I love the saying, “Everything tastes better with bacon“. It’s so true, any excuse to add bacon in a dish and everyone wins. I ran across a tip years ago that cooking bacon in the oven vs on the stove is better. It doesn’t make a mess and if you are able to elevate the bacon on a rack it isn’t saturated in bacon fat. For years this is how I cooked my bacon. I’d let the bacon grease dry and then it was a simple clean-up process throwing away the tin foil.
We decided this past December to up our grill game and get a pellet smoker grill. I still to this day don’t know why we waited so long. I find every excuse to smoke something. When we smoked bacon for the first time we were what I like to call experimenting with technique. In the effort of not making a huge mess we wrapped a baking sheet in foil, placed a rack on top of the baking pan and then cooked bacon on the rack. What seemed like eternity we finally were able to complete the process. The end result was WOW. If this is what bacon is intended to taste like cooked then I’ve been missing out.
After a little more research we decided it was best to cook the bacon on the grill directly. Makes more of mess, however it cooks in roughly 30 minutes and tastes outstanding. I always try and buy the thick cut so this may impact cook time.
I like to buy local cuts of bacon however a national brand I have grown to LOVE is Farmland Thick Cut. SO GOOD!
How to Cook Smoked Bacon:
- Preheat Smoker to 325ห
- When smoker has reached desired heat, place bacon strips directly on the grill grates, close lid.
- If you have thick cut bacon (which I recommend), you may need to flip the bacon halfway through cooking process.
- When bacon reaches your desired doneness, remove and enjoy.
- Typical time to cook bacon varies, however plan on roughly 30 minutes.