It’s the first day of the Chinese (Lunar) New Year and here I would like to wish everyone Happy Year of the Horse! May this year be a successful one filled with joy, good health and prosperity! How are you celebrating your first day? I’ve been drooling at all the CNY feasts and checking out all the pretty outfits and cheongsam my friends have shared over their social media sites.
As for me, I’ve had a small dinner last night with Frank, and today I am spending the day baking at home. My hometown is over an hour flight away and this year I’m remaining in my third home (KL). Thus I don’t really have relatives to visit. I’m meeting up with a few friends tomorrow and didn’t want to go empty-handed, so I prepared something very special for them: Bacon Bakkwa!
Couple of years ago, a friend of mine brought over a pack of these for me, and it was love at first sight (the Bakkwa not my friend). I heard that people have to queue up to buy these and they are not cheap at all. So I decided to google and found a couple of useful recipes. Turns out it’s incredibly easy to make, and even easier than regular bakkwa! So off I went for an emergency groceries trip and these crazy deliciousness were born. The recipe I was referring to uses a few salty ingredients; I simplified it because Bacon itself should be salty enough. Feel free to adjust to your own taste though.
Bacon Bakkwa (adapted from I am What I Cook)
300g Streaky Bacon, sliced in half
1/4 Cup Castor Sugar
1/3 Cup Honey
1/2 Cup Water
1 tablespoon 5 Spice Powder
1 teaspoon Shao Xing Wine
1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
Rinse the bacon to get rid of the excess water from the packaging if any, pat dry and set aside.
Mix sugar, honey, water and microwave for a minute to dissolve sugar, then mix in the 5 spice powder and soy sauce.
Coat bacon slices with marinade, cover and leave in fridge overnight (or 12 hours)
Preheat Oven to 200C and bake the bacon slices in batches for about 10 minutes or until caramelized. Drain off the fat, let cool completely and store in airtight container for up to 2 weeks (That’s if you can control yourself not to consume everything at once).
I think you should be able to make this a little more Paleo friendly by omitting sugar and soy sauce, just use more honey or maple syrup. I shall experiment more with these soon!
Of course, I had a small piece to taste and they were just as good as the one I was given last time, maybe even better! Chewy, sweet, savoury, smoky, addictive! I have no doubt they will go empty in minutes. Do try this if you want to impress your guests!
Kelly Siew Cooks 
This looks crispy!
It’s actually more chewy than crispy, though when they first came out of the oven they were a little crispy.
homemade bacon bakkwa! my family brought some store-bought bakkwa over from malacca, but since i’m not a fan, i haven’t touched it, since they look a bit too processed and probably taste too intensely sweetish for my liking. yours look really tasty, and i’m sure your fortunate friends will fall in love AND lust with your bakkwa 😀
It is rather sweet like regular bak kwa but not overly so because I don’t like sugar that much. At least no chemicals were added at home besides the actual curing process of the bacon before it hits the shelves.
I love bacon and bakkwa so it stands to reason that I’d completely love this! Happy Chinese New Year Kelly! 😀
The double whammy! I am pretty sure you would love it. 🙂
Hahaha you had me at Bacon!!! happy new year kelly!!! 😀
Hehehe easily sourced ingredients so you can make it too!
Qong Xi Fa Cai, Xin Nien Khuai Ler! Oooo…I did not get any bak kua this year! 😦
Last year, so many people gave me some and it took me almost half a year to finish all of it.
I made the regular bak kwa last year but only a small batch, thus easy to finish.
Yipee!!! I got some Singapore-made bacon bak kua from my niece in the end and pork floss from Huai Bin. No regular bak kua still though…
Bacon bak kwa > Regular Bak Kwa! Hehe
To me, the regular would be those without streaks of fat…but they say, unless it is the sliced one, the fat is all in there. Ah well! I don’t eat that all the time so that’s fine. 😉
Yeah the regular one is made with extra fatty pork so the fat is mixed in too. If the mixture is too lean it would come out completely dry.
Oooo I was planning to make this bacon bak kwa too, but didn’t have time before CNY. Will do after CNY since it’s so highly raved 🙂
Yeah you should try it! Doesn’t take much time anyway.
Thee combination would sometimes knock the imbibsrs out for a couple of days.
They may also thump to get attention, whih might
mean they waqnt out of the cage to play and be with the family.
Well, everyone with dogs wants tto be like Amtrak.
We make bak kwa for our supperclubs in London as it’s hard to get hold of from shops, but now that I’m back in Singapore it’s just too easy to waddle to a shop and get a pack of juicy charred bak kwa 😉 Taht said, homemade is always so much better and you can control the quality of the ingredients. I’ve only ever tried making bakkwa using minced pork, the bacon version is new to me – definitely giving this one a go!
The bacon version is easier than the minced pork version, just marinate and bake!
I’m always looking for new recipes with bacon it it. This looks so good, thanks for posting!
Hi Kelly, I tried this recipe but the bak kwa came out super salty. Should I have washed the bacon a bit more before the marinade?
Hi! One teaspoon of soy sauce shouldn’t make it salty so I guess it’s the Bacon itself. You can either wash it first, or try other brand of bacon.
Ok I’ll give it another go. Thanks for getting back to me!