There are many ways to cook beer and onions with smoked kielbasa sausage, each method with its own advantages. Kielbasa, also known as Polish sausage, is usually made with pork. The sausage is smoked for a rich flavor. You don’t have to cook smoked kielbasa for it to be safe to eat, but it does tend to taste better when heated. Cooking the sausage with beer and onions adds a complex background flavor to the meat. The beer and onions can then de discarded or the onions can be drained from the beer and served over the sausage as a garnish.

Boiling smoked kielbasa in beer and onions is a quick way to add flavor and heat to the sausage. Boil the meat in pure beer and onions for a powerful blast of beer flavor, or mix the beer with water to give the meat a mellow kick. Saute the onions before boiling if you want a stronger, slightly sweet onion taste. Only boil the sausages long enough to heat them thoroughly and infuse flavor. Over-boiling the sausages will end up stripping away flavor from the meat rather than adding to it.

Simmering takes longer to heat the sausage than boiling, but that gives the beer and onions more time to infuse the meat with flavor. Place the sausage in a saucepan with onions and a few inches of beer. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce heat to low to allow the mixture to simmer. Cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer the sausage until it’s fully heated.

Baking smoked kielbasa with beer and onions infuses the meat with flavor while lightly browning the outside of the sausage for a chewier texture. Place the sausage in a baking dish with a few inches of beer and some onions. Bake the sausage at around 350 degrees Fahrenheit until heated. Turn the sausage once during the baking process to infuse both sides with flavor, as well as to brown both sides evenly. Don’t cover the baking dish if you want the sausage browned. Covering the dish with foil will simmer the sausage instead of baking it.

There’s no need to use the stove when you’re grilling outdoors; you can cook smoked kielbasa with beer and onions right on the grill. The key to cooking the sausage on the grill is to use a foil packet; otherwise, the beer drips away and the onions fall through the grill. Place the sausage and onions on a large piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with beer. Fold the foil closed and place on the grill. Grill the packet, turning occasionally, until the sausage is thoroughly heated. This method lightly infuses both the sausage and onions with the beer flavor.