Sheet Pan Beer Brats Dinner

Sheet Pan Beer Brats Dinner came to mind as I was perusing the offerings at my favorite meat shop. I love shopping there because it is pristine and all the meat is local, grass-fed (or pastured), sustainable and produced by farmers who practice good animal stewardship. I had the sheet pan dinner concept in the back of my mind and was looking at the chicken when I spied the brats.

I did not grow up eating bratwurst. I grew up avoiding processed meats, so rarely even had a hot dog. But a couple years ago I walked into this shop when one of the owners was making brats—Wisconsin-style with coarsely ground pork. They make all their own sausages with the best ingredients. So I took home four “homemade,” unprocessed brats and haven’t looked back since.

A sheet pan dinner is what I call streamlined cooking. And there are at least a few days a week when dinner really needs to be streamlined. It’s such an easy way to get lots of different vegetables into your diet because they all cook together. Cabbage wedges would’ve been good with this, and I’ll do that next time.

I do a lot of wine reductions but have never even heard of a beer reduction. It was just going to go against my grain to pour that beer down the drain, though, so I thought I'd make a little sauce out of it. Love it!

For more streamlined cooking, Sheet Pan Chicken Dinner. 

Sheet Pan Beer Brats Dinner

(Makes 4 servings)

The Brats and Vegetables

4 bratwurst sausages (about 5 ounces each)
1 12-ounce bottle Newcastle Brown Ale
2 medium orange-flesh sweet potatoes (about 22 ounces/624 grams total), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
About 3/4 pound broccoli and cauliflower florets
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, divided
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon mixed with 1/8 teaspoon salt 
Salt and coarsely ground black pepper

The Sauce

The beer reduction
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Pinch (1/16 teaspoon) crushed red pepper flakes

1 Pierce the sausages six times each with a toothpick or a few times with a knife. Put them in a wide saucepan with the beer. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Leave the brats in the beer until you place them on the baking sheet.

2 Preheat oven to 400F/205C/Gas6. Line an 18x13x1-inch half sheet pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. In a 1.5- to 2-quart bowl, toss sweet potato slices with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. Lay out the slices at one end of the baking sheet. Sprinkle them evenly with the cinnamon-salt mixture.

3 In that same bowl, toss the broccoli and cauliflower florets with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. Spread them out at the other end of the baking sheet. Put the beer-boiled brats in the center of the baking sheet. Sprinkle the broccoli, cauliflower and brats with salt and pepper.

4 Bake for 30 minutes. In the meantime, strain the beer into a glass measuring cup and wipe out the saucepan. Pour the beer back into the saucepan. Bring it to a boil, and adjust the heat to keep it at a slow-ish boil until it is reduced to 1/2 cup. Just pour it back into the glass measuring cup from time to time to check it. When it’s down to 1/2 cup, whisk in remaining ingredients.

5 Drizzle sauce over all, or let each person sauce his own plate. 

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Jean