Father's Day meals: Cooking with beer

Use beer to steam mussels or stuff up a chicken’s butt for your Father this holiday.

Wed, Jun 16 2010 at 4:33 PM EST

photo: methticalman/Flickr

We’ve got several recipes here on MNN that use beer as one of their main ingredients, and I’m thinking Father’s Day is the perfect occasion to point you to some of the site’s recipes you may not have come across yet along with a couple from other sites. The dad in your life will be happy to drink up the other five beers from the 6-pack after you’ve used one for creating part of his dinner.

Mussels Steamed in Wheat Beer – Use environmentally sustainable farmed mussels for this recipe and an organic wheat beer like New Belgium’s Mothership Wit.

Cheese and Beer Bread – Go for a good cheddar like Cabot’s Seriously Sharp for this bread. The recipe calls for any beer, but remember the stronger tasting the beer you add to the bread, the stronger the flavor will be in the finished loaf.

Cod Baked in Cider – Okay, technically this isn’t a beer recipe, but it does call for hard cider. Try using Northern Natural’s Organic Hard Cider or J.K.’s Scrumpy Organic Hard Cider.

Beer Butt Rosemary Chicken – You need a can, not a bottle, of beer for this recipe that literally sticks the can up the chicken’s backside. There are actually beer butt chicken stands you can buy to keep your chicken from toppling over, but they aren’t necessary. Head to the farmers market for the rosemary, onion, new potatoes, and perhaps even the chicken for this easy recipe. Young children will love telling their Daddy that they’ll be having beer butt chicken for dinner.