Bacon is one of those magical ingredients that makes everything better. The challenge is, sometimes you don’t feel like cooking it. The solution is to have a jar of bacon jam in the refrigerator, ready to go in case of emergency.
It goes excellent on everything from a fresh batch of buttermilk biscuits to a juicy cheeseburger. It’s even worth a try to top some vanilla ice cream with it.
We’ve rated this recipe as CHALLENGING due to the amount of stirring and the specialized technique it requires to complete it. It shouldn’t be a problem for you if you read the instructions and be certain that you follow them.
It lasts for about a week in your refrigerator, so making some ahead of time is no problem. It’s the perfect thing to pull out of the ice chest on your next camping trip to blow everybody’s socks off.
This is a make at home recipe. Just make it in your home kitchen and pack it in your ice chest on your way out the door. I suppose it’s possible to make at the campsite, but its completely unnecessary.
Cooking Our Bacon Jam Recipe
There are quite a few recipes on the internet for bacon jam, but what we didn’t like about them is they have a bunch of unnecessary ingredients that overpowered or muddled the bacon flavor. We cut quite a bit of that back and focused primarily on the bacon and onion flavors.
Make some dutch oven buttermilk biscuits to smear your bacon jam on.
We also love the flavor of caramelized onions, so we combined the technique we use to make French Onion Soup to basically make a bacon and onion jam.
With this technique, you’ll cook the onions, stirring almost constantly, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the onions start sticking to the botton of your pot. Then, you’ll deglaze your pot with another 1/4 cup of chicken broth, scraping the bottom to loosen the stuck on bits. Then, cook that down again until almost dry. You’ll repeat this process until the onions turn the color of milk chocolate.
Once your onions are as dark as you want them, you’ll throw your bacon, along with the rest of your ingredients back in (including more chicken broth), and cook that down until it’s the consistency of jam.
Bacon jam is great just smeared on a biscuit, but we highly recommend you try it on a burger or other sandwich. Treat it as a condiment like ketchup or mustard and you’ll never want to go back.
Make your own homemade bacon.
We used our own homemade bacon for this recipe, which is a little meatier than cheap store bought stuff. You can make up for this by buying a meatier premium brand, or by using a few slices more than what comes in a one pound package.
Fattier bacon shrinks down more than meaty bacon, leaving you with less finished product in the end.
Bacon Jam with Caramelized Onions
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb. bacon – don't get maple, it will make it too sweet
- 2 lg. yellow onions – diced
- 5 tbs. dark brown sugar
- 2 1/2 cups chicken stock – divided
- 1 tbs. sherry vinegar
- 1 tbs. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. black pepper – skip if you used peppered bacon
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
Instructions
- Cut bacon into 1/4 inch pieces. Cook over medium-high heat in a dutch oven until crisp. Remove from the dutch oven to a paper towel-lined plate with a slotted spoon.
- Discard all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease. Reduce heat to medium and add diced onion and 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Remove lid and increase heat to medium-high. Cook onions for about 10 mins, stirring often, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the onions are starting to stick to the bottom of the pot. Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock and scrape the bottom of the pot to remove stuck-on bits.
- Cook the onions again, stirring often, until the pot is almost dry and the onions are starting to stick to the bottom of the pot. About 8 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock, scraping the bottom of the pot to remove stuck-on bits. Repeat this step two or more times, or until the onions are dark brown. About the color of milk chocolate.
- Add brown sugar, remaining 1 cup of stock, vinegar, soy sauce, black pepper, thyme, and bacon, stir until fully combined. Simmer uncovered on low, stirring often, until reduced to a jam consistency. About 20 minutes. Let cool and add to a resealable container.
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