Würzfleisch

As you all know, we are home brewers. Every year we attend three events that our friends put together to compete in a little friendly competition and taste everyone's hopped concoctions. A couple of weeks ago, our friends, Tony and Laura, put on the second annual "Bockfest". 


Last year, we were still in our tiny apartment and didn't have room to brew, so we just brought a ton of food. Beer Sausage and Bierrocks, to be exact. This year, however, we did brew a bock, so we brought that, along with just one culinary treat, Würzfleisch, which is basically German Chicken & Gravy.

We brewed a Ryebock, which Zack crafted the recipe for himself. Guess what - he won! We were extremely happy with how the beer turned out. We now have a really cool stein to grace the top of our piano for the next year too.

Alright, on to the food. Bock is a German beer, so everyone is asked to create German food for the event. We cooked with a lot of cabbage last year, so we wanted to switch it up and see what else Germany has to offer. We also needed something that would work nicely in a slow cooker. We didn't cook this in the slow cooker, but transferred it after and re-heated it at the party.


Würzfleisch was the winner. Keep in mind, we're cooking for a large group of people, so we tripled the original recipe.

Here's what you need:

Chicken & Gravy:

3-4 lbs chicken (we used boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but any part of the chicken will do)

6 cups chicken stock

6 celery stalks

3-4 carrots

A handful of parsley

3 tsp whole allspice

3 tsp whole peppercorns

3 bay leaves

6 Tbsp butter

9 Tbsp flour

1 1/2 cup white wine (we used Gewürztraminer)

3 Tbsp lemon juice

3 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Rolls:

3 packages brown & serve rolls

2 1/2 cups Gruyere, grated

Here's what you do:

Chop up the celery and carrots and add to a large stock pot with the allspice, peppercorns and parsley.

Add the chicken stock and chicken.

Bring to a boil. Let simmer for one hour.

Scoop the solids into a large bowl and strain your broth into a smaller sauce pan. We ended up with about 4 cups of stock.

In another stock pot, melt the butter.

Add the flour and whisk to make your roux.

Let your roux cook for a couple minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Don't let it brown too much though.

Slowly add in the stock. We ran it through the strainer again as we poured it in. Whisk constantly to prevent lumps.

Bring to a low boil and then reduce the heat to medium and let it thicken. 

Pour in the wine.

Next add the Worcestershire sauce.

And finally, add in the lemon juice.

Let that simmer for about 10 minutes, to cook out the strong wine flavor. Stir every couple of minutes, making sure you get all the way in the corners of the pot. You want to ensure that your sauce doesn't burn.

While your gravy is cooking, separate your chicken and veggies from the spices and parsley.

When the gravy has thickened so that it clings to the spoon, add in the meat and vegetables.

We let that cook together for another 10 minutes or so over medium heat.

For the rolls, we bought the brown and serve dinner rolls and baked according to the package instructions. We grated a block of Gruyere, sliced the rolls in half and topped with the cheese.

From there, we put them under the broiler to melt the cheese and crisp up the rolls. We also were in a rush to get going and forgot the after picture. 

This meal was very nice and was pretty different than the other German food at the party. The rolls were originally intended to have the chicken and gravy poured over them, but it turned out that people loved the Gruyere and just ate them plain. Whatever works!

Enjoy!