Homemade Smoked Bacon
On June 17, 2021 (Updated November 05, 2024)
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Making your own homemade Smoked Bacon is a bit of a process, but it’s 100% worth the effort. I’m here to walk you step-by-step through making your own smoked bacon from scratch that is way better than anything you’ll get at the store.
Smoked Bacon
I don’t think I’ve ever cooked anything that made me as excited as this homemade smoked bacon. I mean, it’s bacon. Which is awesome enough. But the fact that I bought a giant slab of pork belly and turned it into beautifully seasoned and smoked homemade bacon made me near giddy. I can’t even wait to share the process with you and watch the proud homemade bacon glow wash over you.
I’m not going to pretend that I am the first person to attempt to make bacon, I did a lot of reading on proper cure times, ratios of curing salt to bacon thickness, etc. I did, however, create these two awesome cure recipes from all of the knowledge I gleaned from those who have made bacon before me. I hope you give them a try!
Homemade Smoked Bacon
Making homemade bacon is a several day process, but it is totally worth it. I’m going to detail my steps for you here so you can follow along and venture into beautiful, homemade smoked bacon territory.
First, you need to pick up a piece of pork belly. Thickness will vary, but lately Costco has been stocking beautiful, already skinned slabs of pork belly. If you are buying from a butcher, see if you can get them to remove the skin from the belly for you. It can be a bit of a nasty job to remove this skin yourself, and it also increases your cure time since it is typically not removed until after the time spent in the cure.
If you have a large piece of meat, I recommend dividing the pork belly into smaller portions so it is easier to handle in the cure. I usually portion mine off so they can easily fit in a gallon sized zip top bag.
How to Cure Bacon
Next, it is time to make the cure. There are two cures in the recipe card below. The peppered cure is a little more sophisticated with some added spice. It is amazing on BLTs and cheeseburgers. The recipe notes contain the ingredients for the maple cure. It is the perfect mixture of sweet and salty and it just screams breakfast.
When you’re ready to make your bacon, place the pork belly in a plastic bag with the cure and seal the bag tightly. You can also vacuum seal the bag to remove all the air if you have this available. Place the bag in the refrigerator and allow it to cure.
Allow the pork belly to cure for approximately 7 days. A general rule is to cure your bacon 7 days for every inch of thickness. Make sure you flip your pork belly over in the cure and massage once a day. If you hit the 7 day mark, you can test your bacon by slicing through the middle to be sure the pork belly is pink all of the way through with no gray left at all. If it isn’t pink through, put it back in the cure for another day and test again. The texture should also feel like a well done steak when it is done curing.
How to Smoke Bacon
After the cure, the pork belly needs to be rinsed and returned to the fridge to develop a sticky skin called a pellicle. I like to place my pork belly on a wire cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet before returning to the fridge. You need to leave your bacon in the fridge for 12-24 hours; I usually leave mine overnight. This air drying time in the fridge will help the smoke really cling to the meat by creating that tacky exterior.
Now it’s smoke time! I like to use apple wood to smoke my bacon, but maple and hickory are also awesome choices. Fire up your favorite pellet grill and keep the temperature as low as possible (I was smoking around 165 degrees F).
Place the cured pork belly on the grill grates of the smoker, close the lid, and smoke for about 6 hours or until the internal temperature is up to 155 degrees F. Invest in a GOOD quality thermometer! It will make all the difference in the finished product if you have an accurate temperature reading. I always recommend ThermoWorks thermometers because they are insanely accurate and very durable.
Once the pork is smoked, you are ready to slice and fry it up! Finally after all of that waiting, it is time to eat that glorious, salty sweet piece of meat heaven. It is hard to resist slicing pieces off right away, so definitely cut off a few pieces and fry them up. If you’ve got the patience, chill the bacon completely before slicing. It’ll make the job much easier when the meat is cold. You can use a meat slicer if you’ve got one, but I just used a really sharp knife and went to work! If you feel intimidated, come try a piece of my homemade bacon. It’ll pluck up your courage. Venture out of your comfort zone and try something new. You got this!
How to Smoke Bacon on a Grill
If you don’t own a smoker and don’t want to buy one, you can actually make a smoker out of your propane grill. Follow through steps below or watch my video for a full tutorial for smoking on a gas grill.
- Make a smoke pouch. You can buy hardwood chips at almost any grocery store, usually in the outdoor cooking aisle. Fold up a large square of aluminum foil into a pouch around the hardwood chips. Use a knife to punch a bunch of holes in the top of the pouch.
- Fire up the grill. Turn on one of your grill’s burners to High and place the pouch over the burner. Once your wood starts to smoke, turn the temperature down to medium.
- Cook the pork. Place the cured pork belly on the un-lit side of the grill and close the lid. Allow the wood chips to smoke and smolder until the internal temperature of the bacon reaches 155 degrees F. You may need to add a new pouch of wood chips if your first burns out before you get your bacon up to temperature.
How Long to Smoke Bacon
With the temperature of your smoker holding steady around 165 degrees F, it will take around 6 hours for the meat to fully smoke.
The goal here is to get your pork to an internal temperature of 155 degrees F. You want to keep the temperatures low during this smoke so you cook the pork through and add all the smoky flavor without rendering any of the fat in the belly.
Recipes for Homemade Smoked Bacon
Ready to put this bacon to good use? Check out some of our popular recipes here on Hey Grill Hey!
- Bacon Wrapped Brats with Beer Cheese Sauce
- BBQ Meatloaf with a Bacon Weave
- Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast
Smoked Bacon Recipe
Homemade Smoked Bacon
Video
Ingredients
- 1 5-pound slab pork belly skin removed
- 1 Tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
Peppered Bacon Cure
- 1 ¼ teaspoons Prague Powder #1
- 5 Tablespoons coarse Kosher salt
- 5 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 3 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Prepare the cure. Combine all ingredients for the bacon cure in a bowl. It will be a paste-like consistency. This is exactly what you want.
- Cure the pork belly. Place your slab of pork belly in a large plastic bag (either a large vacuum seal bag or a gallon zip top bag works great for this). Using your hands, transfer some of the cure to the bag with the pork belly and spread it on all sides. Make sure to thoroughly coat all sides of the bacon and use all of the cure. Seal the bag tightly, removing as much air as possible. Place the sealed pork belly package in the refrigerator and cure for the next 7 days. Flip and massage the pork belly once per day.
- Develop a pellicle. After the 7th day in the cure, remove the bacon from the bag. Gently rinse the pork belly to remove any thick slimy build-up on the exterior of the pork. Place it on a wire rack above a baking sheet. Pat the pork belly dry with paper towels. Season the top with the tablespoon of fresh cracked black pepper. Place the peppered bacon in the fridge (while still on the rack) and leave uncovered for at least 12 or up to 24 hours. This step helps develop a tacky coating called a pellicle on the exterior of the bacon.
- Smoke the bacon. Preheat your smoker to 160-170 degrees F using your favorite hardwood. Apple, maple, and hickory are all popular for smoked bacon. Place the pork belly directly on the grill grates, close the lid, and smoke for approximately 6 hours, or until the internal temperature of the pork belly reads 155 degrees F.
- Slice and cook. Let the bacon chill completely in the refrigerator before slicing. A cold slab of bacon is much easier to slice into even pieces. Slice your bacon as thick or as thin as you like (one beauty of making it from scratch) and fry up in a cast iron skillet. Enjoy!
Notes
5 pounds pork belly, skin removed
1 1/4 teaspoon Prague Powder #1
5 Tablespoons coarse Kosher salt
5 Tablespoons maple syrup
5 Tablespoons brown sugar
5 teaspoons cracked black pepper
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
**This post was originally published in August 2015. We recently updated it with more information and helpful tips. The recipe remains the same.
Do you remove the skin? Most recipes I see tell you to cut off the skin after curing, but I don’t know the benefit or drawback of doing so. Thank you.
This recipe calls for pork belly with the skin already removed. You don’t want to smoke or eat bacon with the skin on, so make sure it comes off either before the cure or before smoking.
Hello and thanks for sharing this recipe. Cant wait to try it. After smoking the bacon at 165 degrees for 6 hrs, is frying still required to consume safely? If yes, do you have any recommendations for smoking times so that the bacon is ready to slice and eat out of the smoker, withourr frying?
Hey Terry- the bacon is fully cooked to 155 degrees F and safe to eat without frying. It won’t be crisp and the fat will still be fairly chewy. If you want a slow smoked pork belly, I would recommend this recipe: https://heygrillhey.com/bbq-smoked-pork-belly/
I live in the Northern Utah area and I can’t find the Morton’s Tender Quick or any of your other options anywhere. Where did you find the Tender Quick?
Hey Chris- I actually found the Tender Quick at Smith’s grocery store. You can also buy it on Amazon.
If there’s a Sportsman’s Warehouse nearby you should take a look there. The one near me always has it on hand.
Sportsmans warehouse in Logan carries it.
I love this article, and wanted to print it out for my records, but with all the ads, it is 26 pages! Is there not an option for a print friendly version? Thanks
Hey Stephen- I’m so sorry about that! I’m in the process of reworking my site, so the ads are a little intrusive right now. If you want to send me an email to susie@heygrillhey.com, I will send you a printable version of the post.
Just tried this recipe and think I did something wrong. For some reason it didn’t really taste like bacon. It wasn’t very salty and the flavors were very faint. It was actually kind of bland. I did it just how you did with cutting a pork belly in half and doing both cures. I used Prague powder #1 so im not sure if that had anything to do with it. I cured it for 7 days, let it rest for 1 day then smoked it. Maybe it just needed another day of curing? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
The wait is finally over! It’s time to smoke, just put 5 lbs of pork belly on the Traeger. I cant wait to taste it! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Hello, I plan to try this recipe and have all the necessary ingredients. I was wondering how flexible the time range for curing and drying can be? I have a 4.97 pound pork belly I plan to cure with the peppered cure. If you let it cure 8 or 9 days will that make it overly salty? Also if you let it dry in the fridge on a rack on a cookie sheet for 24-48 hours will that cause any issues? I want to plan it out so I can smoke it on a Saturday or Sunday and wanted to make sure I didn’t start the cure process too early. Or if I planned it out to be ready to smoke on a Saturday but something comes up and it doesn’t get in the smoker until Sunday is that a big issue? I appreciate any information you can provide. Looking forward to trying the process and enjoying the final product.
Hey Brett- an extra day in the cure shouldn’t cause any dramatic change in he result. Pushing the drying phase to 48 hours wouldn’t be the best. It will dry out past the point where it is tacky to where it is just hard and then it won’t take on much smoke. I hope that helps!
Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the info.
Should there be no liquid left in the bag by the end of the curing process? I have had the bacon in the bag curing for 8 days and there is still quite a bit of liquid in the bag. Make me worry I didn’t do something correct.
There will definitely be liquid left in the bag. The salt draws out the moisture from the pork belly and that is what’s still in the bag.
I have used this recipe (with a couple of minor changes) and very good! The changes I make are a slightly less amount of Morton Tender Quick and I like a bit of whiskey added to it. I love the flavor it gives the bacon. But be warned it is real easy to get to much! Anyway I love the basic recipe that I go to for to start with!
Thanks David! I love th addition of the whiskey.
Hi David, would you be able to tell me how much and where in the process you add whisky?
Just tried this recipe. I was apprehensive, but the bacon turned out great. Thank you for this recipe. I will do this again.
That’s fantastic, thanks Clark!!
I love this recipe. I just keep making it. Thank you!
This is dry cure and not a brine? I’ve never tried a dry cure before, but every time I’ve used tender quick for bacon it finishes to salty.
Yep, this is a dry cure. The tenderquick is salty, but I didn’t think it was too salty. If you’re worried about it, you can let the bacon soak overnight in cold water to draw out some of the saltiness before the drying/pellicle step.