Candied Bourbon Bacon
Ingredients
2 lb Thick Center-Cut Bacon
1 cup Brown Sugar
4 tbs Raw Honey
1/3 cup Bourbon
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with foil or parchment paper. Place a wire rack on the cookie sheets.
Individually arrange the slices of bacon on the wire wracks. Place in the preheated oven and cook for 25-30 minutes depending on how thick the slices are. The bacon should be crispy but not overdone.
Using tongs, transfer the cooked bacon strips to plates lined with paper towels for draining the grease.
With the same cookie sheets, add new foil or parchment paper and arrange the bacon strips in a single layer.
Sprinkle the brown sugar over the bacon. Whisk together the honey and bourbon. Drizzle the bourbon mixture from a spoon over the bacon covered with brown sugar.
Bake in the 425°F oven for 10 minutes. Crack the oven door slightly while cooking these bacon strips.
Carefully remove the pans from the oven and transfer each strip of bacon onto a wire rack that has parchment paper under it. Let cool.
notes
Make sure and grab a package of thick center-cut bacon for this recipe. You don’t want the bacon to be overwhelmed by the candied glaze. A nice balance of both the salty bacon with the sticky sweetness is what you’re looking for.
Line the cookie sheets with foil or parchment paper. It makes for a much easier clean-up experience. When done cooking, simply fold up the foil and throw it away. So simple.
Use a wire rack to lift the bacon off the pan. This helps to get each piece crispier. The heat permeates both the top and bottom at the same time. No flipping required!
It’s okay if some of the brown sugar falls on the parchment paper because the syrup will eventually soak the entire pieces of bacon.
It’ll seem like you don’t have enough bourbon to do the trick but as you drizzle it, the sugar will begin to soak it up. When it cooks, the syrup will bubble up and create a syrup on and around the bacon.
A wire rack works great to cool the bacon when you remove it from the oven. Lay down a piece of parchment paper under the rack for the syrup drippings that occur.
Be careful when removing the candied bacon from the oven and onto a wire rack because the syrup is extremely hot.