America seems to have a love affair with flavorful, tasty bacon!
They can eat it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Imagine learning how to cook bacon on a pellet grill and keeping the mess and the smell outside!
How To Cook Bacon On A Pellet Grill?
Use thick-cut bacon, lay on a rack, bake at 350° for 20 minutes and flip the bacon, then finish cooking for another 25 minutes.
We cooked it on a Pit Boss, but this process will work for any type of pellet grill.
Tips For Smoking Bacon On A Wood Pellet Grill
If you’re ready to begin cooking and don’t want to follow the step-by-step instructions, use these quick tips to get started.
- Plug the pellet grill into an electrical outlet.
- Check the wood pellets and change the flavor if you want. (I share which flavor we used below)
- Turn on the grill
- Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Put a rack on top of the baking sheet and spray with cooking oil to prevent sticking.
- Line the bacon directly on top of the rack.
- Place in the center of the grill for 20 minutes.
- Flip the bacon and cook for another 20-25 minutes.
- Remove from the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes.
For those of you who want more step-by-step instructions, continue reading below. You can also watch this video to see how I cooked bacon on the Pit Boss pellet grill step-by-step.
Prepping the Baking Sheet
You’ll want to use a baking sheet instead of laying the bacon directly on the grill. This will prevent the grease from the bacon dripping into the firepot.
We always line it with aluminum foil, because it makes the cleanup process so much easier.
I’m not sure if the grease will affect the firepot, but I do know that you can start a grease fire if your grill is too dirty. So it’s best to use a cooking rack to catch as much grease as you can.
You may even want to clean the grill after cooking the bacon, especially, if it hasn’t been cleaned in a while.
Seasoning The Bacon
Yes, you can season the bacon if that’s what you choose to do to make it even more flavorful. (not that it’s required) Try sprinkling it with cracked black pepper or brown sugar before putting it on the grill.
For a sweet and spicy flavor, add some honey to each slice and then a dash of cayenne pepper.
Remember, you’re the griller so test out different seasonings on your bacon to see what you like. If not, then just go plain like we did and I have no doubt you’ll love it!
Laying The Bacon
Line the bacon on the rack, and leave just enough space to prevent them from sticking to each other while cooking.
We were able to get over half the pack on the rack.
What We’d Do Differently
For the second batch of bacon, we cut the bacon slices in half, because we noticed that the tips on the first half were cooking faster than the rest of the bacon.
This is because the ends were laying over the edges of the bacon pan and were cooking faster, so we had to pull it off sooner than what we wanted otherwise, it would’ve burnt.
The second batch came out so much better!
Best Pellets To Use For Bacon
Since we were using Applewood bacon, we decided to use the Applewood wood pellets to give it more of an apple smoked flavor.
Honestly – I’m not even sure that it really matters what type of pellets you use to cook the food, it all comes out good.
If you don’t have Applewood, you can also use Hickory wood pellets.
Preheating The Pit Boss
Preheat the smoker to 350 – 375 degrees F and close the lid. It will take about 10-15 minutes for the grill to heat up, so make sure you turn it on while you’re doing the prep work.
How Long To Cook Bacon On A Pit Boss?
It will take thick bacon about 45 minutes to cook at 350°F thinner bacon will take about 30 minutes.
Flipping The Bacon
Place the bacon on the grill and set the timer on your phone for 10 minutes. You’ll want to check it regularly so you can flip it half way through the cooking process.
Once you flip it, you will let it finish cooking until it is golden brown or no longer floppy.
Resting Period
Once the bacon is cooked, remove it from the grill and take it inside. Leave it on the rack while it rests for 10-15 minutes.
Removing Bacon From The Rack
Once it’s done resting, you can remove it from the rack and even eat a few pieces while you get the rest of your dinner prepared.
What To Serve With Bacon?
We cooked a whole pack of bacon and will have some left over for breakfast. The night we cooked the bacon, we ate it on a hamburger that we grilled after cooking the bacon.
We’ve written a post on how to grill burgers on a Pit Boss in case you’ve never cooked them.
If you have a lot left over, you can even eat it on salads, pasta, and other recipes you can find online.
Hope you enjoyed the process of cooking the bacon on your pellet grill.
Here Are Some Other Great Meals You Can Make On Your Wood Pellet Grill
FAQ
Can You Smoke Bacon?
– Cooking bacon in a smoker grill is definitely possible. Prep the bacon as mentioned above and put on the smoker and let it smoke until it is done to your liking or reaches a temperature of 150 °F. This can take about 1-2 hours.
Differences Between Cold Smoke And Hot Smoked Bacon
The two types of smoking bacon is cold or hot. Cold smoking is the slower process and resembles the type of bacon you would purchase at your supermarket. Set the temperature below 100°F, preferably around 75°F.
Experts recommend setting the temperature to 75 °F for the best results. Hot smoking is a much faster cooking option because the bacon is cooked at a higher temperature ranging anywhere from 170F to 225F.
If you’re feeling froggy, you can even make your own homemade bacon, this site will show you how.
Bottom Line
No matter how you cook your bacon, it’s going to come out great on the pellet grill!
So next time you feel like cooking some hamburgers or just get a craving for bacon, cook it on the pellet grill and see how easy it is without making a mess in your kitchen.
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