Alton Brown's Ingredient Addition For Better Egg Salad Is Simply Genius

Egg salad is one of those dishes that can be made easily with a traditional recipe or transformed into a more decadent dish with other ingredients. There are quite a few tips and tricks to elevate egg salad, such as swapping the mayo with aioli or using soft-boiled eggs. But leave it to celebrity chef Alton Brown to come up with a relatively easy, but flavorful, way to make even better egg salad next time you have a craving. All it takes is some crunchy bacon and bacon fat.

Think about it — bacon and eggs are one of the most classic breakfast combinations, so adding bacon to a bowl of egg salad makes a whole lot of sense. We certainly trust Brown considering his many accolades from stints on shows from "Good Eats" to "Chopped,"but there are plenty of other reasons why the bacon and fat work so well in egg salad. First, crumbled bacon will provide a crunch factor to contrast with the otherwise creamy dish. The ingredient will also add layers of smoky and meaty flavors, while the bacon grease levels those flavors up even more.

If you don't already have a jar of bacon grease handy in the fridge, cook your bacon with a low-and-slow method to render the most fat. When the bacon is crispy and the fat is rendered, it's time to add the two flavorful ingredients to any bowl of egg salad. According to Alton Brown's recipe, you should use four slices of bacon and two teaspoons of rendered fat for every four servings. To really step up the crunchiness, add more bacon to taste. It certainly doesn't hurt to add more of the rendered fat to taste, especially if you are making a larger batch to feed a crowd.

You can add bacon and the fat to improve any egg salad recipe, and consider other ingredients to balance the richness like green onions, fresh herbs like dill, or lemon juice. For a different take, cook Tasting Table's creamy egg salad recipe and upgrade it with the bacon and bacon fat. Or try the two ingredients with our deviled egg salad recipe for more crunch and smoky flavor.