Best Crispy Smoked Bacon Recipe

This smoked bacon recipe is amazing! If you’re looking for smoky crispy bacon with lots of flavor for breakfast or wrapped inside a meatloaf, try this! Traeger bacon is out of this world.

Smoked Bacon

You may never cook your pig any other way after this. I am serious y’all. I mean out of the package is pretty good, especially if you buy a good brand and it is uncured. That is by far the best out of the lot from the store.

Take it a step further by smoking bacon in a Traeger and it will go from pretty good to out of this world. Then serve it to your brood and they’ll think you’re a hero.

Traeger Bacon

Let’s start with what type of bacon you should use. I am kinda’ particular when it comes to meat. Typically at the beginning of each year we will buy half a cow and sometimes half of a pig from a local farmer. That way we know it is grass fed, organic and raised in a humane way.

If you don’t have this opportunity it is okay because they still offer these varieties at the store. What you should look for is uncured first off, organic and thick cut is the ultimate variety.

Note: We are not making bacon from scratch out of a pork belly here. Rather we are using bacon from the butcher and smoking it ourselves to give it a richer smokier flavor. 

Traeger Smoked Bacon

There are other ways to get the best though. Skip the refrigerated section next to the cheese and keep walking to the butcher counter.

• Better yet, if you have a butcher store in your area GO THERE!! There’s a HUGE difference and it’s well worth the drive. If you go buy a big package and then separate it out into freezer bags and pull one out on the weekends.

That is what we do. Actually, that’s not true. When we moved to Idaho we bought half a pig! The butcher processed it and packaged it into quarter hams, spicy sausage, bacon and more.

That’s when we got hooked and could tell the difference between this and packaged.

Smoked Bacon Slices

One other important thing that helps when you’re making this smoked bacon recipe.

• Preheating your smoker to 150 degrees is important. 
• You need a cast iron grill grate / griddle pan you see here above, or a cast iron skillet would work. I like this one though because it’s nice and big, rectangular, and flat on the other side to make pancakes.

Have you jumped on the cast iron train yet?? Most come pre seasoned and make just about any meat you cook in it that much more amazing. They last forever too.

I promise you, you’ll love this smoked homemade bacon.

This is what you need:

• Bacon
  • from the butcher is best vs. packaged
  • remove the skin first if it is on the outside when you get it
  • slice with a sharp knife if it isn’t already sliced thick
• Pellets or wood chips
  • we like apple pellets
• Grill grate is very helpful and saves a lot of mess
  • you could use a rimmed baking sheet if that’s all you have

How to Smoke Bacon

If you want sticky candied bacon you could roll each piece in a mixture of brown sugar, Kosher salt and even a pinch of black pepper. We used the bacon as is and loved the natural flavors.

• Put bacon on paper towels after removing from grill
• Store leftovers in a plastic bag. (we never have any left).
• THEN roll it up with cheese into our smoked meatloaf recipe!

Our smoked bacon wrapped pork chops and bacon in the air fryer are incredibly amazing too.

Bacon in a Smoker

Bacon on a Traeger