In episode 91, host Taryn Solie teaches you three different methods for cooking bacon on a Traeger grill. Whether you want a smoky, slow cook, a faster high-heat approach, or the ease of a sheet pan, your bacon needs are covered. Tune in for a flavorful episode that’ll have you grilling bacon like a pro in no time!
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RECIPES MENTIONED
These are some of the recipes mentioned in the episode, all of which are on Hot Pan Kitchen.
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TRANSCRIPT
Taryn Solie: Hello grillers, and thank you for tuning in today! I am your host, Taryn Solie, and I am here to talk with you about everything grilling and outdoor cooking, including delicious recipes and handy tips and tricks, all to give you some grilling inspiration.
This episode is going to be a fun one because it involves one of my family’s favorite foods – and really a food that makes just about everything better – and that’s bacon. I’m going to walk you through three different ways to cook bacon on your Traeger, or other wood pellet grill.
You may be wondering why are there so many ways to go about this? Can’t you just fire up your grill, throw the bacon on, and be done?
And the answer is yes, you could do that, but there are some things to consider like how thick is your bacon, does it matter to you how long it takes to cook, do you want any additional smoky flavor, and how clean is your grill.
So I’m going to go over three ways to cook bacon on a Traeger, including pros and cons to cooking it that way, then you can decide which is the right way for you.
Before I get into a recipe I typically go over a list of ingredients, but the only ingredient you need here is bacon. It can be thick cut, thin cut, hickory smoked, applewood smoked, peppered – it doesn’t matter. You will want to take into account the thickness of it when you determine which method to use, but we’ll get into that.
The one thing to consider before you put the bacon on the grill is the type of wood pellets you’re going to use. I would recommend doing a wood that’s the same or complimentary to how the bacon was originally smoked. So if you have a hickory smoked bacon you may want a hickory wood; same goes for apple wood smoked bacon and apple wood pellets. If you don’t have the same type of wood then I would use a good neutral wood, like alder or pecan.
Once you’ve got your wood picked out, make sure your hopper is full since you don’t want it running out while the bacon is cooking.
Okay, let’s get into the different methods of grilling bacon on a Traeger. First up is cooking the bacon on the grill grates at a low temperature, or what would typically be called smoking the bacon.
For this method you want to make sure you’re starting out with a really clean grill. Turn your Traeger on to 225 degrees F and after it comes to temperature, place the bacon directly on the grill grates, making sure they don’t touch. Cook the bacon until it reaches your desired crispness – typically this takes me about 2 hours.
Remove the bacon strips with a pair of tongs and place them on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any excess grease, then serve.
Now the pros to this method:
- you get lots of additional smoky flavor on the bacon, if that’s something you’re looking for;
- your bacon is less likely to burn since you’re cooking it at a lower temperature;
- you can cook as much bacon as you can fit on your grill grates, which is great if you’re serving a large crowd;
- the finished bacon is less greasy as the fat drips off it onto the grill; and
- you don’t dirty a pan since the bacon cooks directly on the grill grates.
But of course there are cons, which are:
- it takes a long time – this is not the method to use if you have hungry family and friends waiting;
- bacon is greasy and cooking it on the grill grates will grease up your Traeger – it may even need to be cleaned afterward; and
- the texture is a little different than when bacon is cooked at a higher temp, which may be a con or a pro for you.
Okay, let’s move on to the second method, which is cooking bacon directly on the grill grates but at a higher temperature.
To do this, first you want to again make sure you’re starting out with a very clean grill. Go ahead and preheat your Traeger to a temperature of 400 degrees F. After it comes to temperature, place the bacon directly on the grill. Cook the bacon for 5 minutes, then flip the slices over using a pair of tongs and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how thick your slices are.
To give you an idea of cooking times, thinner slices of bacon typically cook in 10 to 12 minutes whereas thicker slices will take longer, somewhere between 13 to 17 minutes.
Remove the bacon strips with a pair of tongs and place them on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any excess grease, then serve.
Let’s dive right into the pros and cons of this method.
For the pros:
- it takes the least amount of time out of all 3 methods I’m going over today;
- you can cook as much bacon as you can fit on your grill grates;
- the finished bacon is less greasy as the fat drips off it onto the grill; and
- you don’t dirty a pan since the bacon cooks directly on the grill grates.
Now for the cons:
- it will grease up your Traeger and it may need to be cleaned afterward; and
- for thinner slices of bacon it’s more likely to burn, so you have to keep a careful eye on it while it’s cooking.
You can see many of the pros of this one are the same as the first cooking method. The main difference is the time it takes as well as the need to pay closer attention when you’re cooking thinner slices of bacon.
Okay, onto the last method where we’re cooking bacon on a sheet pan at a high temperature.
First set your Traeger to a temperature of 400 degrees F. While waiting for your grill to heat up, line a sheet pan – the kind with a lip, sometimes called a jelly roll pan – with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Lay the bacon in a single layer on the sheet pan, making sure the slices don’t touch each other.
Place the sheet pan on the Traeger once it comes to temperature. Let it cook for about 8 minutes, then flip the bacon over and continue cooking until it’s as crispy as you like it. For thinner bacon this would be another 5 to 8 minutes, for thicker bacon this would be closer to 8 to 12 minutes.
Once it’s done cooking, put on some hot pads and remove the sheet pan from the grill. Set it down on a heat resistant surface or pad and use tongs to place the bacon strips on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any excess grease. Serve the bacon right away.
Now the pros for this method:
- it doesn’t take nearly as long as smoking the bacon at a lower temperature;
- it doesn’t make your Traeger as dirty or greasy as cooking it directly on the grill grates;
- the bacon turns out almost exactly as if it were cooked in an oven, so you know what you’re getting; and
- if you want to save the bacon grease or use it in another dish – I like to do this with my bacon fried rice – then the pan catches it for you.
As for the cons, they are that:
- this method results in the greasiest bacon since it’s cooking in its own grease;
- you can only cook as much bacon as will fit in the sheet pan;
- it takes longer than when it’s grilled directly on the grates; and
- it leaves you with a dirty dish as you have to clean the sheet pan afterward.
And there you have it! Three different ways to cook bacon on a Traeger. It’s totally up to you which one you want to do, and that’s going to vary depending on your needs. Personally, I tend to do one of the higher temp cooking methods as I’m usually after a shorter cooking time, but really it’s up to you.
There are lots of different things you can do with Traeger bacon. Of course you can eat it by itself, but my family loves it in a good BLT – typically with avocado so technically it’s a BLTA. I’ve also used it in a BLT chicken salad, which is really tasty, and it would be good in a potato salad as well.
I’ll include a link to the full printable recipe and instructions for the three methods of cooking bacon on a Traeger, as well as the other recipes and resources I’ve mentioned, on the show notes page. To get to it you can either go to my main website at Hot Pan Kitchen dot com and click on podcast in the main menu, or you can click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you’re listening on.
If you enjoyed this recipe, consider subscribing to the show on your favorite podcast platform so you don’t miss out on all the episodes! I’ve got a ton of great grilling and smoking recipes you’re going to love.
That’s it for today, thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.
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