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Thread: Which beer for my chicken stew?

  1. #1
    Indifferent to bacon Julie's avatar
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    Default Which beer for my chicken stew?

    I'm trying to work up the gumption to do some cooking.

    I have a fridge full of beer, but I'm not a beer drinker. I was talking to an old friend who said he loves to put beer in pot roast, which made me think it might be pretty good in some chicken stew.

    My ingredients:

    Chicken
    Onions
    Carrots
    Celery root
    Salt


    My beers:

    Sunset wheat
    Berry weiss
    Honey weiss
    Pale ale
    Adirondack Lager

    The first three are Leinenkugel. The last two are Saranac.

    (I'm not too inclined to use the berry weiss, since berries and beer and stew sounds a tad wretched.)

    So, is it a good or bad idea to put the beer in and, if it's a good idea, which beer?

  2. #2
    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    I dunno -- I often put wine in a chicken stew, but beer might throw the flavours off a bit. If you want to try it, I'd suggest the pale ale -- lager sounds a bit too light, and the others, especially the honey, might add more taste then you want. What the hell, though, experimentation is the soul of stew.

  3. #3
    Indifferent to bacon Julie's avatar
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    Hrm. For some reason I can't edit. I left out a few ingredients:

    potatoes
    pepper
    rosemary and any other spices/herbs that I find appealing at the time


    So, the Pale Ale is likely a stronger, beery-er flavor?

  4. #4
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    Is this a creamy chicken stew or more of a chicken soup with too much stuff in it to still be soup? I'm a huge fan of cooking with beer, but I can't say that I see it working here.
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

  5. #5
    Indifferent to bacon Julie's avatar
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    Because of the chicken?

    I was planning on thick soup rather than anything creamy, but I'm willing to entertain suggestions!

    And I'm willing to ditch the beer idea. I can't really gauge how it would taste.

  6. #6
    Indifferent to bacon Julie's avatar
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    I decided just to go for it and use the Pale Ale, though I only used half a bottle and later added some cream cheese to make the flavor richer. It tastes pretty good!

  7. #7
    Oliphaunt Rube E. Tewesday's avatar
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    Cream cheese. Now there's an idea that never would have occurred to me. Live and learn.

  8. #8
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    Quote Originally posted by Julie
    I decided just to go for it and use the Pale Ale, though I only used half a bottle and later added some cream cheese to make the flavor richer. It tastes pretty good!
    If I were using a beer, I would have gone for the lager. It depends on how hoppy your pale ale is, but they tend to be hoppier than lagers, and I find too much hops can spoil a dish for me. My general rule for cooking with beer is to use less hoppy varieties, like lagers (especially the lighter American lagers) and stouts (Guinness is a good one, as its pretty light in flavor and very unhoppy.) I'm not as big a fan of cooking with beer as some people here are, but I do like it in the more assertive stews, like beef and lamb. For those, I especially like using dark beers, not only stouts, but porters and black lagers work well with these meats.

  9. #9
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Which beer for my chicken stew?

    A post facto vote for the pale ale, although my own preference would be for a less sweet brew like a lager, as was also noted by pulykamell. If a dark beer were called for my choice would be Samuel Smith's oatmeal stout. It is an amazingly flavorful concoction that manages to avoid the heavier palate of many dark beers.

    Another trick to consider when cooking with beer is letting it go flat before adding it to your dish. This can remove some of the sharper top notes and also avoid negative reactions due to the carbonation. If time is of the essence, a quick heating will purge the carbon dioxide. Of course, there are certain cases where the carbonation is a huge plus, as in beer batters.

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