Candied Bacon Recipe

My Candied Bacon Recipe features crispy, caramelized strips of bacon with a hint of heat and is perfect for your next breakfast or brunch menu!

Course Breakfast and Brunch

Cuisine American

Keyword bacon, candied bacon, candy bacon, easy, few ingredients, millionaire bacon

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 40

Resting Time 15

Total Time 1 5

Servings

Calories 293kcal

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet pan with a silicone liner, parchment paper or foil. Lay the uncooked bacon sliced onto the pan.
½ cup brown sugar, ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper, ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, ½ tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cracked black pepper, cayenne pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the bacon slices, fully coating all of the slices. Using your hands, gently pat the sugar down onto the slices of bacon.
1 pound thick-cut bacon
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until brown and crispy. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Check at 30 minutes and if it isn't as crisp as you'd like, put it back in for the remaining 10 minutes.
Carefully transfer the bacon from the baking sheet pan to a cooling rack and let cool for another 10 minutes.

Preheat air fryer to 400°F. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, pepper, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes. Mix well.
Sprinkle mixture all over bacon and pat down.
Spray air fryer with olive oil, then add bacon and fry for 8 minutes, checking halfway through at 4 minutes to see if any of the bacon needs any rearranging to crisp up.
Serve and enjoy!

Always use thick-cut bacon in this recipe.
Depending on the size of your baking sheet pan and the number of bacon slices in the package, you may need to use two sheet pans.
Be sure to let the slices fully cool, this will allow the caramelized sugar to harden.
All ovens are different. If your oven runs hotter than mine, you will want to check on the bacon early to ensure it isn't burning, and you may need to adjust the temperature or timing.