Brown Sugar Candied Bacon Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long does candied bacon keep? ›

You can store the cooked candied bacon in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Store it in an airtight container, such as a large zipper bag or plastic container with a lid. To reheat bacon in the microwave, place the bacon on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 30-60 seconds.

What is Candied Bacon. Also known as Pig Candy, Candied Bacon is made by coating thick sliced of bacon in something sweet such as brown sugar, maple syrup, or caramel before baking until caramelized. It's fantastic crumbled on a salad or just served alongside a pint of your favorite beer.

Bacon should be cooked at 400°F.

Medium-thick bacon slices will need 18 to 20 minutes to reach the perfect level of crispiness. But check the bacon at 10 minutes, and adjust your cooking time to your preferred degree of doneness.

Candied bacon is made in-house using Applewood-smoked bacon. It's then coated with caramelized brown sugar and finished with a hint of black pepper. We used a similar combination of flavors in our Candied Bacon Crackers.

Always cook bacon on foil or parchment paper at 400°F. Cook regular sliced bacon for 14 minutes; thick-cut bacon for 18 minutes. If you cook less than a full sheet of bacon, check after 12 minutes. For extra-crispy bacon, bake it on top of a metal cooling rack set over the baking sheet.

Candied Bacon Holds Up Well In The Freezer

When four days just won't cut it, freezing your candied bacon is an effective way to extend its shelf life to three months or longer.

The best practice for storing candied bacon is to keep it in the refrigerator. Before storing, let the caramelized bacon cool to room temperature. This helps keep condensation at bay when the meat is stored in the fridge, ensuring your delectable bacon stays crisp and delicious.

Store the bacon: Candied bacon can be kept in the fridge for a few days and reheats well in a skillet over low heat. I don't think candied bacon is worth freezing, although if you made a huge batch you absolutely could. You could just want to make sure to freeze the strips individually so they didn't stick together.

The health risk of bacon is largely to do with two food additives: potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre) and sodium nitrite. It is these that give salamis, bacons and cooked hams their alluring pink colour.

Brown sugar essentially does not go bad (unless contaminants have gotten mixed in), making it ideal for buying in bulk if you do a lot of baking. Hardened sugar isn't bad. It's just in need of moisture. However, brown sugar will perform best if used within two years of purchase.

How do you soften brown sugar? ›

To quickly soften brown sugar: place the sugar in a microwave safe bowl and cover it with a damp paper towel for about 20 second, or use a food processor to loosen the brown sugar. If you aren't pressed for time, use a slice of bread or an apple in an airtight container with the brown sugar for 24 hours.

This from Cindy Capps Lepp: Lay a layer of foil over the bacon; this will keep grease from spitting all over the oven. Remove the foil for the last few minutes of cooking for "final crisping." Cleanup is a snap.

“For general good health, I would recommend keeping processed meats limited to once a week or once every other week. At that rate, a serving could be three to four slices. If you eat bacon more often than that, one to two slices should be a serving,” says Derocha.

You can cook a few slices in a skillet or the microwave, but when cooking a big batch, the oven is the surefire way to go. This method is almost entirely hands-off and results in perfectly crispy, chewy, evenly-cooked bacon.

I preheat my oven to 400 degrees. Lay a cooling rack (or any wire rack) over the top of a sheet pan, and lay the bacon across the wire rack (this allows the fat/grease to drain off as it cooks). I bake it for anywhere from 15 or 20 min-ish, depending on how crispy and well done I want it.

You can wrap your food in raw bacon and then cook both together. If the main food is done first you can turn the food on its side so that the bacon is now touching the grate so that you can crisp it up. But make sure and this is important, to turn down that heat to about 375-400.

Let your bacon sit at room temperature for fifteen minutes or so before you cook it. It will help the fat render more quickly, so it will be crispy and not burnt.