Slow Cooker Pulled Bacon – Easy, Make-Ahead, Low-Fat

This slow cooker pulled bacon recipe is easy to make-ahead and uses a non fatty bacon joint rather than ordinary pork.

Make-ahead pulled bacon – a low-fat alternative to pulled pork

Much as I love the idea of pulled pork, I tend to stick to low-fat meats and thinking pork can be fatty, had never made it. Instead, I often cook bacon joints; these tend to be dense meat with only a thin strip of fat on the outside.

Bacon joints offer a generous amount of meat that you can cook ahead. They need very little preparation although you can ring the changes with different seasonings and sauces. You can cook them in the traditional oven, I often put them in my oval Le Creuset casserole but using a slow cooker is a gentler means of cooking with less likelihood of drying out the meat.

I got into cooking bacon joints after reading about Nigella’s famous ham in Cola Cola: there’s no Coca Cola in this pulled bacon recipe, rather a similarly sticky glaze made from Ketjap Manis and balsamic vinegar.

When I recently ogled Katie’s Pork Subs, I noted her use of tenderloin and a slow cooker, I was determined to make my own version with a lean bacon joint.

Slow cooker bacon joints for money-saving family dinners

For my pulled bacon recipe, I used a frozen bacon joint that had been stashed in the freezer before our last holiday. These supermarket vacuum packs of bacon, weighing around 800g, are a much better value way than buying more expensive “wafer thin” slices of ham for sandwiches.

You can buy pre-frozen bacon joints and these would be even cheaper, but the chiller cabinet bacon joints often have a long-ish date on them – it can be nearly a month so there’s rarely a hurry to use it as soon as you buy.

By slow cooking bacon joints, you get ample meat for two family dinners and several days’ worth of sandwich lunches. The tender cooked meat can be served as is, or chopped further for dishes requiring diced bacon.

Tips for slow cooking bacon

• Only brown the joint if you want to, although browning bacon isn’t absolutely necessary. Browning the meat was a must with my slow cooker beef bone stew, whereas with the bacon joint it’s not really necessary because bacon has deep colour anyway.
• Do add some moisture: With the lid on the slow cooker, the juices will stay in the meat but you need a little something to create steam. I have added liquids such as sherry, Nigella as already mentioned, used Coca Cola. I’ve also used cider. Here I used water with balsamic and Ketjap Manis.
• Line the slow cooker: This is optional but I often line my slow cooker with a disposable cake tin liner, just incase it sticks. I just slip it out before serving.
• Check the meat is done: I use a digital food thermometer when cooking meat – aim for 75c to be sure the pulled bacon is fully cooked.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Slow Cooker Pulled Bacon

Juicy slow cooker pulled bacon that melts in the mouth. Easy, make-ahead, low-fat recipe using a simple bacon joint. Perfect for sandwiches or hearty family meals.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time8 hours hrs

Total Time8 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Course: Lunch, Main Meals, Meat

Cuisine: American, British, Traditional

Keyword: bacon joint, pulled bacon, pulled pork, slow cooked bacon, slow cooker, spicy bacon

Servings: 8

Calories: 235kcal

Author: Sarah Trivuncic

Ingredients

• 800 g bacon joint
• 120 ml balsamic vinegar
• 250 ml water
• 80 ml honey
• 3 cloves garlic finely sliced
• 2 tbsp ketjap manis or dark soy sauce
• black pepper to season
• red chilli to garnish

Instructions

• In a measuring jug whisk together the vingegar, water, honey, garlic and ketjap manis with a little black pepper.
• Put the bacon into the slow cooker and pour the liquid over.
• Cook on low heat for 8 hours. (I did mine overnight).
• After cooking strain the juices from the meat and boil these up in a saucepan to reduce down to a thicker syrupy liquid.
• Meanwhile shred the bacon joint into threads using a knife and fork. Pour over the reduced liquid and toss through before serving.

Serving Ideas for Slow Cooker Pulled Bacon

The make-ahead low-fat threads of juicy pulled bacon meat are perfect to pack into sandwiches or loading jacket potatoes. Diced up pulled bacon goes nicely in breakfast dishes, soups or as pizza topping.

For more ideas what to put your pulled bacon in, try these recipes:

• Cheesy Pulled Pork, Black Bean and Avocado Quesadillas (Supergolden)
• Poor Man’s Crispy Duck (Pulled Hoisin Pork Tortillas) (Fab Food 4 All)

For an alternative meaty slow cooker meal, you may also like my slow cooker beef bone stew using oxtail.

Pin this slow cooker pulled bacon recipe with melt-in-the-mouth bacon threads so you can save it for later! The golden threads of pulled pork are juicy and packed with sweet bacon flavour.