We ‘Wienermaxxed’ Croquetas With Hot Dogs And Beer
Somewhere between béchamel and cracking open a cold one, Foodbeast’s Chris Abouabdo found a loophole.
For his latest act of Wienermaxxing, Chris is taking on croquetas, those crispy little Spanish marvels built around a creamy béchamel filling. His version starts with finely chopped wieners cooked down with onions and butter before flour goes into the pan to build the roux. Then comes a full cup of Montucky Cold Snacks, slowly streamed into the mixture before heavy cream and Manchego finish the job.
Chris calls it ‘beerchamel’.
The Montucky actually has some work to do here, bringing another layer of flavor to all that butter, cream, cheese, and wiener business before the mixture thickens into the filling.
I’m inclined to respect any culinary innovation that also leaves explicit instructions to “save the rest for drinking.” One Montucky goes into the beerchamel, the rest stays cold for when the croquetas come out of the fryer. Hot snack, cold snack. We’ve got a system here.
Once chilled, the beerchamel gets piped into croqueta-sized cylinders, frozen, breaded, and fried until the crust goes golden and the inside gets hot and creamy again.
This is Wienermaxxing operating exactly as Chris intended.
“Wienermaxxing isn’t a trend. It’s a lifestyle. For years fine dining has needed more wieners in it and I intend to slide them in there.”
Fair enough my guy. Let’s make some croquetas.
Wiener Croquetas With Montucky Beerchamel
For the beerchamel:
- 1 cup Montucky Cold Snacks, reserving the rest for drinking
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup Manchego cheese
- 1/2 onion, finely diced
- 3 average-sized casingless wieners, finely diced
- 10 tablespoons flour
- Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For breading and frying:
- Flour
- Eggs, beaten
- Breadcrumbs
- Neutral frying oil
Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat and cook the diced onion until softened. Add the chopped wieners and continue cooking before stirring in the flour to form the roux.
Slowly stream in 1 cup of Montucky Cold Snacks while stirring continuously. Let the mixture cook for about a minute to cook off some of the alcohol, then gradually incorporate the heavy cream.
Stir in the Manchego, season with salt and pepper, and grate in fresh nutmeg to taste. Continue cooking until the beerchamel becomes thick and smooth.
Transfer the mixture to a container and let it cool completely. Once chilled, pipe the filling into roughly 1-inch-wide ribbons or cylinders, then freeze until firm enough to handle.
Set up separate dishes of flour, beaten eggs, and breadcrumbs. Coat each frozen croqueta in flour, followed by egg and breadcrumbs, then return them to the freezer until firm.
Heat neutral oil to 350°F and fry the croquetas for 2 to 3 minutes, or until deeply golden and crisp. Drain, pile them onto the prettiest plate you own, and serve hot.
More Wienermaxxing Recipes
The croquetas weren’t Chris’ only contribution to the cultural movement of putting wieners where wieners previously did not exist.
For Patatas Bravas Con Weenies, he folds crispy hunks of double-fried hot dog into fried potatoes, salsa brava, and an aioli emulsified with the oil used to fry the wieners. Yes, Wiener Aioli remains a part of the plot.
He also took on the Basque gilda, threading anchovies, olives, and piparra peppers with thin ribbons of partially frozen wiener. A glizzy has rarely known such elegance.
