James Kenji Lopez-Alt
patreon
Grilled Bacon BLTs
🕑 Added 2024-09-11 17:35:36 +0000 UTCHey folks, the newest episode of The Recipe with Kenji and Deb is out, and it's about BLTs. I had a blast recording it with my Deb Perelman from Smitten Kitchen. BLTs are one of the few areas where we seem to be in pretty close alignment. Like a good Caprese salad or a Schubert melody, the trick is start with somethig nice and don't mess with it too much.
Here's my BLT manifesto, which I wrote many years ago for Serious Eats.
Listen to the newest BLT episode of The Recipe with Kenji and Deb (@kenjianddeb)here:
I don't take sponsorships or do paid promotions of any kind, so joining my Patreon or purchasing my books is the best way to support my work. You can get any of my books (The Food Lab, The Wok and Every Night is Pizza Night) wherever books are sold, or you can order signed and personalized copies to be shipped anywhere in the world from here: https://booklarder.com/search?q=kenji You can listen to me and Deb Perelman's podcast, The Recipe with Kenji and Deb wherever you get your podcasts (except Youtube): https://www.therecipepodcast.com/
Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.
What I like about this recipe:
YIELD:
Makes 1 sandwiches
ACTIVE TIME:
15 minutes
TOTAL TIME:
15 minutes (plus time to preheat the grill)
Notes: This recipe is a rough riff on Deb Perelman’s recipe on Bon Appetit:https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCqqJQ_cXSat0KIAVfIfKkVA
Ingredients
4 to 6 slices thick-cut bacon
2 slices sourdough bread
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Some samba Oelek or sriracha or other hot sauce to taste
A few thick slices of ripe tomato
Flaky sea salt
A few leaves of iceberg or romaine lettuce
1. Preheat a grill to medium heat (I used a half chimney of charcoal). Arrange the bacon strips directly over the coals and cook them, flipping occasionally and moving them off heat if the flareups become too intense. When you see rendered fat start to pool on the top surface of the bacon, use the bread slices to occasionally soak it up, then transfer the bread to the grill, fat-soaked-side-down and continue to cook, using the bread to occasionally soak up rendered fat, and turning and rotating everything until the bacon is crisp and the bread is evenly toasted, 4 to 6 minutes total. Transfer everything to a plate or tray as it finishes cooking. (If making multiple sandwiches cook everything in succession).
2. To assemble sandwiches, spread mayonnaise and a little bit of hot sauce on the inner surface of each slice of bread. Deb suggests layering the tomato in between lettuce and bacon, though personally I prefer having direct tomato-to-mayo contact. You can stack your sandwiches however you like, but make sure to season those tomato slices with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt!
Comments
leah
so happy the pod is back! I could listen to you two every day!! You seriously make me consider buying a house boat lmao!
Ben J
I didn't do this recipe, but this did inspire me to do my first BLT in ... probably 20 years. (Sad, I know.)
Catherine
We use either & sometimes BOTH (!) for BLATs on toasted sourdough
Tom
Thank you so much Kenji and Deb! This brings back fond childhood memories of my Dad and his brothers standing around our large homemade brick grill in the back yard - fired by the very hard wood of shoe lasts discarded by the closed shoe factories in New England. Speaking Hungarian, while grilling szalonna - thick slabs of bacon cured with paprika and pressing the luscious fat out and onto rye bread and then adding a thick slice of onion ... oh man!!! It was ridiculously tasty! Each uncle lovingly and laughingly urging Dad to put more fat on the bread in a language I didn't understand. Every few presses, a knife would come out and Dad would shave some szalonna off too! It was so good! I miss my Dad and my uncles and I wish I could make this BLT just for them. They'd really appreciate it. Just one more time at the grill.
Scott McAuley
I’m definitely going to try this. I hate mayo, but on BLTs I substitute avocado to give it a little creaminess and moisture.
Catherine
It’s Definitely Lunchtime!!
Toryn
Well that's fridays dinner sorted
Ofir Izhar
Loving this
