Maple Candied Bacon
Looking for a unique garnish for salads, soups and even desserts? Grab the maple syrup and make a batch of this Maple Candied Bacon!
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Bacon. It’s one of the few ingredients that can make almost any recipe better. So how do you make something so delicious even better? Well, candy it of course. With maple syrup. This may be one of my new favorite ingredients of the year! (It’s so incredibly easy to make that it’s almost a little embarrassing.) It’s a great addition to all sorts of recipes…and I find it to be quite tasty just as a snack by itself. (I wish this bacon looked better in pictures…just trust me on how delicious it is!)
Now that the holidays (and all of the holiday desserts) are well behind us, I’ve become a huge fan of making a large salad every day for lunch. Lettuce alone is pretty boring, but add some feta or blue cheese, Pickled Banana Peppers and maple candied bacon…and suddenly that salad looks a whole lot more appetizing! Or if you’ve got more of a sweet tooth, then I suspect that this Maple Candied Bacon would be a great addition to these Maple Bacon Cupcakes.
Maple Candied Bacon
Ingredients
- 1 pound thick-cut bacon, cut into pieces about ¾” wide
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Place bacon in a cool cast iron skillet; turn heat to medium. Cook until bacon is crispy, but not burnt (about 10-12 minutes).
- Remove bacon from skillet and pat dry. Drain most of the bacon grease from skillet, leaving only about 1-2 tsp in skillet.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the maple syrup, black pepper, and brown sugar. Stir until combined. Add the cooked bacon and stir until bacon is well coated.
- Return the coated bacon pieces to the skillet and cook on low heat for 8-10 minutes or until sugar has melted and begun to turn thick. (Note: you will need to stir the bacon pieces fairly often during this stage to prevent the sugar and maple mixture from burning.)
- Remove the bacon pieces from the skillet and spread them apart on a piece of parchment paper to dry (about 4-5 minutes).
I really need to work on dressing up salads. Thanks for the inspiration, but I know have the urge to make a big vat of bacon 🙂
Every time I look at that picture, I want to go make more candied bacon. It really is a delicious salad topping!! Thanks, Laura!
Bacon definitely can make any other recipe better! Checking out this recipe now – it looks amazing!
Thanks, Cate! I’m thinking we should combine your doughnuts with this candied bacon…and we need to make that happen soon!
Wow, this sounds and looks delicious!
Thanks, Jessica!!
Maple candied bacon?!? TOTALLY blowing my mind. This looks amazing, but it’s a little bit frightening that we pretty much have the ingredients in the kitchen at all times. Oh well, there are worse problems to have I think. 🙂
Haha…totally scary that we always have the ingredients in the kitchen! But as long as it goes on top of a salad, then it’s ok, right?? Thanks for stopping by, Alyssa!