These 5-Ingredient Steamed Beer Mussels are the easiest, most delicious way to prepare mussels! All you need is beer, garlic, a little bit of butter, heavy cream, and of course mussels! We also talk about how to store, clean, and prepare them so they’re perfect every time!
Course Appetizer
Cuisine French
Keyword steamed mussels, steamed mussels in white wine, beer mussels
2 1/2tbspchopped garlic (about 8 small cloves, 5 large)
12ozlight ale beer a light mexican beer would also work great, or even an IPA
1/4cupheavy cream
pinchkosher salt
Crusty bread for dunking
Instructions
Clean the mussels. Remove the fuzzy piece called the beard that’s sticking out of the shell. Not all mussels have them, but most have something you can remove. Do your best to get it all off. Next, take a gentle brush, such as an old toothbrush, and very quickly try to get any grime or residual gunk off. Put them in a colander and rinse with cold water. Do not submerge them in water, this could kill them!
Heat a large dutch oven or pot to a medium heat. Add butter. Once butter melts, add garlic. Cook garlic until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Pour in beer. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer until reduced by about half, 5-6 minutes.
Add in cream, and again simmer for 2-3 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt. Add in mussels and give them a stir. Cover the pot with a lid, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let the mussels steam until the shells pop open. This takes about 5-7 minutes. Discard any shells that have not opened.
To serve. Take all the mussels out of the pot, and put them in the serving dish.Use a slotted spoon to get all the garlic pieces out. Scatter all the garlic in the mussel shells and then pour the broth on top. This way, each mussel has a generous amount of garlic and it’s not all stuck at the bottom. If desired, garnish with chopped parsley.