The Bacon Frying Rule You Should Forget, According To Snoop Dogg

Flat bacon strips are good for only two things, really — nice photos on Instagram and cream cheese BLT sandwiches. Those are the only times when your pork strips need to look as flat as printer paper. Otherwise, you should take a hint from Snoop Dogg and let 'em curl up in a cute li'l piggy pile in the bottom of your skillet as you cook them. Aside from removing the ginormous amount of frustration that comes with trying to iron your bacon strips until they're flat as a board, you actually end up with crispier bacon if you just let the pieces curl as they're naturally inclined to do. 

If it sounds like everything about this bacon-frying hack is easy, it's because it is. You don't even need to pull bacon out of the package one strip at a time, like you would if you were frying it up for BLTs. Dumping the whole package of pork into the skillet in one big lump works just fine. And if the block of bacon strips happens to be a bit frozen, add a splash of water to the pan and drop the frozen block of bacon in the center of the skillet. Cover it for five minutes, then poke and prod it a bit with a fork until the bacon block breaks apart into individual strips.

Employing the two-fisted bacon-frying stir

When Snoop works with a skillet full of bacon like this, he holds a fork in each hand, and moves his hands around the pan, allowing the tines of both forks to move each piece of bacon to and fro across the bottom of the skillet. Because his hands roam around the skillet constantly, he's pretty much guaranteed that each strip of bacon gets fully cooked on all sides and in all the little curly crevices.

For some burn-weary chefs, using two forks to stir bacon puts their hands too close to the hot grease, due to how short the handles on most standard forks are. If that's what's holding you back from cooking your bacon this way, switch out the double forks for a pair of tongs. The tongs allow you to pick up each piece of bacon and turn it over as needed. They're additionally helpful if you need to push large swaths of bacon strips around the skillet a la Snoop.

How long should you cook Snoop Dogg bacon?

The secret to perfectly cooked bacon with the Snoop Dogg method is letting it fry for at least 15 or 20 minutes. Once your bacon is crisped to your liking, you can put it on a plate that you've covered with a paper towel to soak up some of the grease before you serve it with your favorite omelet and a side of toast.

When you cook bacon this way, you set in motion the fat-rendering process in the meat, which gradually melts the fat down until it's nice and crispy. And if you're of the mind that everything tastes better when it's cooked in bacon fat, you're even more likely to fall in love with this hack when you discover that it leaves plenty of fat in the pan to use later.

One last note: This cooking method is more challenging if you start with thicker strips of bacon. That kind of bacon doesn't curl up in snuggly bunches quite as well as its thinner counterparts. If you run into that issue, then your best bet is try to cook Snoop's brown sugar and chili flakes bacon recipe in the oven instead. The dish makes up in sweet-hot flavor what it lacks in fun piggledy-wiggledy curls.

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