Check out the 50 Best Bacon Recipes for All Meals of the Day. You’ll find bacon breakfast recipes, bacon lunch recipes, bacon appetizers, bacon dinner recipes and bacon desserts. There’s a little something for everyone!
December 30th is National Bacon Day! Celebration with bacon. There are many, many things you can make with bacon (see the 50 best bacon recipes for all meals of the day below), or you can make bacon at home or order it in a restaurant.
Share the bacon love on social media today using the hashtags #NationalBaconDay, #BaconDay and #RecipesForHolidays.
Be sure to check out my December Food Holidays page so you never miss a food holiday in the month of December.
“That’s too much bacon.”
-Said No One Ever
The History of Bacon
The earliest form of bacon goes back as far as 1500BC when the Chinese were curing pork bellies with salt. Ancient Romans also had a type of bacon that came from the pig’s shoulder. Anglo-Saxons consumed a lot of bacon-like food during the Middle Ages. The process of curing meats gradually spread in popularity throughout Europe. Bacon traveled well and was a good source of protein. The curing process meant that no refrigeration was needed.
Bacon came to the U.S. in the mid 1500’s when Hernando de Soto of Spain brought 13 domestic pigs on his voyage to North America. In three years, 13 pigs turned into 700 pigs.
The word “bacon” was used starting in the 17th century to refer to salted/smoked pork belly. The word comes from older French and German words meaning “the back of a pig.”
In 1770, the 1st bacon curing facility opened in Wiltshire, England. The English also identified and bred specific types of pigs to create the best bacon.
The type of sliced bacon that we eat today in the U.S. was patented in 1924 by Oscar Mayer.
A bacon craze emerged in the early 2000’s, which brought about things like chocolate covered bacon and bacon jam.
10 Amazing Breakfast Recipes for Bacon Lovers
Obviously, bacon is thought of most as the food eaten at breakfast. So it should be noted that it can be served so many different ways. If you’re a bacon lover, then you’re going to want to try all of these awesome breakfast recipes that feature bacon in a big way.
- Loaded Bloody Mary: This is the perfect brunch cocktail and meal all in one. And it’s garnished with a lovely slice or two of your favorite bacon.
- Bacon and Corn Griddle Cakes: These savory pancakes are stuffed with corn, crumbled bacon, onions, chives and Monterey Jack cheese. Warm maple syrup is drizzled on top, along with more crumbled bacon, of course.
- Candied Bacon: Only 3 ingredients (bacon, brown sugar and cinnamon) are needed to make this bacon that is caramelized, crispy and sweet.
- Maple- Bacon Monkey Bread: When you combine maple syrup, bacon, pecans with biscuits, you know it’s going to be good!
- Bacon- Stuffed French Toast: Bacon is stuffed between 2 pieces of bread that are lathered with a cream cheese/brown sugar mixture. It’s the ultimate sweet and salty breakfast!
- Air Fryer Twisted Bacon: Air fryer twisted bacon comes out with a perfect crisp, and yet, also has a just the right amount of softness in the curls.
- Maple- Bacon Donuts: Easy homemade baked donuts are made with bacon and maple syrup baked inside. For a perfect finish, the donuts are coated with a sweet maple glaze and crunchy bacon bits.
- Cheesy Bacon- Potato Breakfast Casserole: This cheesy breakfast casserole with bacon, potato and egg is the easiest make-ahead breakfast and so perfect for feeding a crowd of bacon lovers.
- Bagel Breakfast Sandwich with Bourbon Bacon Jam: This sweet and savory breakfast sandwich features all the great classics – fried egg, crispy bacon, tomatoes, cheddar, with a sweet apple chutney and a delicious, savory bourbon bacon jam!
- Cheese and Bacon Breakfast Strata Cake: This bacon- heavy breakfast casserole is a cross between a quiche, French toast and an omelette!
10 Amazing Lunch Recipes for Bacon Lovers
Adding bacon to sandwiches was the best idea ever. Maybe bacon transitioned to lunch since it borders so closely with breakfast… who knows? But whoever decided that bacon belongs in a sandwich belongs in the bacon lover Hall of Fame. You’ll want to try all of these amazing lunch recipes for bacon lovers.
- Best BLT Sandwich: This classic bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich is made special with a spiced up mayonnaise and plenty of crisp bacon!
- Bacon Sandwich with Caramelized Onions: Lightly pan-toasted bread, crispy slices of bacon, sweet caramelized onions, smoky chipotle mayo, thin slices of tomatoes, and a little arugula come together to make one irresistible sandwich.
- Chipotle Chicken Bacon Ranch Panini: Chicken, bacon, and ranch are the perfect combination for a sandwich. These flavors are all brought together in a hot panini with melted Chipotle Gouda cheese.
- Havarti Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Caramelized Onion: It’s got two types of cheese, seeded rye bread, and it’s also filled to the brim with crispy bacon, caramelized onions, and whole grain dijon mustard.
- Chicken Bacon Avocado Ranch Lettuce Wraps: Lighten up your bacon lover lunch by packing lettuce wraps with bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado and chicken with a Ranch dressing drizzled on top.
- Slow Cooker Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwiches: Also sometimes referred to as “crack chicken,” these sandwiches are made with bacon, cream cheese, chicken, cheddar cheese and ranch seasonings and they’re a family favorite!
- Bacon Cheeseburger Grilled Cheese Casserole: This delicious casserole is loaded with ground beef, bacon, onions and cheese sandwiched between layers of bread.
- The Ultimate Bacon Grilled Cheese: If there’s one thing that can make a grilled cheese better, it’s bacon. And if there’s one thing that can make a bacon grilled cheese better, well then you must check out this recipe!
- Chicken Bacon Ranch Pull-Apart Rolls: Buttery rolls are stuffed with chicken, bacon and cheese. Then they’re drizzled with Ranch dressing and baked until they’re warm and gooey.
- Brie, Bacon and Blackberry Grilled Cheese: This sandwich packs a quick and easy blackberry jam, creamy melted brie and crispy bacon. This truly is the grilled cheese you never knew you needed!
10 Amazing Appetizer Recipes for Bacon Lovers
Why do the bacon-heavy appetizers go first at a party? Because everyone is a bacon lover! Try some of these amazing appetizer recipes for bacon lovers at your next gathering, and you’ll be viewed as the best host ever!
- Bacon-Wrapped Apple and Sausage Bundles: These are a crispy, bacon-wrapped appetizer that you and your guests are sure to enjoy! The apple and sausage are the perfect pairing with bacon. And the marinade adds additional flavors that are welcome with this combination too.
- Bacon Jam: Bacon Jam has a delicious, unique flavor that will compliment many foods as well as being fantastic all by itself as an appetizer. This recipe is made easy in the slow cooker!
- Bacon-Wrapped Tater Tots: These are quick and easy appetizer recipe that requires only 4 ingredients: bacon, tater tots, cheddar cheese and Tabasco sauce. This recipe is perfect for football season and parties!
- Cheesy Hot Bacon Dip: Filled to the brim with creamy cheeses and loads of bacon, you won’t be able to help yourself!
- Bacon-Wrapped Scallops: These delicious seafood appetizer bites for bacon lovers are served with the most wonderful Spicy Cilantro Mayonnaise dip.
- Bacon-Wrapped Pickles: Also known as bacon pickle fries, they are the perfect double-duty, easy appetizer for any gathering, and they’re just 2 ingredients!
- Bacon Crackers: This is the easiest appetizer ever! Crackers are topped with bacon and brown sugar to create this yummy, sweet, and porky treat!
- Beer and Bacon Dip: This dip is full of melted cheeses combined with beer and spices. It’s the ultimate beer and bacon lover’s appetizer!
- Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers: Unlike traditional poppers, this recipe skips the breading. Instead, the poppers are wrapped in bacon and baked in the oven for a fuss-free appetizer that’s loaded with smoky bacon flavor!
- Bacon-Wrapped Dates: These bacon wrapped dates are stuffed with goat cheese, covered in bacon, then brushed with maple syrup before they go into the oven to bake to perfection.
When you get to have bacon for dinner too, I’d say that’s a major bonus. Bacon can wrap just about anything and make it wonderful. And the addition of crispy, cooked bacon to any dish is just a great idea too. Check out these amazing dinner recipes for bacon lovers, and bookmark your favorites!
- Wisconsin Beer Cheese Sauce Bacon Pizza: This is Wisconsin on a pizza. The sauce combines beer and cheese, and is deliciously peppered with paprika and ground mustard. What makes it even better? It’s got a dreamy amount of caramelized onions, spicy Italian sausage, and plenty of bacon.
- Slashed Chicken with Bacon- Herb Butter: This chicken turns out perfect. The meat is very tender and the flavors of sage, garlic and bacon are well permeated into the meat. This is not the kind of chicken you get when you purchase one of those bulk-roasted chickens at the market, that’s for sure. It’s much, much better.
- Slow Cooker Bacon Cheeseburger Soup: This soup is loaded with potatoes, ground beef, cheese and of course bacon! This amazing soup is full of flavor and every bacon lover’s dream!
- Bacon- Wrapped Meatloaf: This is a delicious dinner idea for meat lovers who are crazy about bacon too!
- Garlic- Bacon Pasta: The key to this delicious dish is the bacon! As it cooks it releases all its gorgeous bacon fats. These are packed with flavor and the bacon fat is used to cook the garlic – making a very simple yet scrumptious sauce for your cooked pasta.
- Baked Bacon- Wrapped Chicken Tenders: This easy baked bacon wrapped chicken tenders recipe needs just 3 common ingredients – chicken, bacon, and cheese! It’s ready in under 30 minutes.
- Roasted Chicken with Bacon and Sweet Paprika: The chicken is brushed with olive oil, and then it’s rubbed with a simple mixture of orange zest, paprika, salt and pepper. After it has roasted in the oven for about 45 minutes, you sneak it out of the oven to wrap it in bacon, then it’s back into the oven until the bacon is crispy and the chicken is cooked through. Bacon heaven!
- Bacon- Wrapped Pork Tenderloin: Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. It’s made with garlic, honey, and jalapenos for extra flavor.
- Bacon Burgers with Balsamic Caramelized Onions: Combine caramelized onions with bacon burgers, and it’s kinda dreamy!
- Creamy Bacon Chicken: The chicken is pan-fried to a golden brown on the outside and when you bite into it, it melts in your mouth. And the bacon… well it makes everything even better.
The ending to a perfect day can involve bacon when it’s included in your dessert! It turns out that savory bacon is wonderful in cakes, cookies, brownies and other sweet treats. What a wonderful discovery. I think you’ll be intrigued with these amazing dessert recipes for bacon lovers!
- Bourbon- Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies: This is a great cookie recipe incorporating bacon, bourbon and chocolate. It’s unique and delicious!
- Maple- Bacon Cake: This is a moist spice cake with a homemade maple buttercream frosting, and it’s topped with candied bacon!
- Bourbon- Bacon Brittle: This brittle is made with candied bacon, toasted pecans and bourbon. It’s the crunchiest, most delicious brittle you will ever have.
- Maple- Bacon Pancake Cookies: Each of these giant cookies has a soft and buttery center and is filled with crispy bacon and maple flavor.
- Bacon- Caramel Apple Crisp: This is your favorite comfort food dessert with apples, cinnamon, and a streusel topping made even better with the addition of bacon and caramel!
- Maple- Bacon Cheesecake: This is a creamy maple cheesecake baked with bits of savory bacon, and it’s topped with a caramel, bacon, pecan topping.
- Whiskey- Bacon Brownies: These brownies are the perfect combination of whiskey, bacon and chocolate, and they have a sweet, nutty topping that makes them irresistible!
- Maple- Bacon Cupcakes: These cupcakes are made with maple cream cheese buttercream frosting and pack plenty of real bacon for every bacon lover!
- Bacon- Beer Potato Chip Cookie Bars: If you’re a beer, bacon, potato chip and chocolate chip cookie fan, then these bars are for you!
- Maple- Bacon Rice Krispie Treats: These Rice Krispie treats are soft and chewy with bits of savory bacon in them and maple frosting on top.
Fun Facts About Bacon:
- Americans eat 18 pounds of bacon per person per year.
- Types of bacon include American style bacon, Canadian bacon, Irish bacon, Pancetta and non-pork bacon (turkey and soy).
- 70% of all bacon in the U.S. is eaten at breakfast. 71% of the time, bacon is eaten with eggs.
- Everything Taste Better with Bacon by Sara Perry was published in 2002. This is a cookbook filled with recipes that all contain bacon.
- The BLT became popular after WWII when fresh ingredients became available across the nation.
- Bacon cheeseburgers are said to have been invented by A&W Restaurant in the 1960’s when customers kept asking to add bacon to their burgers.
- Bacon bits are made from pieces of real bacon with preservatives added in.