German Sauerkraut and Brats
This German Sauerkraut and Brats recipe is a delicious, sweet and tangy, beer free recipe! If you’re like us and don’t typically have beer in your home, it’s nice to have an alternative to use in your dishes. In our case, my kids were doing the cooking for geography, so it was extra important to me to have an alcohol-free recipe for them to prepare. Beer is typical in the German culture, though, so this may stray from being culturally accurate.
Speaking of which, we did some studying on the culture of Germany and saw how perplexed they are that anyone would ever serve sauerkraut cold! This is a no-no to them. Sauerkraut should be cooked and served warm. As you’ll see, if you’ve only ever eaten kraut cold, that it’s quite delicious cooked. To be honest, my family tends to eat it cold. Shameful, I know. So, my kids were pleasantly surprised at the difference in taste after it was cooked simmering with onions and honey.
This is a fairly simple recipe, but because it requires chopping onions and cooking over a stove, we chose to let our older kids prepare this meal without any younger ones helping. We doubled the recipe and just let each of our older teens cook up the recipe in their own pan side by side on the stove. If you don’t have a very large pan to fit all 12 brats in at a time, I recommend just splitting into two separate smaller pans and cooking that way.
Ingredients for German sauerkraut and brats:
- Sauerkraut (recipe to make it yourself)
- Brats
- Butter
- Onions
- Honey
- Dried Thyme
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Flour
- Beef stock
- Apple cider vinegar
- Heavy cream
Instructions for cooking:
Slice the onions into long strips.
Heat a large saucepan (or 2 smaller ones) over medium high heat and add some oil.
Place the brats into the pan and brown on each side for about 3-4 minutes. You don’t need to fully cook them yet as they will simmer with the sauerkraut later.
Remove the cooked brats and in the same pan add your butter to melt.
Now add in the sliced onions to the butter and sauté until translucent.
Then add in the honey and mix well with the onions.
Sprinkle the flour in and mix together well.
Now add in the beef stock and apple cider vinegar and bring to a simmer.
Once simmering, add in the cream and sesonings.
Add in the sauerkraut and place brats back into pan. Cover with a lid and simmer on low heat until brats are fully cooked, about 20-25 minutes.
Now serve plates with a helping of sauerkraut and a couple of brats!
Please let me know how you like this recipe by giving it a rating and leave me a comment below! How do you like to cook your sauerkraut and brats? Do you prefer cold or warm sauerkraut?
German Sauerkraut and Brats
Ingredients
- 1 jar sauerkraut (fermented not pickled) about 24 oz.
- 12 brats uncooked
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 large onions
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 1/2 cups beef stock
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Slice onions into strips.
- Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat and add the oil.
- Place the brats into the pan and brown on each side for about 3-4 minutes. You don't need to fully cook them yet as they will simmer with the sauerkraut later.
- Remove the cooked brats and in the same pan add your butter to melt.
- Add your sliced onions to the butter and sauté until translucent.
- Then add the honey and mix well with onions.
- Sprinkle the flour in and mix well.
- Now add in the beef stock and apple cider vinegar.
- Bring to a light simmer and then add in the cream and seasonings.
- Add in the sauerkraut and place brats back into pan. Cover with a lid and simmer on low heat until brats are fully cooked, about 20-25 minutes.
Notes
