Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings. Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites. Bacon & Onion Fry-Up.
Wuff is offering three wonderful yummies, all featuring BACON! Vrghr broke out the Dreo air fryer at the office to make some snacks and tidbits for lunch for the coworkers. This was a double experiment: First for the Air Fryer to get more familiar with cooking different ingredients, and Second for the dishes themselves. Wuff had seen folks making some of these online, and was intrigued with the ideas and wanted to try the tastes.

All of them were “beginner level” difficulty or less to create, and all of them tasted GREAT! And as a bonus, longest time needed was just about 30 minutes from start of prep to serving. And the last was far less than that.

So, for some quick and tasty yummies, you can’t go far wrong with these!

A lot of the experience comes from the combination of Gochujang Sauce and BBQ sauce used to “paint” the different goodies. The last offering, a fry-up of onions and bacon, played on that combination even more, to GREAT success! (OH! That was SOOOO good!!)

Give these a try! And wuff is going to try out that last offering in another dish soon, adding it as a layer to some chicken tenders or possibly, fish. Vrghr is expecting wonderful taste treats from that!

NOTE: Vrghr used Gochujang Sauce for these recipes, not the Gochujang paste often available in tubs. The Sauce starts with the paste and adds other goodies like soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, garlic, etc., to create a complex, spicy sauce with lots of gochujang flavor in it. You can create your own version of this sauce, there’s LOTS of recipes on line for it, or just buy a version you enjoy pre-made as Vrghr did.
NOTE2: Wuff used a sweet, tomato-y BBQ sauce here. Something similar to KC Masterpiece, Sweet Baby Ray’s, Jack Daniels, etc., would all work well. The sweet base contrasts and complements the Gochujang very nicely!
NOTE3: Use a thin-sliced bacon if you can. Not only is it easier to wrap, but it will cook and crisp at the same time as the stuff it’s wrapped around. You really don’t want flabby uncooked bacon on these.
NOTE4: Depending on your air fryer, you will likely want to flip everything over for the last couple minutes to make sure the bottom side gets nice and crispy too. Wuff did on his machine, and included that step in the instructions, but some machines will crisp well on both sides without flipping.
NOTE LAST: If you don’t have an air fryer, these can be baked/broiled in a conventional oven or toaster oven. Use the “convection” mode if you have one, add 25 degrees (or more) to the temperature to make up for the energetic air stream in the fryer, you’ll most certainly want to flip things, and adjust the times as needed for your oven; the air fryer times will likely be too short. This will be an experiment on your part, as wuffy hasn’t tried these using the oven method.

INGREDIENTS:
For the Onions:
1 Large onion, (can use yellow, white, or sweet)
1-2 thin-cut Bacon Strips per Onion Ring (Most fryers can fit 4-6 rings at a time)
1 TBS Gochujang Sauce (be sure you use a sauce and not the gochujang paste in a tub!)
1 TBS sweet BBQ Sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s, KC Masterpiece, etc.)

For the Chicken:
4 chicken tenders, cut into bite-size pieces (about 2-3 per tender)
1 thin-cut Bacon Strip per 2 chicken bites (half a strip should wrap 1 bite)
1-2 tsp Chicken BBQ Seasoning (use your favorite)
2 TBS sweet BBQ Sauce (see above)
Toothpicks if necessary

For the Bacon Onion fry-up:
Remains of the onion used for the Onion Rings
2-3 thin-cut Bacon Strips, cut into ½ inch pieces
1 TBS Gochujang Sauce (see above)
1 ½ TBS sweet BBQ Sauce (see above)

DIRECTIONS:
For the Onion Rings:
Slice the onion on either side of its equator to make a 3/8 to 1/2 in. thick ring at its widest part. Carefully separate the rings, saving the largest of them. Keep enough to fill your fryer basket. You can slice more thick rings from either half of the remaining onion. They may be a bit smaller than the first, but that’s okay. Choose the largest of them for the next steps

Keep the remainder of the onion for the onion-bacon fry up or your next burger (see below)

“Paint” the selected rings with the Gochujang sauce using a basting brush

Carefully wrap each ring with a strip or two of bacon. Larger rings will likely need 2 strips. Overlap the ends and tuck underneath to keep them from unwrapping

“Paint” the wrapped bacon with BBQ sauce

Move the wrapped rings to the tray of the airfryer, being careful not to let them unwrap

Set the air fryer to 380F, 16 minutes. Air Fry for 14 minutes, remove basket and carefully flip all the wrapped rings over with tongs. Try not to unwrap the bacon. Re-insert the drawer and let frying continue

When time expires, check to be sure everything is fried and crisped. If necessary, add another minute or two and fry more until crispy

Remove rings to plate. Optional: Paint with a combo of gochujong and BBQ sauce. Let rest a minute for things to firm up. Onion and bacon will crisp a bit more as they cool

!DEVOUR!

For The Chicken Wraps:
Cut the chicken tenders into bite-size pieces, removing any bits of cartilage. Wuff got 3 bites from each of his tenders

Season the chicken bites on all sides with Chicken BBQ Rub

Wrap each piece of chicken with a strip of bacon, cutting off extra. Vrghr found that ½ strip was just about perfect for each bite. If necessary, secure with a toothpick
NOTE: Try to avoid using the picks if you can. They make flipping the chicken over in the fryer basket a bit of a pain, as the picks can get in the way of things laying down properly, or they stick through the grates in the basket and get hung up when you try to flip them

“Paint” each wrapped bite with BBQ sauce and place in fryer basket

Set the air fryer to 380F, 16 minutes. Air Fry for 14 minutes, remove basket and carefully flip all the wrapped chicken over with tongs. Try not to unwrap the bacon. Re-insert the drawer and let frying continue

When time expires, check to be sure everything is fried and crisped. If necessary, add another minute or two and fry more until crispy
Remove chicken bites to plate. Optional: Paint with more BBQ sauce. Let rest a minute for things to firm up. Bacon will crisp a bit more as it cool

!DEVOUR!

For the Bacon & Onion Fry-up:
Though this might not look like much in the photo, the flavor from it was AMAZING! Savory bacon paired with caramelized onion flavors riding a wave of sweet BBQ sauce hits the tongue in a smash of flavor at the first bite. It’s followed by the increasing umami flavors of crispy bacon and a bit of char on the onion as the taste evolves, when the fire of the gochujang starts coming through, giving a pleasant heat to the back of the tongue and throat. The textural mix of crisp bacon and tender onion in a hint of grilled sauce makes eating a delight.
This was just intended to be a way of using up the last of the bacon and onions from the first two dishes, but it absolutely “WOWed” this wuff and all who tasted it. What a wonderful find! Vrghr is going to feature this in another dish very soon!

Slice up the remainder of the onion from the first dish into ¼” rings

Chop 3 strips of bacon into ½” pieces

In a small bowl, mix together the Gochujang Sauce and the BBQ sauce. Add the onions and bacon and mix until everything bit is coated
NOTE: Make sure that you don’t have slices of bacon sticking together. Split those up or they won’t fry properly!

Spray your fryer basket bottom with cooking spray (makes getting the charred sauce off easier when cleaning up). Add the coated onions and bacon to the basket, making sure none of the bacon overlaps another piece. The onions can lay on top of one another - - they’ll still fry okay like that

Set the air fryer to 380F, 8 minutes. Check things around the 6-minute mark to be sure nothing is burning. A bit of char is okay. If desired, shake the basket a bit to expose new surface

When time expires, transfer all to a plate and allow to rest for a minute for things to finish crisping

Offer as a side dish or just enjoy “as is”. This would be a remarkable condiment for fish, pork, or chicken!

!DEVOUR!