I recently picked up a dehydrator and boy, have I been having a fun time with it. I’ve made beef jerky. Ground beef jerky. Ground turkey jerky. Dried fruits. And now? Bacon bits on the Nesco Snackmaster Pro. Fantastic, dried, crunchy, not-fatty-yucky bacon bits. 100% bacon, 100% flavor. And so easy, just like everything else I’ve made on my dehydrator.
The Secret To Great Bacon Bits
The key to making perfect bacon bits on the Nesco Snackmaster Pro is: pat. Pat with paper towels every chance you get and then pat some more. The less fat left in the end the crispier your bacon bits. Also, fat goes rancid much quicker than meat, so reducing it will increase the shelf-life of your bits. Although, I have to say, the bacon bits I made didn’t last very long around here at all.
Storing Your Bits
I stored my bacon bits in an air-tight container in the fridge. I made extra and frozen them for later use. And, nice thing is, I don’t really have to defrost them for long to use them in a recipe. For salads, I just set them out for 10-15 minutes ahead of time to let them defrost.
You can also make chipotles in adobo, using your Nesco dehydrator. Just like these homemade bacon bits, they’re much better than store-bought!
Bacon Bits on the Nesco Snackmaster Pro
Ingredients
- 2 pounds bacon thin-sliced, smoked
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 F.
- Line a baking sheet (or sheets, depending on how much bacon you’re making at a time) with foil.
- Add bacon, but do not overlap.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Flip and continue baking until crispy. NOTE: I normally like my bacon less than super crispy. This is not the time to do that. You want the bacon crispy with no soft fatty ends.
- Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and pat dry. Be thorough. You want to get as much fat off the bacon as possible.
- Crumble bacon. Pat again with paper towels. Remember, your goal is to get as much fat off as possible.
- Cut parchment paper to the same size as the mesh trays. Fold in half, making a half moon, then in half again, forming what looks like a piece of pizza and cut about an inch rectangle off the sharp corner. When you unfold it the parchment paper should have a square hole in the middle about the size of the hole in the center of the Snackmaster Pro trays. This will make sure that the air circulates well.
- Line Snackmaster Pro trays with parchment paper and add the screen trays.
- Add the crumbled bacon, spreading it out as much as possible so it doesn’t touch.
- Place trays into the Snackmaster Pro on the highest temperature.
- Dry for 12-20 hours. Every two hours take the bottom two trays and move them to the top of the stack so that the bacon dries evenly. Also pat the bacon with paper towels again.
- When the bacon is dried remove to paper towel and let cool.
- Keep in the fridge until ready to use.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional values are approximate.