Bacon Green Chile “Jam”

Savory is the inspiration for this Bacon Onion Green Chile Jam recipe. I’m obsessed with savory.

Upon reaching 40, my tastebuds somehow switched from  obsessively sweet and sugary to insanely in-love with savory. Give me the choice between a cupcake and a handful of smoked almonds, I’ll take the almonds every time now.

Add to that the fact that spicy food is increasingly becoming more appealing along with savory and now I’ll take the Wasabi Soy almonds every time.

Is that a weird over 40 thing?

I tell you all of that to explain to you the inspiration for this recipe.

This recipe is savory (from the bacon) and a bit sweet (from the caramelized onions)  AND it has a little kick from my favorite chile – the poblano pepper!

And it goes on burgers to make them extra special.

While it’s a bit time consuming, you can make it on a weekend or whenever you have a bit of time to stir a pot for a little while. Once you get the initial chopping done, it’s just remembering to stir the pot every few minutes. Make it ahead then reheat it while your burgers cook.

It’s deliciously savory and wonderful.

The first thing you need to do is to make your bacon onion green chile jam.  Take one pound of bacon and slice across the pieces to make 1/2 little pieces.

Dump it into a heavy bottomed skillet and fry it up until crisp, (but not overdone!), about 10 minutes.

While that’s frying, Chop up four medium onions.

Add them right in with the bacon.

Mince up 4 cloves of garlic and add it into the pot.

Right about now, your kitchen is going to be smelling fabulous. Can you imagine the aroma of frying bacon mixed with onion and garlic?

It’s good I tell ya but it’s going to get better.

Because, you see we’re going to chop up two poblano peppers.Slice off the ends, pull out the ribs and seeds, slice long pieces and then cut across them to make little pieces.

Add them in with the bacon, onion and garlic.

Continue to cook this about 15-20 minutes, stirring often until vegetables are tender and onions are translucent.

Now add in a tablespoon of tomato paste, 2 teaspoons of espresso powder (or subsitute 1/2 cup of strong brewed coffee), 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, and 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

Stir this all up.  Oh yes! Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce your heat down to where your mixture is barely simmering and let this go, stirring often for about an hour, letting everything get carmelized and reduced down.  It’s going to get a bit sticky, dark and rich.

I used an immersion blender and whizzed it up a bit.

If you don’t have one, just put it in your food processor and pulse it a few times. You still want some texture.

Simmer 15 minutes more and then remove from the heat.

Spoon your jam into jars or a plastic container.

Then have the men folk patty and grill up some burgers.

Conner has become the resident grill man at our house now. He does such a great job with anything he grills.

When the burgers were done, we dressed them up with some bacon jam, guacamole (click here for my recipe), and a little lettuce and tomato.

We served them with simple potato wedges we had drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper and garlic powder. (Roast them about 20-25 minutes at 400º.)

These burgers were sinfully good.

Try them at your next cookout!

Katie’s Recipe – Super Simple Guacamole