4 Creative Ways To Use Up Leftover Bacon

Believe it or not, it is possible to end up with leftover bacon. And if, perchance, neither you nor someone in your home is willing or able to immediately gobble up that excess pork product, there are several creative uses for it beyond the typical (though still delicious) over-the-top BLT pasta salad or bacon fried rice. You'll reduce food waste and give those uneaten strips a second life in inventive dishes both sweet and savory.

Snacks are a great place to start when trying to repurpose leftover bacon, as its smoky, salty, umami notes jazz up every handful. You could chop it up for use in bacon nuts or chocolate bacon bark — two equally toothsome finger foods. Similarly, crumble your bacon, grab the maple syrup from the fridge (that's right, pure maple syrup shouldn't be stored at room temperature), and set to work on maple bacon popcorn. If you're not much of a snacker, there's always tomorrow's breakfast; serve bacon with savory oatmeal for a hearty meal that sticks to the ribs until lunchtime.

Bacon nuts are exactly what they sound like: a seasoned nut mix flecked with bits of crispy, salty bacon. There's amazing potential here for a sweet-and-savory symphony of flavors. The complexity of this dish varies by recipe, but the basic idea is the same: Coat nuts in oil or the bacon fat (if you've still got it), and add the chopped bacon and your seasonings of choice along with brown or white sugar or maple syrup. Toss it all to coat, and heat the mixture for 10 minutes or so. You could do this in a large pan on the stove or on a baking sheet in the oven, preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Assume five to eight bacon slices for a 3-cup yield of bacon nuts.

Spices like cumin, chili powder, and cayenne powder add earthy, slightly spicy notes that pair perfectly with the smokiness of bacon. The woody coolness of minced rosemary does the opposite, offering a distinctive contrast to that salty, smoky palate. For a bit of a glaze, you could add one egg white to your seasonings before tossing the nuts, or a tablespoon of white miso to add an umami-rich base that balances sweetness and offers extra depth.

One of the mistakes everyone makes with oatmeal is assuming it has to be sweet. Savory oatmeal is absolutely a thing, and it's the perfect vehicle for getting some fiber into your day and a joyful way to use up leftover bacon. As for how to craft these breakfast bowls, think of the oatmeal as rice or hash browned potatoes and go from there: It's the base on which you'll pile on or mix in your proteins and veggies.

For extra savory flavor, save some of your bacon grease and use this to cook your vegetables — diced onion, sliced mushrooms, or the like. You could add your uncooked oats at this time, giving them 10 seconds or so over the heat before adding the water. Alternatively, cook the oats beforehand and use your bacon fat for greens or aromatics like garlic. Either chop your bacon and mix into the finished bowl or set the strips on top. Cheese and eggs finish the dish off perfectly.

Popcorn is yet another toothsome snack made better with leftover bacon — and if you've still got the bacon fat, even better. Fat is the perfect flavor base to use when making popcorn on the stovetop, and bacon grease will infuse its distinctive smokey, unctuous notes throughout your kernels when you pop them in it. For ¾ cup of kernels, you'll need around 3 to 4 tablespoons of bacon fat. As your kernels begin to pop in the fat, carefully shake the pot about three times per minute to ensure the kernels are all equally coated and that there aren't too many stragglers left unpopped.

The sweet-and-salty topping comes into play once you've got your pot of popped kernels. Crumble your leftover bacon and toss it into your popcorn while you melt 4 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons of maple syrup. Alternatively, stir your bacon pieces into the butter/maple syrup mixture heating on the stove. Either way, the final step should be instinctive: Drizzle all that goodness over the popcorn, and toss it until no kernel is left uncoated. Try a piece, roll your eyes in gustatory delight, and season the snack with salt to taste.

There's a scientific reason bacon tastes good with everything. Not only is it rich in umami, it's also famously salty. Salt enhances flavors, including sweet notes, and tones down bitterness — and that includes the sweetness and bitterness in chocolate. This is why, for those with a sweet tooth, chocolate bacon bark is the perfect way to get leftover bacon to make your taste buds sing even louder than it usually does.

The simplest way to prepare this treat is to stir chopped, crispy bacon into melted semi-sweet chocolate, then spread this delectable gooeyness evenly onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Top it with more chopped bacon, and pop it into the fridge to harden for about half an hour.

A more elaborate take yields even more of a salty crunch. Instead of pouring melted chocolate directly onto the foil-lined baking pan, line it with saltine crackers first. You could pour the melted chocolate onto these, or first drizzle melted butter and brown sugar onto the crackers before baking for just under 10 minutes. When the pan comes out of the oven, the sugar-buttered crackers will be the perfect temperature to melt your chocolate chips; spread these all across the surface, top with crumbled bacon, and refrigerate for a couple of hours.