grown in the kitchen. When I was younger and coming up in fine dining restaurants, I was not really into ‘simplicity’. I liked dishes to have seven to ten components. But as I’ve evolved, it has become more about using solid techniques and minimal ingredients that all complement each other, beautifully.

That is what I like about this dish. It’s a very simple braised dish, and that braising really infuses the flavors of the beer and spices into the piece of meat. The earthiness of the sprouts compliments the sweetness of the sauce and the creamy, smokey flavor of the grits. I have always been a fan of alternative cuts of meat. While pork belly has really gained a lot of popularity over the last couple years, it still is a secondary cut of meat that most people are intimidated by, but it is a very simple piece of meat to manipulate.” – Chef Brian Broadwater

Get The Recipe

Ingredients:
1 lb skinless pork belly
salt and pepper
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves
2 cloves of anise star
1 cinnamon stick
24 fl oz Double Chocolate Stout

Recipe Preparation: 

Preheat the oven to 300°F .

Using a sharp knife, score the pork belly in a crosshatch pattern. Season the meat generously with salt and pepper, then sear in a hot pan, belly fat side down. Once a good color is achieved, remove from the pan and set aside.

To the same pan, add the carrot, celery, onion, and garlic. Sauté the vegetables until caramelized, then remove from the heat. Transfer the vegetables and spices to a roasting pan, then place the pork belly fat side up on the vegetables. Pour the Stout over the pork belly, then wrap in plastic wrap first, then foil. Cook for 2 hours until the meat is extremely tender, then cool to let the flavors set. Once cool, slice into equal size pieces, and sear the fat side down until crispy, once your skin is crispy, just pop it into the oven for a few minutes to heat thoroughly.

While the pork is cooling, using a mandolin, shave the sprouts to ¼” thick. Toss in salt and pepper and cook the oven for 10 mins at 350 degrees.

In a separate pot, heat up 1 cup of heavy cream with ¾ cup of chicken stock. Once boiling, add in  ½ cup of grits. Cook until creamy. Once desired textured is reached, add in 3oz of cubed butter, ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, 1 cup of smoked cheddar cheese, and 1 cup of small diced green onions.

Once the pork has cooled for 2 hours, strain all of the braising liquid through a china cap or strainer. Add the braising liquid to a pot and add 12 oz of pure maple syrup. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and reduce by half.

Place grits in the center of bowl, covering the entire bottom.

Plate the sprouts in the middle of the grits.

Slice the pork belly in 2 oz slices, and shingle them over the sprouts.

Using a shared spoon, put sauce over the pork, and around the circumference of the grits.

Garnish with rainbow mix micro greens across the pork.

Chef Eric Reichel’s Mexican Honey Steak Sandwich

“We were looking at something for American Craft Beer Week, and [I realized] we have a lot of great artisan breweries here. I came up with the idea to feature Indeed Mexican Honey from Indeed Brewery, which is right here in the Twin Cities.

This is kind of a global sandwich. You have a little bit of the local United States brewery. Of course, the beer is called Mexican Honey, so we’re working our way south of the border into Argentina with the chimichurri cream cheese that will be on it. There’s a wide variety of cuisine that’s going on. 

As far as the marinade goes, home chefs can pretty much throw all the ingredients in the blender, aside from the beef and your squeezed citrus ends, because you’re going to reserve those and leave them in the marinade for 24 hours. Blend it up, get your steak in a pan, and pour it right over it. Then let it get nice and happy in those juices.

That’s kind of it, as far as that’s concerned. It’s not cookie cutter by any means—probably the most challenging part of it is sourcing those ingredients. For most home cooks, most of those should be in their house already. Instead of using brown sugar, you could use a white granulated sugar as well. if you’ve got something other than a red wine vinegar, that could work as well. it doesn’t have to be those exact ingredients in a recipe.” – Chef Eric Reichel

Get The Recipe

Ingredients: 

For the Marinade: 
Worcestershire sauce
Indeed Mexican Honey (or lager of choice)
brown sugar
garlic
citrus
green onions
salt
pepper
red wine vinegar
olive oil

For the Sandwich:
6 oz grilled marinated flank steak
3 oz chimichurri cream cheese
3 pieces  of lime dried Roma tomatoes
2 pieces of crispy portabella mushroom
¼ oz frisee
1 hoagie roll

Recipe Preparation: 

Prepare your marinade by mixing Worcestershire sauce, beer, brown sugar, some garlic, citrus, green onions, salt and pepper, red wine vinegar, and olive oil in a blender.

Marinate your steak for 24 hours.

Pre-heat your grill to 450 degrees. Mark the flank steak on each side, cool it, and slice it.

Toast the hoagie roll.

Build the hoagie by spreading the chimichurri cream cheese on the bottom bun of the hoagie roll. From there, add frisee, lime dried tomatoes and the flank steak. Smear remaining chimichurri cream cheese on the top bun of the hoagie roll.

Serve with your favorite kettle chips.