I ran across a recipe last week for the Slow Cooker Cranberry Chili Sauce Meatballs. You know the ones – we’ve all had them at holiday parties for decades! This recipe has been around the block. If you haven’t had it, you need to stop and go check it out. There are two primary ingredients that are placed in a slow cooker with either meatballs or little smokies (cocktail weiners is another name for them) and served up at just about potluck known to man!
So Jason bought several packs of beer brats…..he was left alone at the store, unsupervised (big mistake!) and I needed to now figure out what to do with them all. I wanted to try something different than just cook them the old way like we do in our Beer Brats recipes. So, if you see a beer brat recipe trend in the next couple weeks, you know why! Did I mention he bought SEVERAL packs? The first recipe I will tackle is making Slow Cooker Cranberry Chili Sauce Beer Brats. This is one of those inside/outside recipes. So let’s get started!
How to Grill the Beer Brats
Set up your grill for indirect heat and place a cast iron skillet on the grate. Add in a bottle of beer and let it heat up. Once the beer is nice and hot, gently add the beer brats and let them cook until they are done. The skin will turn a light grey color.
Remove the cast iron skillet and brats and set up the grill for a direct cook. Remove the brats from the beer and place them back on the grill to get a nice sear. I cooked them over direct heat for about three minutes on each side.
How to Cook Cranberry Beer Brats
Spray the inside of crockpot with non stick spray. This recipe can get good-and-sticky once it starts to simmer. Combine Chili Sauce and one can of jellied Cranberry Sauce into a crockpot and turn it to low. Allow them to cook on low for 4-6 hours. In the last 1-2 hours, slice the beer brats into one inch segments and add them to the cranberry/chili sauce mixture. Stir to cover the brats.
Serve them straight from the crockpot or use toothpicks and serve on a platter as well.
Can I Use Other Meats?
Absolutely! Use kielbasa or any other cooked brats if you don’t like the beer flavor. There are lower calorie chicken brats that would be amazing in this sauce. Use this sauce to drizzle over grilled chicken breasts, sliced pork shoulder or even as a sauce for your wings.
If you are going to use it on your wings, precook the sauce on the stovetop or the slow cooker and brush on your wings the last few minutes before taking off the grill. If you do the application of sauce up to 3 times (like we talked about in the Double IPA Wings recipe), you can get the sticky and gooey sauce you want!
Cranberry Chili Sauce Beer Brat Bites
Ingredients
- 1 jar chili sauce
- 1 can jellied cranberry sauce
- 1 lb beer brats
- 1 bottle beer pick your favorite
Instructions
Grilling Beer Brats
- Set up the grill for indirect heat. Place a cast iron skillet on the grill and empty a bottle of beer into the skillet
- Add the beer brats and cook until the skin turns a grey color and the brats are fully cooked
- Set up the grill for direct heat and remove the beer brats from the beer. Place the brats over direct heat for two or three minutes on each side to get a nice sear.
Crockpot Cranberry Sauce
- Spray the inside of the crockpot with non stick spray. Pour the cranberry sauce and chili sauce into a crock pot and stir.
- Cook on low for 4 hours.
- Place cut up cooked/grilled beer brats in the chili/cranberry sauce and serve. Sauce has enough to cook 2lbs of beer brats.
