Sweet and Spicy Glazed Bacon is going to be your new favorite brunch dish! Combine spicy Sriracha sauce with brown sugar for a super simple, yet crazy delicious glaze. Brush the glaze on thick cut bacon, and pop it in the oven for an easy, crowd pleasing side.
The Idea:
I’m definitely of the belief that bacon makes everything better. So when I was looking for a new, delicious side dish to make for brunch, weekend breakfasts, and holidays, bacon was the first thing that came to mind. Another thing that makes everything better is sriracha sauce. So why not combine the two?
Sriracha is the red chili sauce with the green cap and the rooster on the label. You can find it everywhere now, most grocery stores carry it and most restaurants have it too. Sriracha seems to be almost as popular as ketchup in the U.S.! When it’s combined with brown sugar and brushed on bacon, perfectly balanced, sweet and spicy glazed bacon is born.
The Ingredients:
Once you taste this amazing bacon, you won’t believe you only need three ingredients to make it. For the bacon, a thinner cut might get too crispy in the oven, so it’s a good idea to use thick cut bacon if you can find it. If not, just reduce the baking times after you glaze the bacon.
Brown sugar is great for this glaze because it sort of melts into the sriracha sauce. Brown sugar contains molasses, which gives it it’s color, so it’s got a little more flavorful than white sugar. You can use light or dark brown sugar, whatever you have on hand.
If you’ve never tried it before, you are going to love sriracha. It’s a Thai hot sauce that’s made from chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. It is spicy, but not in an overwhelming way. The most popular sriracha sauce (Huey Fong) uses red jalapeno peppers, which are pretty low on the spicy scale. If you’re wondering about the name like I was, sriracha sauce is named after a Thai city called Si Racha where it may have first been used (it’s not clear specifically when or where it was introduced).
Here’s a few fun sriracha facts: In the U.S., the most popular sriracha sauce is the one in that distinctive bottle we mentioned, and it’s produced by the Huey Fong Food company in California. The founder, David Tran, came to America in 1978 as a Vietnamese refugee on a ship called the Huey Fong. And the distinctive rooster on the label is in honor of David Tran’s Chinese astrological sign. Some people call sriracha “rooster sauce” because of the label.
The Preparation:
The best part of this recipe is that you don’t need to make the bacon on the stove, all the magic happens in the oven. This saves your stovetop from splatter and you also don’t have to stand by the stove watching the bacon cook.
I like to line the baking pan either with a silicon baking sheet, parchment paper or tin foil. This makes clean up much easier! Once the baking sheet is lined, take a wire rack and lightly spray it with cooking spray, then place it in the pan. The bacon strips go right on the rack and into the oven.
While the bacon starts cooking, you’ll make the easiest glaze ever. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and sriracha together and stir until it’s combined, smooth and “glazey”.
Pull the bacon out after 5 minutes and brush the glaze on in a controlled manner so that the whole strip is covered, but glaze isn’t dripping all over the rack. I say that because you are going to be so excited about making this dish, you might be tempted to just pour all the glaze over the bacon, but don’t do it.
I use my silicon basting brush to glaze the hot bacon because it’s heat proof and doesn’t leave little fibers all over your food.
Once the bacon is glazed, pop it back in the oven for 10 minutes or so, then take it out and glaze the other side. This is easy because you were smart and sprayed the wire rack with cooking spray, so you can easily lift the bacon off with a fork and flip it over.
Pop it back in the oven for a final 15 minutes or so until it’s cooked through and getting crispy. Let the bacon cool on the rack for 10 minutes or so to set up, otherwise the glaze will be too sticky. Once it’s cool, get ready to taste some amazing bacon!
The Payoff:
Sweet and spicy glazed bacon is perfect for holiday brunches (Easter is right around the corner!) and regular weekend breakfasts. The flavor is addicting, you’re going to love it.
If, in the rare case you have leftovers, sweet and spicy glazed bacon is also fabulous in a club sandwich. With sriracha mayo. Is anyone else hungry?
Sweet and Spicy Glazed Bacon
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 strips of bacon 1x
Description
Sweet and Spicy Glazed Bacon is going to be your new favorite brunch dish! Combine spicy Sriracha sauce with sweet brown sugar, then brush on thick cut bacon for a super simple, yet crazy delicious glaze.
Ingredients
- 1 lb thick cut bacon
- 6 tablespoons brown sugar, light or dark, whatever you have
- 3 tablespoons sriracha hot sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat. Place a wire rack in the baking sheet on top of the paper/mat. Lightly spray the wire rack with cooking spray.
- Lay the strips of bacon on the wire rack.
- In a small bowl mix the brown sugar and sriracha sauce together to form a glaze.
- Bake the bacon for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and brush generously with the glaze. Return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove bacon and flip over on the wire rack. Brush with the glaze and bake for another 15 minutes or so until the bacon is cooked through and starting to get crispy.
- Remove bacon from the oven. Let sit on the wire rack for at least 10 minutes to cool and let the glaze set. Enjoy this amazing sweet, spicy and smoky treat!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 175
