Bacon Onion Chutney

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!

Watch how to make this

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 different uncured or even flavored bacon.
• Spicy: Add chopped jalapenos if you want a spicy kick.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Cook bacon

Like all jams, 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.

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. Add it to your grilled cheese, smear it on toast, or enjoy it on some roasted chicken. 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

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Recipe

Print Recipe

Bacon Onion Chutney

Yields 2 cups

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: sauce

Servings: 12

Author: Christine Ma

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 pot 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

Serve the bacon onion chutney on roasted chicken, pizza, grilled cheese, or even steak. The possibilities are endless!