Bacon is not limited to frying pan or oven. If you know how to cook bacon on a grill and if you have the grill at your disposal, there is no going back. Bacon on a grill comes out very flavorful and the edges are crispy, with a little smoky flavor, giving the bacon a whole new level of taste and texture.
Grilling bacon is an all-rounder and you can grill bacon in several ways that can enhance your recipe.
Can you cook bacon on a grill?
As you already understood, yes, you can cook bacon on the grill safely and it tastes particularly good with a smoky flavor. Bacon is very messy to cook due to the fat present in it. Grilling is a good alternative as fat drips out into a plate below. This makes bacon healthier and meatier (is there such a word?).
The browning is not as strong too as when stir frying. Bacon cooks evenly and quickly by timely flipping it to both sides. There are no burning spots in grilling in contrast to frying bacon. The fried bacon can sputter aggressively as it sits in fat in frying which is not so with grilling.
The easiest way to cook bacon on a grill is as follows:
- Keep the bacon spread on a cold grill.
- Turn to medium flame and cook bacon until the fat starts dripping.
- You can collect the fat below on a plate.
- Flip the bacon until it is evenly browned on both sides.
Serve them in a plate or bowl lined with a paper towel.
Bacon and Grilling
Bacon has monosaturated fat to about 50 percent. This is a healthy fat that is found in olive oil. The rest of the fat is polyunsaturated and saturated fat. This fat generally drips out when grilling. This fat can be collected at the bottom using a plate to avoid resulting flames.
Grilling makes bacon healthier as compared to other methods of cooking bacon like frying. Because fat is dripped out in this method and makes you feel less guilty while savoring them.
How to Cook Bacon on a Grill?
Pre-requisites
You can cook bacon on a grill in several ways. Bacon comes in various types, all of them well suited for grilling. One type will require more grilling time while the other will need less.
The 3 main types of bacon cuts are:
- Standard bacon is very thinly sliced and used all-purpose. It cooks quickly and should be cooked on minimal heat.
- Center-cut bacon is a leaner cut and has approximately 30 percent lesser fat. Strips are shorter and so cook it for lesser time.
Thick-cut bacon is 2 times the standard bacon for a better shape. This is perfect for cooking a little longer time without any burning. This is perfect for grilling.
How to cook crispy or soft bacon on the grill
While some prefer golden crispy bacon, others love chewy and soft bacon.
For chewy and soft bacon
For soft bacon, the cooking time must be lowered.
- Cook one side of the bacon for 7 minutes.
- Flip and cook the other side for 3 minutes.
- Toss and turn a little by adjusting the portion of grilling at 375 deg F grilling temperature.
For crispy bacon
For crispy bacon, add in some more minutes to grill on both sides.
- Cook one side for about 10 minutes.
- Flip and cook on the other side for 5 minutes.
- If your bacon is crispy enough, remove them and serve.
If not, grill for some more time until it is done for desired crispiness.
More different ways on how to cook bacon on a grill
Bacon can be cooked on a grill in different easy ways. This will decrease your bacon kitchen cooking hangover, effort, and timesaving. Whichever way you grill, you infuse smoky grilled flavors into the bacon with no grease onto the flames. If you are grilling directly, try placing a plate at the bottom to collect fat. Let us dive in.
How to cook bacon on a grill on a cast-iron skillet on a gas/BBQ grill
Follow these steps:
- The grill should be preheated to 400 deg F.
- Place the skillet over the grill grates to preheat as well.
- Place the bacon of any cut on the skillet separately without overlapping on one another.
- Close the grill. Let the bacon cook as per their cut/thickness. In general, for about 7 minutes to 10 minutes.
- Open the grill and using tongs flip the bacon over. Now cook for 3 minutes to 5 minutes on this side until both the sides are crispy and golden.
- If the color is not satisfying enough, repeat for a couple of more minutes by flipping and adjusting while savoring the aromas and the color.
- Your crispy bacon is ready. Serve them on a plate or a bowl lined with paper towels.
- Enjoy it to your fullest with a tinge of smokiness.
With a cast-iron skillet or pan, you can grill on use a stovetop. However, grilling gives you that unique smoky grilled flavor.
How to cook bacon on a grill directly
You can do this by placing a plate at the bottom to collect the fat rendered.
Caution! Fat is quite flammable substance. Must always place a plate under the cooked bacon to avoid fat catching fire and burning down the grill and the whole house.
Follow the steps:
- Brush oil on the grill grates.
- Lay down the bacon separately on grill grates.
- Grill the bacon strips on medium heat but not directly over the heat but close to the heat.
- Cook them for around 2 minutes, depending on the thickness and the cut of the bacon.
- Keep turning them to avoid burning them.
- Let them cook until crisp.
- Now cease the heat and lay the bacon for a minute on both sides.
You will get the smoky flavor and grill marks to get perfect grilled bacon.
More ways of grilling bacon
On a skewer placed on a grill – You can thread bacon into a skewer and place it directly on a grill. Skew it like a ribbon.
However, ensure you are rotating the skewer often to cook it evenly and with no burnt spots. If not, you might end up having undercooked spots at the bends.
For easier threading, place it for a couple of minutes in your freezer.
Grilling bacon on a pan – You can grill bacon on a pan by preheating the grill and the pan to 375-400 deg F.
Place the bacon strips lined up separately and then grill them for around 7-10 minutes.
This method is the same as grilling bacon on a cast-iron skillet. The only difference is pan gets heated more quickly than a cast-iron skillet while a cast iron skillet can retain more heat than a pan.
Grilling on a cooling rack – This is another best grilling method, and you can use it in place of a cast-iron skillet.
Lay the bacon separately on the cooling rack.
Preheat the grill and place the cooling rack.
Switch off the heat once the grill lid is closed.
Let them heat for around 2 minutes.
Enjoy your crispy bacon.
Grilling on a baking sheet – This takes the same time as the cast iron skillet, but ideal to get chewy soft bacon with grilling. You can place a cooling rack on top of the baking sheet with bacon on top.
Grilling using a foil – Foil acts as a barrier between flames and bacon. It prevents direct heat as well. Take a foil and fold its edges.
Lay the bacon separately on top and then grill.
Grill for 6-10 minutes.
The bacon has no burnt spots with this method.
Flip on both sides. Check for doneness.
Remember the fat should not drip or there will be fire.
Always check for tears in the foil and the folding of the foil is appropriate for any fat leakages.
Grilling by wrapping it around other food items: This is another popular method to grill bacon. Wrap the bacon strips over corn, burgers, meatballs, corn, franks, fillets and more. This will grill the bacon over the grill flames with a smoky flavor to the overall grilled food.
Overview of few more easy ways to grill bacon
Grilling by pre-cooking it: Cook the bacon cut before grilling it. This has the added advantage of minimizing the grease amount when grilling. It also makes it safe to place it over the grill directly. Ensure appropriate doneness by flipping on both sides.
Grilling by pre-baking – Pre-bake the bacon slices to render some fat. Now grill them on direct heat for lesser cooking time to get the smoky crispy bacon. This will prevent or minimize fat drip. This is somewhat identical to grilling by pre-cooking the bacon.
Grilling on a grill along with other foods – When you are grilling with other foods, place the bacon strips on the lesser or cooler section of the grill as they will usually cook faster due to thinness. Grill them for around 5-7 minutes.
Grilling in the smoker – Smoke the bacon over hickory gradually in a smoker. Use rib racks to place the bacon strips by draping them over and place them in a smoker.
Grilling bacon on a pellet grill – Preheat to 325 deg F. Once preheated, place the slices of bacon on the grill grate. Close the grill lid.
Turn the bacon halfway based on the bacon cut, thickness, and pellet cooker hot spots. The thinner bacon cuts are cooked evenly without any turning.
When bacon is done and crispy, enjoy it by removing it from the grill onto a plate.
Some other unique ways of grilling
Grilling bacon over waffle-maker- No splatter, no fat dripping when grilling bacon using a waffle maker.
You get the grill marks and nice crispy bacon too. However, it lacks a smoky flavor.
Preheat the waffle, cut the bacon strip, and lay them on either square (left and right) of the waffle maker.
Cook for around 3 minutes to 4 minutes. Flip them in between.
Check for doneness. If not, continue for another couple of minutes until you get the desired color.
Grilling using Foreman Grill/Panini Press- This is similar to grilling on a waffle maker, perfectly cooked and grease draining away.
How long do you cook bacon on the grill?
When you cook bacon on a grill, you preheat the grill to its highest setting to 375 to 400 deg F. After preheating, grill it for around 7 minutes to 10 minutes.
Cook it until the bacon is crispy. The cooking time also depends on the bacon cut and thickness of the bacon.
After pre-heating, cook the bacon for initially 3 minutes to 5 minutes.
Flip in between and then grill for the rest of the time depending on the level of crispiness you want.
A simple recipe for Bacon on a grill
Ingredients
- Bacon strip cuts
- Pan or cast iron skillet
Grilling Procedure
- Preheat the outdoor grill.
- Preheat on medium-low heat to 400 deg F.
- Place the pan or cast-iron skillet in the grill and preheat them along with the grill.
- Spread the bacon strips in line separately on the pan. Do not place on top of each other or crowd them.
- Grill the bacon evenly by flipping them in between without burning them.
- Cook for 3 minutes to 4 minutes on one side.
- Flip and cook for another 5 minutes on the other side.
- Grill them until the desired doneness or crispiness is acquired.
Transfer them on a plate or dish lined with a paper towel.
Simple recipe for Bacon and eggs on the grill
Ingredients
- Bell pepper- Green, orange, red or yellow
- 6-12 eggs
- Peppered bacon- 1 pound
Grilling Procedure
- Slice some bell peppers to circles of 1/4th inch.
- Cut a pepper for each egg that you are grilling.
- Preheat grill to 400 deg F to 450 deg F to medium heat.
- Take a grill mat and use little butter to avoid sticking of food placed over it.
- Place rings of bell pepper over the grill mat.
- Crack an egg in the bell pepper ring.
- Flip the egg rings once egg white firms up.
- Cook yolk to hardness.
- Place the bacon stripes over grill grates under which place a plate to collect grease.
Collect them on a plate and arrange them as desired. Serve it with a toast.
Few more tips for cooking bacon on a grill
Besides using out own knowledge, we decided to go around forums and see what other dinner captains recommend when grilling bacon. Here you go.
- Not mandatory to grill bacon in a grilling pan. You can use regular pan. But grill pan may keep the flavor better and pan does not catch fire,
- There is no need to add any oil if using pan to cook bacon. Bacon is fatty enough by itself,
- Preferably, use pan or such other item with flat surface to avoid bacon cooking unevenly,
- Cast iron is good for grilling bacon, and you can use cast iron pan for grilling bacon in batches,
- If you are not too health conscious, making bacon in own fat makes it super-flavorful and rich in taste. It is matter of personal preference,
- Cooking slowly makes the best, thoroughly cooked, bacon,
- Thin bacon is better to grill on pan, cast-iron pan, etc.,
- If you want to grill bacon directly on grates, better to buy thick slices of bacon,
- Be careful as grease can easily catch fire!
- Grilling bacon in pan allows to avoid fire hazard as fat is not dripping down,
- Gas grill is safer than charcoal grill, because of the dripping fat potential to catch fire. But if you are placing a plate or cookie sheet or such other item below to collect fat, then it does not make much difference.
- You can put foil between fire and bacon to avoid fire hazard,
- You can grill bacon not directly above the fire to avoid fire hazard, basically, flames on one side and bacon on another, o that when the fat drips, it does not drip on open flames,
- When using foil for grilling bacon, make sure to use good quality strong heavy-duty foil to avoid it tearing apart in the middle of cooking and allowing fat to catch fire on the grill,
- Do not tear foil with utensil by accident,
- You can fold aluminum foil into double layer for better safety and durability during cooking,
- Using heavy suede glove for construction or fire-resistant glove may come very handy when using grill. Even, in the rare event you need to put down fire or quickly remove pan/grate/sheet with burning bacon.
The general preferred grilling temperature range seems to be 325F-400F, with 400F being the most cited.
Conclusion
Cooking smoky, sizzling, tender, and crispy bacon is easy on a grill. If you know how to cook bacon on a grill right, you will never go back from it again. Bacon is not confined to pan fry, stir fry, oven, or microwave. The best thing is that you can cook bacon on a grill in several different ways. You can grill it easy and quick now with the above steps. Ensure the fat is collected in a plate to avoid flaming of the burning coal.