Okay, so the whole bacon-is-an-internet-meme thing is majorly played out, and if one more person emails me a hilarious bacon recipe or picture of bacon I will probably scream, “GO BACK TO 2005, DUDE.”  However, bacon is a really great way to add lots of flavour to lots of different recipes.  Especially veggies.

bacon up them brussel sprouts, mabel

Sometimes I think to myself, “This vegetable is far too healthy.  How might I add some saturated fats and also deliciousness?”  Why, bacon, of course.  It’s dead easy.  First, steam up your brussel sprouts (I did them in the top half of our rice cooker while I cooked up the rice for dinner in a little chicken broth).  While that’s happening, chop up some bacon (not much, maybe 2-4 strips) and fry them up in the pan until they’re just on the edge of crispy.  Don’t drain the bacon fat.  Toss the brussel sprouts into the pan and stir them around so they get good and coated in the bacon-y goodness.

(This makes an excellent side dish for a roast dinner, incidentally.  Especially at Christmas or Thanksgiving.)

chicken stuffed with avocado and wrapped in bacon; baconized sprouts; wild rice made with chicken broth

So good.  The sprouts get a little salty/smoky flavour, and the sweetness of the sprout complicates the bacon flavour.  It’s dead nice, I tells ya.

We had these for dinner tonight as a side dish, with chicken and rice.  For the chicken, I flattened out two chicken breasts and made a filing of avocado and asiago cheese.  I whipped that until it was creamy and spread it on one side of the breast, rolled up the breast and used a piece of bacon to hold the whole thing together.  Avocado is a great filling for chicken because the healthy fats in avocado keep the chicken moist and flavourful, even when it has been beaten quite thin.

It was a really tasty dinner!  Truthfully, I think I overcooked the sprouts (will definitely steam them less next time), but otherwise it was pretty good.  This chicken recipe is a pretty common one around here because it is super easy without being plain and boring, and we usually have chicken, cheese, bacon, and avocado in the house.  Oh man, that’s a lot of delicious fat.

One last note on bacon — if you can, get it from a local butcher instead of prepackaged.  You cannot beat a thickly-sliced, locally raised and smoked bacon for flavour and quality.  I can’t go back to Maple Leaf now, even if I wanted to.