While watching random cooking shows over the years, I picked up the advice from several chefs that if you’re cooking with wine, you should choose a bottle you would actually want to drink, or it isn’t worth using in your recipe.
I have never heard the same advice for beer.
I have used some of the lowest quality, icky beers I’ve ever tasted in baking and cooking over the years, and it’s never seemed to mess up the recipe. In the end, the breadiness of the beer remains, and whatever bitter nonsense that was there before seems to evaporate.
That was the case for this week’s recipe, as well, as I used a cheap domestic lager to create some darn good beer cheese sauce.
The recipe I tried comes from the Instagram account “foodcreationsforyou” by Ryan Pauly. You can look him up there; he has a ton of recipes. I added lots of extra seasonings and also an onion into my version below.
Polish Sheet Pan Dinner
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 small head cabbage chopped
- 1 small yellow onion sliced
- 14 ounces smoked sausage sliced into bite-sized pieces
- 16- ounce package frozen pierogi
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- Olive oil to coat ingredients
Beer Cheese Ingredients
- 1/2 cup lager- or ale-style beer
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 4 ounces cream cheese cubed
- 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese freshly shredded
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 slices bacon cooked and chopped, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prepare a large, rimmed baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
- Dump the cabbage, onion, sausage, pierogi and spices onto the sheet, and drizzle olive oil over everything. Mix with a spoon or with your hands until the oil and spices are well distributed over all the ingredients.
- Bake for 30 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until everything is cooked through and the pierogi are lightly browned.
- While the sausage mixture cooks, add all of the beer cheese ingredients, except for the bacon, into a small pot and heat over medium heat, stirring regularly until the cheese mixture is melted and well combined. If you want a looser sauce, add a bit more chicken stock to the mixture.
- Add in two of the chopped slices of bacon and remove it from the heat or set it to low.
- For serving, scoop the sausage mixture into a bowl and top it with the beer cheese and more bacon.
This was a great dinner for a cooler evening, and the leftovers reheated well, too. There was also a decent amount of the cheese left over that we used up with other meals. It would be amazing with a freshly baked soft pretzel.
The meal itself had a great combination of flavors, from the smoked sausage to the roasted cabbage and onions and the pierogi. The beer cheese and bacon on top were excellent, and I was glad to once again prove that you can buy some pretty cheap, awful beer and end up with an excellent, delicious meal.
This piece first appeared in print Nov. 6, 2025.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
