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What’s your fantasy bacon dish? Might you consider a bacon pie? That’s sort of what this is – a Dutch oven bacon ball. The crust is bacon, and the pie filling includes bacon, too, if that’s the way you decide to go. The size of the pie and what goes in the filling is an expression of your own taste and individuality.
If you’ll be serving yourself and just one or two other like-minded bacon aficionados, then go with a small Dutch oven like an 8-inch or 10-inch. If you have a crowd to feed, go bigger, but recognize it’s important that the bacon come up the sides of the pot and with enough to overlap at the top.
Dutch Oven Bacon Ball
Ingredients
- 1-2 lbs. bacon, sliced
- Melted butter
- Medium onion, lightly browned
- 2 cloves garlic, lightly browned
- ½ lb. ground breakfast sausage, lightly browned
- 6 strips fried or baked bacon, roughly chopped
- 1 green pepper, roughly chopped
- 2 roughly chopped carrots, chunked
- Several red potatoes, chunked
- 1 rutabaga, chunked
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup (not diluted)
Instructions
- Select a well-seasoned Dutch oven sized appropriate for the number of people you’re feeding. Paint inside of oven with melted butter.
- Carefully lay bacon radiating from the center of the bottom of the oven out to and up the sides with at least two inches extra draped over sides of the oven. Overlap bacon by at least ¼ inch on the slice next to it. If the bacon strips are not long enough to meet in the center of the bottom of the oven, add slices in bottom to completely cover.
- Put all your chosen filling ingredients, including any leftover butter, into a large bowl and mix thoroughly (hands work great for this). Then pour the mix into the bacon-lined Dutch oven.
- Carefully fold the bacon hanging over the sides of the Dutch oven toward the center, again being careful to overlap each slice. Add more bacon to fill in and “seal” the top as necessary.
- Using either charcoal briquettes or the glowing coals from a hot hardwood fire, put some good heat to both the bottom and top of the Dutch oven. The goal is to get a crispy bacon crust and cook the internal ingredients all the way through. Start checking for doneness after about 35-40 minutes. A remote reading meat thermometer is helpful; you want to cook the middle of the bacon ball to an internal temperature of about 170-180°F.
