Like wine, beer is a versatile, nuanced cooking ingredient. Dark beers add a layer of complex flavor to stews, sauces, and marinades, while a crisp, fizzy lager does a great job lightening batters for fried treats like onion rings. We've rounded up our favorite recipes for cooking with beer.
The carbonation in beer makes for extra light and crispy fried foods. The red snapper in our fish tacos have a mild flour and egg batter, while our beer-battered onion rings are just a little sweet-spicy thanks to honey and paprika. One of our favorite fried appetizers is an elegant dish of zucchini blossoms stuffed with anchovies and fried in a simple lager or seltzer batter.
Beer is also a flavorful braising liquid. For a fruity pulled pork, braise the meat in lager, spices, and canned peaches. It makes a great sandwich with arugula, red onion, and a dijon-peach spread. For a rich brisket, cook the beef in a mixture of stout beer, bourbon, soy sauce, brown sugar, balsamic, and thyme. A creamy pimento cheese adds brightness.
To wash down these dishes, try a beer cocktail. To make a chavela, mix a Mexican lager with tomato juice and hot sauce. To turn your chavela into a michelada, add lime juice and Tajín, a Mexican seasoning blend of dried chiles, lime, and salt. Famed chef Rick Bayless like to make a michelada-bloody mary hybrid. It's made with beer, tomato and citrus juices, hot sauce, and a shot of tequila.
Find all of these dishes and more in our collection of recipes for cooking with beer.
Beer-Braised Pork Belly Salad
This chile-rubbed, beer-braised pork belly is cooked until tender and served atop arugula and pears. Get the recipe for Beer-Braised Pork Belly Salad »
Flemish Beef and Beer Stew (Carbonnade)
Unlike French beef stews made with wine, carbonnade—a Flemish stew—relies on the deep, dark flavor of Belgian abbey-style beer. But what really gives the dish its distinctive character is the addition of brown sugar and cider vinegar, a sweet-sour combination that plays beautifully against the caramelized onions and rich beer. Get the recipe for Flemish Beef and Beer Stew »
Beer-Battered Onion Rings
A flavorful batter infused with honey, paprika, and lager beer is the secret to these crunchy onion rings. Get the recipe for Beer-Battered Onion Rings »
Roasted Parsnip Salad with Hazelnuts, Blue Cheese, and Wheat Beer Vinaigrette
Parsnips offer sweetness, while spicy hazelnuts and coarse pumpernickel crumbs add crunch to this modern salad. Get the recipe for Roasted Parsnip Salad with Hazelnuts, Blue Cheese, and Wheat Beer Vinaigrette »
Chavela (Mexican Beer with Tomato Juice)
A classic version of a Mexican cerveza preparada (prepared beer), the chavela couldn’t be simpler: tomato juice, hot sauce, beer, lemon, and ice, with a salted rim.
Michelada Bloody Mary
Chef Rick Bayless suggested this recipe for a bloody mary made with beer, citrus, and tequila.
Braised Rabbit with Mushrooms and Celery Root
Wild rabbit, a favorite among hunters in Kansas, is braised in beer and chicken stock to make this autumnal dish.
Light and airy, with a subtle squash flavor, zucchini blossoms are wonderful to cook; they make a flavorful, delicate appetizer when stuffed with salty anchovies and fried.
Pulled pork stands in for the burnt ends of barbecued brisket in this robust Kansas City-style bean chili inspired by one from the restaurant Rye KC in Leawood, Kansas.
Any cheese—Gruyere, blue, goat—can melt as evenly as American-style cheese, with this revelatory recipe from the cookbook Modernist Cuisine at Home, by Nathan Myhrvold and Maxime Bilet, the home-cooking follow-up to their six-volume Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking.
Colombiana Pitcher Cocktail (Refajo)
Crisp and bittersweet, this Colombian lager-based cocktail is the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon around the grill. Get the recipe for Colombiana Pitcher Cocktail (Refajo) »
Beef Cheek and Stout Pie with Stilton Pastry
“If making a pie, one should make it indulgent,” says chef Daniel Doherty of London and New York’s Duck & Waffle. He follows his own advice for this meat-stuffed pie with a pungent crust. Get the recipe for Beef Cheek and Stout Pie with Stilton Pastry »
Venison Sausage Braised in Beer
With carrots, leeks, apples, and savoy cabbage, venison sausage takes on a rich, yeasty flavor when braised in lager-style beer.
Fish Tacos
Adding beer to the batter helps the fish for these tacos fry up golden brown and lightly crispy.
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