5 Ingredients or Fewer

Beer-Candied Bacon

June 13, 2013
4.7
3 Ratings
Photo by James Ransom
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

Thick-cut crispy bacon, candied with a beer glaze. Perfect for on-the-go munching! —tideandthyme

Test Kitchen Notes

When my roommate heard "beer" and "bacon," even he wanted to help out with this recipe test. The beer I used was Gold Road Kolsch-style Ale by Mother Road Brewing Company in Flagstaff, AZ. The malty quality of the beer combined perfectly with the rich molasses flavor of the brown sugar, but I think any beer with the same toasty and sweet characteristics would work. I repeated the glazing process four times, or the equivalent of 40 minutes. The amount of time was completely worth it because the bacon was cooked to perfection. It was like homemade bacon-jerky -- some of the best bacon I’ve ever made. —WesleyRae

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Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup beer
  • 1 pound thick-cut bacon
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Combine brown sugar and beer in a small bowl, whisking well to form a thin syrup. Set aside.
  2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place a wire cooling rack on top. Place the pieces of bacon on top of the rack, overlapping if necessary. Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes.
  3. Remove from oven and brush one side of the bacon with the beer syrup. Flip the bacon and coat the other side with the syrup. Return to oven and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and repeat this process another time or two until the bacon is crispy and browned and you’ve used all the glaze.
  4. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove to a plate and cool for at least 1 hour before serving.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

9 Reviews

Martha April 18, 2014
I made it and wow!! Great addition to making a salad healthier hehe ;)....question though how do I store it?
tom August 1, 2013
Kt4 if you look at the picture it clear shows a double bock sam adams witch is outstanding one of the best beer's in the free world
tideandthyme August 6, 2013
That was actually an old bottle, but they recently started selling it again! Great beer.
Kt4 June 21, 2013
Can you give suggestions on what kind/type of beer to use? I'm generally not a fan of the stuff but would like to try this. Note: I can't stand hoppy like IPA.
QueenSashy June 21, 2013
I am thinking of making it with massive dark ale. tideandthyme what did you use?
tideandthyme July 30, 2013
Any dark stout-ish beer would be great. I like to support my local breweries, one of which is Dogfish Head - their Chicory Stout is wonderful. A chocolate or coffee stout are fabulous choices too. Just not something hoppy!
QueenSashy June 21, 2013
I so wanted to test this and it was taken by the time I got to it. I do the same thing with cayenne and cinnamon and it is sinful, this shows promise to be even better!!!
indieculinary June 21, 2013
Yum.
creamtea June 19, 2013
I like!