Brussels sprouts, bacon, and onion

June 11, 2022 12:09 AM

This is exciting. I am finally posting one of my own recipes on my food blog. Honestly, it's not much of a recipe. It just happens to be my go-to way of preparing brussels sprouts. But I google searched the title of this recipe to see if anyone had the same idea, and while there are a lot of variations on brussels sprouts, bacon, and onions, none were exactly like mine.

Equipment you will need

• A knife
• A cutting board
• Kitchen scissors (optional, for cutting bacon)
• A nonstick skillet
• A 9 x 13 baking pan
• Some type of stirring utensil

Ingredients

• 1 pound of brussels sprouts
• 1 sweet onion
• 4 strips of thick cut, low sodium bacon
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. Cut up the bacon into small pieces and put them in the skillet. I like to grab the whole stack of bacon and use scissors to cut them up. Turn the stove on to medium heat to start the cooking. Stir occasionally, and cook until you have about two tablespoons of fat rendered.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
3. Cut the brussels sprouts in halves (or quarters, if they're on the larger side). Slice the onions into large strips. Onions cook a lot faster than brussels sprouts and you don't want them fried to a crisp, so I try to not slice them too thin.
4. Throw the brussels sprouts, onions, bacon, and bacon fat into the baking pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper, and stir everything until it's all mixed well and evenly distributed.
5. Cook the brussels sprouts in the oven for 20-30 minutes, giving them a stir once in the middle. Broil the brussels sprouts on high for another minute.

Extra tips!

Substitutions - You can totally use a non-sweet onion! It will still get sweeter when you roast it. You can also use kosher or sea salt instead of table salt, but you might want to increase the amount to 3/4 teaspoon.

On obtaining bacon - I prefer to use a nicer cut of meat from the butcher at the grocery store. I find most pre-packaged bacon to be way too salty for my tastes, so I always go for something sweeter, like a honey smoked bacon. This also allows me to only buy exactly as much as I need.

Don't overcook the bacon! - You don't want the bacon to be already cooked to your liking in the skillet. It will cook more in the oven. I also think bacon is good with a little bit of chew to it.

Cook time and temp - Every oven is different. I found that cooking at 425 for 30 minutes works for my oven, but if this is your first time roasting brussels sprouts, I would check every 10 minutes, and keep cooking until it gets a little brown.