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What's an easy way to bring life to boring dishes? Add homemade bacon onion chutney! With just a few ingredients, you can whip together a savory, sweet sauce that goes well with almost everything!
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What makes this dish special
I'm taking a little break from my Asian obsession and sharing one of my favorite condiments: bacon onion chutney. I'll be honest, I never was a huge fan of bacon. I don't hate it but I have never craved it and can live without it...except for this jam.
Whenever bacon is turned into maple bacon or this condiment, I cannot for the life of me, resist! Perfect for topping burgers, french fries, crostini with goat cheese, and grilled cheese, this bacon onion chutney will take your ordinary meal to the extraordinary. Try using it to make this gorgeous bacon cheddar star bread!
Ingredients
- Bacon: A type of salt-cured pork, this salty meat is the umami contributor to the chutney.
- Onions: Use white onions or sweet onions such as Vidalias, Walla Wallas, or Mauis.
- Balsamic vinegar: To balance the sweet and savory, use balsamic vinegar to add acidity. This Italian vinegar is a dark, concentrated, intensely flavored vinegar with a slightly sweet flavor. Substitute it with apple cider vinegar if desired.
- Brown sugar: The dark sugar with hints of molasses compliments the other ingredients in the chutney.
- Mustard seeds: The small round seeds of mustard plants, yellow mustard seeds have a sharp, tangy flavor that cuts through rich ingredients. You can also use mustard powder.
Substitutions and variations
- Protein: Although this recipe uses cured bacon, you can experiment and try using uncured or even flavored bacon.
- Spicy: Add chopped jalapenos if you want a spicy kick.
Recipe
Bacon Onion Chutney
Ingredients
- ¾ pound bacon chopped
- 2 medium onions chopped
- ⅓ cup water
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Cook bacon in a heavy-bottomed pot or large deep skillet over medium heat until the fat has rendered out and the bacon begins to crisp about 15 minutes. Drain the fat.
- Add remaining ingredients, reduce heat to medium-low, and cover. Cook for 15 minutes or until the onions have softened, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and continue to simmer the chutney for about 30-40 minutes or until it resembles a dark chutney. Add more water while cooking if mixture becomes too dry.
- Remove from heat and let cool. Serve as desired or store in glass jars in the fridge.
Notes
Step-by-step instructions
Step 1: Cook bacon
Like all chutneys, this one is no different except for one extra step: cooking the bacon. Because bacon has a lot of fat, you need to cook it before mixing it with other ingredients to render the fat. If you skip this step, you will have one greasy chutney.
Chop the bacon into small chunks and add to a large deep skillet or a heavy-bottomed pot. Cook the bacon until it browns and crisps. This is also the only time we have to brown the bacon so don't rush this step.
Step 2: Simmer
Add the remaining ingredients including the onion, sugar, vinegar, water, and mustard seeds. The chutney needs the onion to give it the desired texture and to bring the sweetness that all chutneys have.
You can play around with the vinegar and substitute balsamic with sherry or apple cider vinegar; both would work well with the recipe.
If the chutney gets too dry while cooking, add a little water to prevent it from burning.
About 1 hour later, I had a glorious bacon-onion chutney. The smell alone is intoxicating!
Add it to your grilled cheese, smear it on toast, or enjoy it on some roasted vegetables. Either way, it will be delicious!
Make-ahead and storage
- Make-ahead: You can cook the bacon ahead of time and complete the recipe at a later time if desired.
- Store: Store the bacon onion chutney in an air-tight container and it should last for 2 weeks in the fridge.
Frequently asked questions
Absolutely! You may need to adjust the cooking time but it can easily be doubled or tripled.
There are many delicious ways to enjoy this chutney including with burgers, on grilled cheese, as a topping for cheeses on charcuterie boards, or topping roasted vegetables. You can get creative and even top it on pancake bread or butternut squash pancakes for a delicious breakfast.
Yes, you can! Store the chutney in jars and seal tight. Keep in the freezer for up to 2 months and defrost in the refrigerator when ready to consume.
More bacon recipes
Looking for dishes that feature bacon? Try these:
Mary Wolcott Miles says
I can't stop drooling. I will make this soon!
cma0425 says
Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!
Pia Saavedra messenger says
Hi! I’m thinking to do this as a Christmas present, do you know how much it lasts?
Cherry on My Sundae says
I would give it a 7-10 day shelf life.
Reg Millar says
Hi there, can this be preserved to extend the self-life?
Cherry on My Sundae says
Since the bacon chutney doesn't have the same amount of sugar and water as a regular jam, I don't think it can be preserved. Instead, I recommend that you freeze it. It should hold in the freezer for up to 6 months.