Pig Candy with Crushed Pistachios

Pig candy is just candied bacon and it is heaven. I took it to a whole other level by adding crushed pistachios. Oh, did I mention I also added real maple syrup? I must warn you, pig candy is positively addictive. The finest confectioners from France and Switzerland have nothing on on Pig Candy with Crushed Pistachios?

Other bacon dishes that really knock it out of the park include:

• Bacon Wrapped Chicken Lollipops
• Bacon Pineapple Ribs
• Buffalo Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings
• Bacon Wrapped Turkey Roses
• Bacon Encrusted Beef Tenderloin

Pig Candy with Crushed Pistachios Ingredients:

• 3 lbs thick cut bacon
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 oz real maple sugar
• 2 tbsp crushed red pepper
• 2 tbsp coarse black pepper
• 6 oz shelled pistachios, crushed

For this cook, I used my pellet smoker with apple wood pellets.

This cooker is ideal for pig candy as all three grill grates are shielded from the fire so no grease hits open flame.

***Pro Tip ~ Pull the grill grates out of the grill before you light the cooker. Place the bacon on the cold grill grates and season them there and then put the grill grates (and bacon) back in the smoker. It’s real, REAL hard to place cold bacon onto hot grill grates and season it. If you use baking sheets, the bacon sits in the grease and the seasoning washes off***

How to Make Pig Candy

Lay out the bacon across the cool grill grates:

Then hit each slice of bacon with the real maple syrup (Real Tomato Ketchup, Eddie? Sorry, I had to!)

***Pro tip numero dos ~ Transfer the syrup into a condiment squirt bottle to make it easier to apply a line of syrup to each slice of bacon***

Next up is the brown sugar.

There’s no easy way of doing this, so just sprinkle it on as thick or as thin as you like along with a little crushed red pepper and coarse cracked black pepper:

Now it’s time to take care of some pistachios:

Crush, chop, and generally maim the whole pistachios until they become small enough to stick to the bacon:

How small? I don’t know. Small, but not too small.

How to Grill Pig Candy with Crushed Pistachios

Next up, they go into my 300 degree pellet cooker and after about 30 minutes the candied bacon with crushed pistachios looks like this:

After an hour the bacon candy is looking great:

After 2 hours, the sweets have melted into the bacon, the pistachios and pepper are melded into the meat and each slice has firmed up:

Plated:

Pig Candy with Crushed Pistachios Summary:

I highly recommend making well more than you think you should make. As I mentioned pig candy with crushed pistachios is addictive. Case in point. I have three sons ages, 9, 7 and 4 at the time of this posting. I thought I told each of them they could have one slice or that they could have one slice but no more until I was done taking the pictures, I can’t exactly remember now. Well, two of them got the message, had their one slice, and went back to doing whatever kids that age do.

The middle one, after I finished shooting, came back again and again and again. I’m not entirely sure how many slices of pig candy he had, but it was close to his age if not more. A few hours later things did not go well for him and to this day (he’s 12 as I edit this post) he won’t eat pig candy.

Adult Candy

I call this candy for adults, as we used to make this on Halloween and give it to the guardians of the trick or treaters, but it is obviously candy that can be appreciated by someone of any age, particularly since it was my late grandfather’s favorite thing that I grilled (and that was without the maple syrup and pistachios!). Also, if you dig this recipe, check out my Pork Belly Burnt Ends!

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Recipe Card:

Print Recipe

Pig Candy with Crushed Pistachios

Bacon, slathered in maple syrup, brown sugar, black and red pepper and crushed pistachios otherwise known as pig candy with crushed pistachios

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time2 hours hrs

Course: Appetizer, Finger Food

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Bacon, Finger Food

Keyword: Bacon, Bacon Candy, Pellet Cooker, Pellet Grill, Pellet Smoker, Pig Candy, Pistachios, Recipe, Smoker

Servings: 8 People

Ingredients

• 3 lb thick cut bacon
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 4 oz real maple sugar
• 2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 6 oz shelled pistachios crushed

Instructions

• Pull the grill grates out of your cooker before cranking the heat up in the grill to 300°
• Lay out each slice of bacon on the grill grates and then drizzle a line of maple syrup down each one
• Sprinkle each piece of bacon with brown sugar, crushed red pepper and fresh cracked black pepper
• Crush pistachios and sprinkle them across the top of each slice of soon to be pig candy
• Place into the 300° grill and cook for approximately 2 hours
• Remove from the heat and serve

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

See Full Bio

BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: June 21, 2017