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This easy beer cheese recipe is perfect drizzled over my pulled beer chicken! This is an easy lunch or dinner recipe that’s made in the slow cooker and served on pretzel rolls.
Well, guys. It’s official.
I’m a mean mom and a bad wife.
You’ll never believe what I did.
My family was hungry. I was in the middle of doing something (probably Facebook, but let’s pretend it was something important just for fun). I made them wait for lunch. For a whole hour.
Now, don’t worry. They didn’t starve to death. It was a really close call, but they pulled through. Those 4 hours between breakfast and lunch nearly did them in, but I got off my butt and fed them just in the nick of time.
Of course, once the food was cooked and the house smelled like a weird mixture of beer (!) and cheese (!) and pretzels (!), I sent everyone off to the dining room to wait (im)patiently while I photographed their meal.
Seriously, is it just me or are hungry children and husbands the whiniest creatures on Earth? I mean, my word. I don’t think anyone was literally starving, but the moaning and wailing and rolling around the floor while crying big fat tears was sure enjoyable to watch. Except not.
So, if you’re looking at the pictures of the little pretzel sandwiches and you’re thinking, dang girl, that’s some crap photography…well, blame it on the whiners. They rushed me.
These photos do not do this sandwich justice! First, you have chicken that’s been slow cooked in beer. Because, beer.
Then you have a cheese sauce that’s made with beer. Because, beer.
Then you have pretzel rolls that are slathered with dijon mustard, because…beer? I don’t know. I was drunk at this point and mustard sounded good.
You can use my pretzel roll recipe for the buns here. Just shape them as big or as small as you like and adjust the bake time accordingly. Or you can be a cheater pants and hit up Costco for the big bag of pretzel buns. Either option is delicious.
And, if you want something to serve with these guys, may I suggest some of my crispy battered french fries? You can either dip them in the extra cheese sauce or you can make my easy fry sauce recipe. It won’t be the healthiest lunch, but I’m pretty sure you’ll love it.
Beer Cheese Chicken Pretzel Sliders
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breasts
- 12 ounces beer
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 cup beer
- 1/2 cup milk
- 8 ounces freshly grated cheddar
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- Pretzel rolls homemade or store bought
- Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Place the chicken, beer, garlic, salt, and pepper in the slow cooker and cook on low heat for 8 hours or high heat for 4 hours.
- When done, shred the chicken with two forks. Meat should shred easily.
- To prepare the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 2 minutes.
- Whisk in the beer and milk and continue cooking and whisking until the sauce is smooth and thick, about 5 minutes.
- Turn heat to low and add the cheese, a small handful at a time, stirring until melted before adding the next handful. Stir in the chives.
- To serve, warm the pretzel buns in the oven. Split and spread one side with mustard. Top with the chicken and cheese mixture.
Marie says
I always have to comment if I make something and it turns out well! I made these for a “beer” themed tailgate yesterday. They were delicious! I did make a couple of small alternations, but I’m sure it would have been good regardless. 1) Quadrupled the recipe (it was for a tailgate after all) so I used 2 bottles of Sam Adams Boston Lager in the crock pot and one can of chicken broth. 2) Used Sam Adams Sam ’76 in the cheese sauce, which was perfect, then added some shakes of worcestershire, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper right before adding the cheese. 3) Costco was out of pretzel buns, so I used their artisan buns instead, which made for big “sliders”, but they still worked out. The chicken by itself was delicious, but the combo was awesome. Great idea and recipe!
Carol says
Could I make this ahead of time? Mix the beer cheese and shredded chicken, put in the freezer and reheat in the crockpot?
Karly says
I’m not sure the cheese sauce will hold up well. I’d make the chicken in advance, but make the cheese sauce when you plan to serve it.
Kris says
Hi there! Super excited to try this for dinner tonight! I do have a couple of questions though. In the list of ingredients I see “12 oz of beer”, then when you get to the instructions it says to put the beer in with the chicken, so I assumed all 12 oz of the beer go in the crockpot. Then it says later in the instructions to add a 1/2 cup of beer for the cheese sauce. Are we using 12 oz PLUS a half cup of beer total? Also, in the instructions it says to “Place the beer, chicken, garlic, salt and beer in the slow cooker”. Was that second listing of beer there supposed to be the pepper? Thanks!
Karly says
Hi Kris! I’m sorry for the confusion – the formatting on some of my older recipes keeps getting messed up, so that was a jumbled mess of a recipe!
It’s all fixed now and should be so much easier to read. You’ll need 12 ounces of beer in the slow cooker plus another 1/2 cup of beer for the sauce.
It should have read pepper instead of beer in the instructions! Sorry about that!
Liz says
This recipe was WAY TOO BITTER. I wouldn’t make or recommend to anyone unfortunately. I followed it exactly but it has too much of a beer taste. I *might* try this again and use chicken broth in place of the beer. Hubby disliked too. Not a hit.
Karly says
Sorry to hear you weren’t a fan of this one.
TonittaM says
Hello Karly,
I just found this recipe (and your blog) and can I just say … you are gorgeous and funny and I think I love you 😀 Thank you for the recipe, I think I will try it tomorrow. Because…beer 😀
Karly says
Well, that’s the best comment ever! Thanks so much! 🙂
lauren says
can the cheese be made ahead? If so, how do you re-heat?
Karly says
I would probably not make this ahead. But, if you do, reheat on the stove with a little milk as needed.
lauren says
can you make the cheese sauce ahead of time? If so, how do you recommend I reheat.
Saraswati Mantra says
Oooo! This looks so good!
Michelle says
These look great! One question…can you use frozen chicken breasts or should I thaw them first? Thanks! 🙂
Karly says
You can use frozen chicken, but it’ll take a littler longer to cook. 🙂
Christy says
Dark beer or Light beer? Stout or Pilsner? 😀
Karly says
I used a light beer, but whatever you like to drink should work fine. 🙂
Kendra says
I made these, and they were amazing and everyone loved them, but my sauce was not thick. Any advice to get it to thicken? I am making it for an additional ten people in a few days so please let me know on some tips to make the sauce thicken. Should I let it boil when I add in the milk and beer?
Karly says
You probably need to cook the flour/liquid mixture longer. Bring it to a boil if needed, but it really just needs to thicken up like a gravy.
Krystle (Baking Beauty) says
LOL I love the humor in your posts! If nothing else I’m sure these cured their hunger and then some, looks ah-mazing!
Karly says
Thank you!
yael says
This looks completely amazing – but I don’t have a slow cooker. Can it be done in a regular pot?
Karly says
Absolutely, just add the chicken and beer to a deep pan, add water to cover, and poach until done. It should only take about 20 minutes or so.
yael says
But would it be so soft and easy to shred with two forks? Like the pulled chicken affect in only 20 min?
Karly says
It should shred easily after being fully cooked. It may take a bit longer than 20 minutes, but not too much. 🙂
Tracy | Pale Yellow says
Your family should know by now how things work! This look fantastic and a perfect dish for my St. Patrick’s Day Party!
Karly says
You would think so, and yet… 😉
Kelly - Life Made Sweeter says
Omg I’ve totally done that. Some of my photos even show my son trying to grab the food because he can’t wait haha. These sliders are killer gorgeous! I’d wait all day for them if I had to!