How Can You Cook Bacon In Crock Pot (Easy To Follow Steps)

Bacon is easily one of the world’s most popular meats. It is so universally loved that you can find chips and other food products flavored to its likeness. This global adoration of bacon is wholly justified, after all, it is delicious and addictively crispy when cooked right. While there are many ways to cook bacon, let’s see if you can cook bacon in a crock pot.

Table of Contents

• What Is A Crock Pot?
• Can You Cook Bacon In A Crock-Pot?
• Cooking Bacon In A Slow Cooker
  • What You Will Need
  • How To Cook Bacon In A Crock Pot
  • Extra Tips
• Is Slow Cooking Bacon Good?
• FAQs On Slow Cooked Bacon

What Is A Crock Pot?

A Crock-Pot is a brand of a slow cooker. It is arguably the most popular brand for such kitchenware as they are sold in any shop that sells similar items. they can be found globally and generally have near-perfect reviews.

The whole point of a Crock-Pot or a slow cooker is to cook your food with consistent and constant heat over a long period of time. This stops the food from losing moisture as high heat will cause the food to reach an internal temperature that makes the moisture turn into steam. Slow cookers will properly cook your food but at a slower rate to avoid this so that your food is naturally moister and more tender.

Dishes such as pulled pork can be made in a slow cooker with ease as the low temperature will result in the pork easily pulling apart every time. Other than this, slow cookers can also cook stews, soups, and broths. The constant heat can be great for simmering these dishes so that the moisture content is lowered, resulting in a richer, thicker, and more flavorsome dish.

Can You Cook Bacon In A Crock-Pot?

Slow-cooked bacon probably sounds amazing to a lot of people who are familiar with slow cookers as you know it will be cooked just right. With that being said, a joint of bacon will be better suited to this than bacon strips or rashers. If you like crunchy bacon then you can not just place it in a Crock-Pot and expect it to cook. The lingering steam and moisture will make the bacon very soft and chewy. To cook it perfectly crispy, you will need to perform a few extra steps.

Chicken breast, ham hock, lamb shanks, and pork shoulders can be cooked in the Crock-pot with no issue as they are not loved for being crispy. They will end up amazing, similar to a joint of bacon. Anyone wanting to have crispy meat at the end of the cooking process will need to add a few extra steps to their list.

Alongside cooking in a Crock-Pot, bacon can also be cooked in an oven, air fryer, frying pan, and microwave. The results vary slightly depending on what method you use but it will always taste amazing because… well, it’s bacon.

Cooking Bacon In A Slow Cooker

There are a few instances in which you will want to cook bacon and a slow cooker will be there to save the day. While a slow cooker is much more niche than an oven, sometimes using an oven is a lot of work. With a slow cooker, you can leave it to cook for a few hours and still be productive in the meantime. Also, turning on the oven during summer is never fun, a Crock-Pot is a lot less likely to turn your kitchen into a burning furnace in the middle of July.

What You Will Need

As far as ingredients go, you will only need bacon. It can be whatever type of bacon you want whether it be cured or uncured, smoked or unsmoked. The thicker slices are the best choice for this as they hold up really well in a slow cooker and are a lot more likely to turn out crispy after slow cooking.

The equipment you will need for this is a slightly longer list than the list of ingredients, however, it does not include anything out of the ordinary for a kitchen. All of the needed items should either be already owned by you or can be substituted for a more common kitchen appliance. The equipment you will need for this are;

• Slow Cooker: This can be a branded Crock-Pot or any type of slow cooker you have. As long as it works, it will do just fine.
• Kitchen Shears or a sharp knife: Kitchen scissors are really handy to have but if you do not own any that are safe for cutting raw bacon, a sharp knife will do the trick.
• Cutting Board: Every kitchen should have a cutting board. There are no excuses. It is a much more sanitary way to cut things and also stops you from leaving marks, scrapes, and cuts on your kitchen furniture.
• Tongs: Tongs are great for quickly moving something about without getting your hands involved. In this case, they will work perfectly for moving the bacon around while we are cooking it.
• Paper-Towels: Paper towels are great for cleaning up messes, but are also great for soaking up excess grease and fat from bacon after it has been cooked.
• Parchment Paper: While it is optional, parchment paper can be used as a protective layer between your slow cooker and the bacon so that you do not have to clean the slow cooker as thoroughly after use.

How To Cook Bacon In A Crock Pot

There are a few ways to cook bacon in a Crock-Pot/Slow Cooker and they are very easy and end with good results. Some people choose to partially cook the bacon in a slow cooker and then finish it off in a frying pan to add some extra crispiness to it. Alternatively, other people opt to fry it first and then cook it to completion in the slow cooker. If you do it properly, you can cook bacon in the slow cooker all the way through the process without the need to finish it off elsewhere. I will show you how to perfectly cook a crispy bacon rasher in the slow cooker.

Firstly, you will want to set your slow cooker to the heat setting of your choice. This can be slow, medium, or high depending on how much time you have. Slow works well for long periods of time, however, high will result in a quicker crisp of the bacon.

Once you have set your temperature, you will want to cut your bacon in half horizontally. 8-inch strips are perfect for this, especially if they are thick slices. Once these are cut into 4-inch slices, they can be placed at the bottom of your Crock-Pot. Unlike many other cooking recipes, you can overlap and layer your bacon here as you will eventually need to flip them all anyways.

Now that the bacon has been placed, you can place the lid on the Crock-Pot and allow it to cook for an hour. Once the hour has passed, you will need to check your bacon and make sure it is doing okay. With your tongs, you can now move the bacon around and flip it so that all pieces become evenly cooked. Ensure that the most cooked slices are placed on the top and the less cooked slices are laying on the bottom.

After another hour, check the bacon again and repeat this process. The bacon should mostly be cooked by now but some pieces may be done. If there are any pieces that are completely finished, place them on a paper towel-lined plate so that they can cool and dry.

All pieces of bacon are different and will have varying cooking times, so whatever is left will have to be closely monitored until it is also done. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to another hour. Once they are all cooked, let them drain and place them on paper towels to dry and cool.

Extra Tips

• Even if your Crock-Pot is big enough to accommodate the bacon strips, cutting them in half makes it a lot easier to move them around in the slow cooker, as well as helps them cook evenly.
• Despite intending to cook them on slow, it is best to still preheat your Crock-Pot to high as this will give the bacon a headstart and will help it be crispier in the long run.
• The tongs are the best utensil to use for moving the bacon pieces around. They can effectively and efficiently grab the pieces and reorganize them instead of you having to use your hands or a spatula. The bottom part of the slow cooker is very hot as it is directly next to the heat source, this can be used to help speed up any pieces of bacon that have not yet been fully cooked.
• Once the slow cooker has been used, wait until it has cooled down and save the bacon grease that you have accumulated. This can be used as an oil for cooking and has many other uses in the kitchen.

Is Slow Cooking Bacon Good?

Slow-cooked bacon does not have too much of a difference compared to oven-cooked bacon. This is because the slow cooker is best for retaining moisture content in food and people enjoy bacon when it is crispy. The Crock-Pot would have much better uses for other meat where tenderness and moisture are important. However, throwing some raw bacon in the Crock-Pot and slow cooking it for a while is still a great way to cook it.

FAQs On Slow Cooked Bacon