Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon

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Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Nom. Nom. Nom. Oh! Excuse me! Didn’t see you there. Alright, so I’m jumping on the candied bacon bandwagon. Don’t call me a sell out. I can’t help myself—the stuff just looks too good to pass up. To show my restraint, however, I only candied one-third of a pound. (Who says I have no self control?) So, this is bacon…covered in jam and dotted with chili flakes…baked in the oven until caramelized and crunchy. This is swoon inducing food. Vegetarians aside, I dare you to say otherwise.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

This recipe uses jam as the sugar component—a slight departure from most recipes floating around, which use brown sugar. The result, from a very unscientific comparison to other online candied bacon, looks slightly stickier, but just as mouthwatering. It needs to cook a little longer (to get some of the liquid out of the jam), but you wind up with a thicker candy coating on the bacon. It was well worth the wait.

If you know me, you know love to cook meat with fruit. This candied bacon recipe pairs my mom’s homemade peach jam with strips of meaty, thick-cut bacon.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Mom’s homemade peach jam

Turkish Aleppo chili flakes add a spicy, subtle heat that’s a great balance to the sweetness of the jam.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

What can you do with candied bacon?

You mean aside from inhale it the minute it’s cool enough to touch? Gotcha.

This candied bacon would be a fabulous garnish on a bunch of different things. You could chop it up and:

That is, again, if it lasts.

Black forest bacon

Now, I’m not usually a fancy bacon kind of gal. I have, however, developed a sudden, acute, and rather embarrassing love affair with the thick-cut bacon you can get in the butcher’s case at Whole Foods. (Don’t even get me going on their Black Forest bacon.)

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Thick-cut bacon from Whole Foods

Make this with your favorite kind of bacon. If you don’t use thick-cut bacon, reduce the cooking time a little (and keep an eye on the oven!), as regular bacon will crisp up faster.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon

1/3 lb. thick-cut bacon
1/2 cup peach jam
2 tsp. Aleppo chili flakes

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Double line a sheet pan with foil. Put a rack in the pan and set it aside.

Make the peach glaze

Grab your jam. I used peach jam, but you could theoretically use any kind of jam you like. Marmalade might be really good.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Measure it out and put it in a medium-sized bowl. Toss in the Aleppo chili flakes.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Mix well to combine the chili flakes with the jam. If your jam is super thick, zap it in the microwave (or heat it in a small pot over very low heat) for a few seconds to loosen it up.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Glaze the bacon

Grab your bacon. Lay it on the rack in your prepared pan.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Brush each piece with the jam mixture.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Cover each piece of bacon entirely with jam.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Slide the pan into your pre-heated 400 degree oven. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

A note on smoke: Keep a close eye on it while it’s baking. Depending on how long your bacon is in on the first side, some of the jam that drips off onto the foil may start to smoke a little. That should stop once you flip the bacon and glaze the other side.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Now, timing is approximate, and will ultimately depend on how thick your bacon is. You want the bacon to look darker and crisp on the edges, like this:

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

When the first side is done, yank the pan out of the oven. Flip the bacon over. Brush each piece with a thin layer of jam.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Pop the bacon back into your 400-degree oven for another 10-15 minutes, until it’s done to your liking. You want the bacon to look crisp, and the jam to look glassy and kind of hard, like this:

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Yank the pan out of the oven and let it cool. No matter how tempted you may be, resist tasting it until it cools at least a little. Remember…that jam is basically 400-degree sugar.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Gobble it up immediately, or use it in a recipe of your choosing.

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

Enjoy!

Hot & Spicy Candied Bacon at The Hungry Mouse

 

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Jessie Cross is a cookbook author and creator of The Hungry Mouse, a monster online food blog w/500+ recipes. When she's not shopping for cheese or baking pies, Jessie works as an advertising copywriter in Boston. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her husband and two small, fluffy wolves.

26 COMMENTS

  1. I've only ever made the brown sugar / chili powder bacon candy, jam sounds like a great idea! I'd have to make 3lbs in order to have any left for a recipe...
  2. OKay! I only use turkey bacon- and you know the texture of that would this work with it? I mean for a treat I would buy the thick cut pork bacon. Hot and sweet- oh what a treat. I have to try this - thanks Jessie
    • Oh gosh, I think you could try it with turkey bacon, but you'd have to shorten the cooking time and really keep an eye on it. Let me know if you give it a whirl? +Jessie
  3. Firstly- the black forest bacon is the best thing ever. I would slather it over my entire body if I wasn't concerned about bears. :) Secondly- are you very attached to the Angry Chef? Because if not, will you marry me instead? :) :) This has just replaced your blackened chicken fingers as my favourite of your recipes. Awesome!
    • Hehehehe, thanks, honey. :D And OMG, isn't the black forest bacon amazing? Although, the last few times I've looked for it, Whole Foods was out. (I immediately had a mini bacon panic attack that somehow it had completely disappeared.) +Jessie
  4. I've only tried the kind with brown sugar, for a cookout, and it was gone in 10 minutes. This comes out more candied than the sugar, I think. Much prettier.
    • Thanks, Zena. :) Yeah from what I can tell, the candy coating from the jam definitely looks thicker. I haven't tried the brown sugar version yet, though, so...you know...I should get around to that...strictly for scientific comparison, of course. ;) +Jessie
  5. I heart candied bacon like nothing else. I made candied bacon w/ brown sugar and added the chopped up bits to chocolate chip cookie dough... yummmm.... definitely going to try it w/ jam, possibly a berry jam...
  6. Wicked Mouse! You lure us into your trap with another freakin' awsome bite! You got me hooke at least in your trap. Nom, nom, nom. I thought I'd finish my bite since I will already be thrown into the Hungry mouse dungeons :-) Cheers! Gabi at mamaliga
  7. you should try our White Cranberry Pepper Garlic Jelly on your bacon. We just heard about this recipe from one of our customers today while doing our jelly deliveries. He saw a recipe with peach jam and knows our product and used it and loved it. I'm attempting it right now!! Cant wait to see the outcome.

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