Glen Powell's Savory BLT Uses An Unconventional Bacon Method

While Glen Powell is known to most people as a star from movies such as "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Anyone But You," he has also become a player in the food space after co-founding the condiment brand, Smash Kitchen. As part of the promotion for his new brand, Powell shared his own BLT recipe, and it involves the somewhat unconventional step of part cooking the bacon before removing it from the oven and covering it in barbecue sauce. Powell then puts the bacon back into the oven to finish cooking.

Although not the usual way of making bacon for a BLT, Powell's technique sees him produce something which, due to the sweet nature of most popular barbecue sauces, is quite similar to pig candy (otherwise known as candied bacon). Aside from giving the bacon a nice glazed appearance, this technique completely changes the nature of this classic sandwich. If you choose to use this technique, you'll end up with a BLT that is far more flavorful than usual thanks to barbecue sauce's sweet, tangy, and smoky notes. It's a fun and surprising take on the sandwich, despite being one that BLT purists are unlikely to approve of.

I am a firm believer that, barring sauces, if you add extra ingredients to a BLT – such as pieces of cucumber, avocado, or a fried egg — it ceases to be a BLT and instead becomes a different sandwich altogether. This is why I am such a fan of Glen Powell's approach; he tweaks the sandwich without fundamentally changing it. Aside from creating a version of pig candy using barbecue sauce, Powell also personalizes the BLT by, somewhat controversially, adding mustard. Needless to say, this results in the sandwich tasting much tangier than usual. (Although Powell doesn't specify, I'm assuming he uses American or Dijon mustard seeing as these are the only two mustard products currently produced by Smash Kitchen.)

There are several other, less divisive, ways of changing up a BLT. One is to tweak the mayo. Many people, including Martha Stewart, opt to make their own mayo. While this results in a flavorful sandwich, it is quite time-consuming. An easier way to boost the sandwich's flavor is to use Kewpie mayo which is far richer than regular mayo, improving the overall taste of the sandwich with minimal fuss.

Another great way of changing up a BLT is to focus on the tomatoes. Instead of just seasoning your slices, marinate them in red wine vinegar to really boost the flavor. Given his proclivity for bold seasonings, we think Powell would approve.