I ate all sorts of strange things on my trip to Taiwan earlier this year – sea cucumber, shark fin, jellyfish, stinky tofu – so eating chocolate-covered bacon seemed, well, somewhat normal. My friend Sarah’s blog mentioned the curious snack (but with caramel), so I hit Google looking for the perfect recipe. I decided to try my hands at Michael Symon’s Chocolate Covered Bacon with Almonds.

Armed with a pound of Oscar Meyer Bacon, a bag of Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips, and some slivered almonds, I made quite a mess of the kitchen tonight.

I laid most of the bacon across cooling racks before putting them in the oven, so the fat dripped off of them and they stayed flat. The ones that were laid directly on the baking sheet curled too much and it was hard to coat them with chocolate. While the bacon was cooking in the oven, I melted the chocolate in a double boiler (or in my case, a sauce pan inside a sauce pan). I read to add a little vegetable oil to thin the chocolate a little bit, otherwise the chocolate would overpower the bacon. Of course, I added my own secret ingredient – pepper, madam? Lexcie hand-chopped the almonds, but it would have been much easier had we purchased slivered almonds.

Nice and crispy – you don’t now how difficult it was not to eat a slice of bacon before it hit the chocolate! The chocolate was the perfectly smooth and covered the bacon evenly – I just had to make sure to let the excess chocolate drip off the bacon. I then laid it on a piece of parchment paper (another commenter said not to put it on metal or the chocolate would crack off). Thirty minutes in the fridge, and voilà! A crispy, chocolaty, perfect-blend-of-sweet-and-salty snack. It’s delicious! I will definitely make this again, and may try using maple-flavored bacon next time.

“Chocolate is sacred – you just defiled my church. I still love you, but respect you a little less. I can’t wrap my head around this.” – Deena Baikowitz

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