Brown Sugar Bacon

This Brown Sugar Bacon recipe (aka: Pig Candy) will make you the hit of the party. Sweet, salty and crispy, it's delicious and addictive.

I call for thick-cut bacon here, and that's not merely a suggestion. Thin-cut bacon will scorch before the sugar has time to caramelize, and that's not delicious. To answer your other question: YES, some bacon has gluten, either in the spices, binders or additives. Look for bacon marked GF - I like Welshire Farms, Jones, Hormel and Applegate.

I strongly suggest lining your sheet pan with foil, because the dripping pork fat and sugar makes one helluva mess. It's way easier to throw out a little foil than scrub your pan for a week. Also, if your oven runs a little hot, turn it down to 390 F - anything over 400 will cause all kinds of smoke! I usually turn my vent on low just in case. After all that, I promise you'll be rewarded with deliciousness! The hardest part about brown sugar bacon is letting it cool.

Ingredients

• ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 8 slices thick-cut gluten-free bacon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Set a cooling rack inside the prepared pan and set aside.

In a shallow dish, combine the brown sugar, chili powder and pepper. Dredge the bacon slices in the brown sugar mixture and arrange the bacon on the rack. Pat any remaining sugar mixture onto the bacon. Bake in the preheated oven until crisp, about 20 minutes. Add chopped nuts if desired. Serve.