Sometimes it’s better when you don’t know the “proper” way to do things. A few nights ago, Hubby and I came home from running errands, opened the front door and were promptly greeted by the aroma of bacon. Not just bacon, but brown sugar bacon. No doubt about the smells. Kiddo was in the kitchen, eager to greet us. He had cooked up some brown sugar bacon (Kiddo loves bacon – could live on bacon) and had managed enough self-control to save us about a quarter of a slice to “sample”. It was awesome – smoky and sweet without being overly sticky. Wow!
As I sampled my little bite of yummy brown sugar bacon, I noticed there were no baking pans soaking in the sink with caramelized brown sugar. No racks dripping with the goo. Not even a hint of a sticky piece of foil. The only thing in the sink was a griddle pan, and it wasn’t a huge mess either.
“How did you cook this?” I asked, surveying the lack of mess in my kitchen.
“Simple.” Kiddo replied with a big smile, his chest all puffed up with pride. “I added brown sugar to the fry pan.”
Really? Fried brown sugar bacon? Not baked, not broiled but fried, as in cooked on a flat fry pan. I was amazed.
For Sunday’s breakfast of French Toast I asked Kiddo to cook up his brown sugar bacon. It was really simple – so simple there’s really no need for a real recipe. It’s all a matter of how much bacon, and go from there.
Brown Sugar Fried Bacon
2 tablespoons Bacon Drippings or as needed
1 tablespoon Brown Sugar or as needed
6 Slices Smoked Bacon or as desired
Heat a flat skillet or griddle pan over medium heat.
Add about 2 or 3 tablespoons bacon drippings to the warm pan. Stir in about a tablespoon or so light brown sugar to the melted drippings. Lay bacon over the brown sugar flavored drippings and fry bacon as you normally would, turning as needed to prevent bacon from burning.
As the grease in the pan increases, add a little more brown sugar to keep it a glaze consistency. Continue to cook bacon until it is golden and crisp.
To cook up additional slices, transfer cooked bacon in an oven safe rimmed dish and keep warm in the oven. To the now empty skillet, add a little more brown sugar to the pan and continue to cook a second batch of smoky, yummy bacon.
Each batch of bacon takes about 10 minutes or so to fry up – much faster than baking in the oven with the same yummy results.
Clean-up is a snap. Dump grease into the can you keep under the sink for grease (you know, the one that is later thrown out with the trash – please don’t tell me you dump grease down the sink!) Then wash the pan in warm soapy water. No soaking necessary.
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