How to Make Salmon Bacon in the Oven

Wondering how to make homemade bacon? You’ll love this smoked salmon bacon recipe, which cooks up in the oven in just 20 minutes!

If you’ve been following my plant-based eating story, you know that I just recently started eating seafood. And I have to admit that I really miss the texture of bacon from way back in the day. So I decided to cook up a version that I can eat.

I was really amazed at how easy it is to make this oven bacon recipe. Plus, each serving boasts 10 grams of protein and plenty of heart-healthy omega-3s.

Ingredients

When it comes to making salmon bacon, you need just two ingredients. You might be amazed, but you don’t need even need any seasonings like salt and pepper, or brown sugar!

Smoked salmon: The smoked salmon (aka lox) lends a wonderful smoked flavor, so you end up with a smoked bacon. Plus, you don’t get any sodium nitrite that you might find in traditional bacon.

And salmon provides beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s can do a lot to help your body function optimally.

They can help keep lower your blood pressure and keep your heart healthy, reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, help your memory and eye health, lower your risk of depression, and decrease inflammation in your joints. That’s a whole lot of benefits!

Spray oil: This is so the bacon won’t stick to the baking tray.

Step-by-step instructions

What do you need to whip up this oven salmon bacon recipe? Grab an 8-ounce pack of lox, a nonstick baking tray, a cutting board, and a sharp knife. If you’d like, you can line the tray with parchment paper, but I chose to spray it with cooking spray.

After you’ve sliced the lox into smallish pieces, place the pieces in a single layer on the tray to bake the bacon. Oh, and of course you’ll want to preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit. After all, you can’t cook the bacon in a cold oven!

Then pop the bacon salmon in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Flip it halfway through to yield perfectly cooked bacon. When you take the pieces out of the oven, you’ll see the bacon fat shining at the top of each piece. That fat contains heart-healthy omega-3s!

This oven recipe is so much easier than cooking up the salmon in a skillet over medium high heat or making air dried cured meat. The whole process, including prep time, will take you no more than 25 minutes.

The bacon has never lasted more than 24 hours in my house. But if you want to save any extra, you can place the pieces in a zip-top plastic bag.

Benefits of omega-3s

Yup, eating salmon bacon is good for you!

But study in the Journal of the American Heart Association shows that Americans aren’t taking in enough omega-3s: Average daily intake of the two most important ones, EPA and DHA, is 80 milligrams for women and 40 milligrams for men.

That’s only a fraction of the 250 milligrams per day recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reduce risk of death related to heart disease.

The USDA recommendation is a minimum, as studies show benefits of taking up to 900 milligrams daily.

How much are you taking in, and do you need more? Take this quiz, developed by the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED), to find out.

If you need to increase your intake, you can eat two 3.5-ounce servings of fatty fish (such as salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines and albacore tuna) weekly. Or you can take a daily supplement containing EPA and DHA.

Look for a fish oil supplement. If you’re vegetarian, an algae-based supplement such as Ovega-3 will do the job. 

“If you choose a fish oil supplement, make sure it specifically lists how much EPA and DHA are in each capsule—just because it is fish oil doesn’t mean it contains any of these two omega-3s,” notes Elizabeth Somer, MA, RD, author of Eat Your Way to Happiness.

You may wonder about the omega-3s found in flaxseed, chia and walnuts; this is known as ALA. Your body very inefficiently converts ALA to the EPA and DHA it needs.

Only 8 percent of dietary ALA is converted to EPA, and 0 to 4 percent is converted to DHA. So while these foods are nutritious for other reasons, you should look to fish sources or supplements to get your fill of omega-3s.

How much seafood should you eat?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released final advice on fish intake. I thought I’d share that information with you, especially since fish can be a very nutritious addition to your diet.

FYI that baking, broiling, grilling, and steaming are all preparation methods that don’t add fat to your dish.  

This advice is specifically targeted toward women of childbearing age (ages 16 to 49) and for parents and caregivers of young children.

The FDA and EPA advise eating a variety of fish. And if fish is caught by family or friends, check fish advisories and mercury levels for those fish—if there’s no advisory, have just one serving of that fish and no other seafood that week.  

Commonly consumed fish are now sorted into three categories (based on mercury levels). You should aim to eat three servings from the “best” category weekly or one serving from the “good” category weekly for adults. You’ll see that salmon is on the “best” list!

Children ages 2 and older should have one to two servings a week. A serving for adults is 4 ounces, and a serving for a child ages 4 to 7 is 2 ounces. Here are some examples: 

Seafood est choices (eat 2 to 3 servings a week)

• anchovies
• catfish
• cod
• haddock
• herring
• oyster
• salmon
• sardine
• scallop
• shrimp
• tuna (canned light)
• whitefish

Seafood good choices (eat 1 serving a week)

• bluefish
• grouper
• halibut
• mahi mahi
• snapper
• tilefish (Atlantic ocean)
• tuna (albacore, white tuna, canned, and fresh/frozen)

Fish to avoid

• king mackerel
• marlin
• orange roughy
• shark
• swordfish
• tilefish (Gulf of Mexico)
• tuna (bigeye)

Recipe FAQ

More healthy breakfast recipes

If you enjoy this salmon bacon recipe, you’ll also like:

• Gluten-Free Egg Casserole with Salmon
• Butternut Squash Challah French Toast Casserole
• Blueberry Banana Smoothie Bowl

Sources

• Trends in Fatty Acid Intake of Adults in the Minneapolis‐St Paul, MN Metropolitan Area, 1980–1982 Through 2007–2009, Journal of the American Heart Association 
• Are You Getting Enough Omega-3s?, Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED)
• Elizabeth Somer, MA, RD, author of Eat Your Way to Happiness
• Advice about Eating Fish, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

I’d love to hear from you! Let me know how you’re enjoying this bacon. Did you enjoy learning how to make salmon bacon? What are your other favorite salmon recipes?