Gwynedd Stuart
If we’re being totally honest, the best turkey bacon is more like ham than it is like bacon. It’s not super fatty. It has a bit more chew, especially if it’s thick cut, because there’s not as much fat to render. That said, if you aren’t married to having a side of artery-clogging cholesterol with breakfast, the best turkey bacon can still satisfy like a plate of salty pork. We should know! We tried more than a dozen turkey bacon brands in two separate taste tests to find the best tasting turkey bacon of them all—and our new number one was actually a reader recommendation. So, good on y’all.
At its worst, turkey bacon is all salt and not much else. But the best turkey bacon has it all—salt, smoke, and even a little bit of crispness around the edges. That’s the sort of turkey bacon we were looking for in our taste tests. It can’t necessarily go head to head with pork bacon if you’re a real freak for the stuff, but it should be a satisfactory approximation. For our second taste test, we stocked up on some turkey bacon brands and styles we neglected to try in our first taste test—as well as our top picks from the first taste test—and cooked them all on foil in the toaster oven, the best way to cook turkey bacon, in my opinion. Whether you’re looking for precooked turkey bacon you can simply nuke in the microwave or the best turkey bacon to feed to a dyed-in-the-wool bacon boy, there’s something for you on this list.
- Godshall’s Fully Cooked
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Godshall’s precooked turkey bacon isn’t as good as Godshall’s regular turkey bacon (see #2 on this list), but if you’re looking for a fully cooked turkey bacon that simply needs to be heated in the microwave for a few seconds, this is the best turkey bacon we found. This stuff is perfect if you want to grab a couple strips of bacon and a hard boiled egg on your way out the door in the morning, but it would also be damn good in a turkey bacon BLT. All of the precooked turkey bacon we tried tasted like it had been precooked (there’s just a touch of staleness to the flavor), but this is a high quality product all the same.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Jennie-O Turkey Bacon
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Jennie-O turkey bacon—our previous #1—just couldn’t hold up to Godshall’s or Boar’s Head in our second taste test, but it still deserves a spot on our list of the best turkey bacon. Why? I think Jennie-O turkey bacon is what a lot of people expect from turkey bacon. It’s thin. It’s crisp. The strips are even mottled in a way that makes them look fatty like real bacon. To be honest, it reminds me more of veggie bacon than pork bacon, but it’s still salty and fun to eat as part of a breakfast sandwich. I’d put some slices on thick slices of toast with a runny egg—the more breakfast-y the application, the better this turkey bacon will taste.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Godshall’s Maple Turkey Bacon
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Godshall’s maple turkey bacon is extremely delicious. It’s not as salty as other turkey bacon brands, but it still has enough salinity to complement the excellent maple sweetness. The slices are a little thicker, so they don’t quite crisp up like Jennie-O, but this is the best turkey bacon to go with a fat stack of pancakes. Personally, I’d eat this on toast with just mayo and crunchy iceberg lettuce, although my colleague Justine Sterling thought it was a bit too maple-y for lunch and dinner applications. I get it. It was my personal favorite (I brought it home after our taste test and ate every last slice), but it lands in the #2 spot because the maple flavor limits what most people will want to use it for. If you aren’t attached to thin, crispy bacon and you don’t mind maple, give this a shot. It’s unreal. (Oh, and if you’re keeping track, our previous #2, Sam’s Choice uncured turkey bacon, was cut from the list because it didn’t seem to be available anymore. If you spot it near you, let us know.)
Credit: Liv Averett /
- Boar’s Head Uncured Turkey Bacon
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When we ranked the best bacon, the brands with a hickory smoked flavor profile tended to outperform other varieties. Smoke just makes bacon taste like bacon—and that’s why this Boar’s Head turkey bacon is so damn good. It’s thick and flavorful and smoky as pork bacon. I cooked this in our toaster oven, and it developed a nice crust around the edges that was bursting with flavor. This was a reader recommendation left in the comments after our first turkey bacon taste test, and it is, in fact, the best turkey bacon we tried.
Credit: Liv Averett / Ralphs
Best Precooked
Best Traditional
Best for Breakfast
Best of the Best
Other Products We Tried: Applegate Uncured Turkey Bacon, Appleton Farms Turkey Bacon, The Butcher Shop Uncured Turkey Bacon, Garrett Valley Farms Organic Sugar-Free Bacon, Wellshire Farms Classic Turkey Bacon, Columbus Turkey Bacon, First Street Turkey Bacon, Full Circle Turkey Bacon, Sam’s Choice Uncured Turkey Bacon (no longer available), Butcher Shop Fully Cooked Turkey Bacon, Simple Truth Turkey Bacon, Signature Select Uncured Traditional Turkey Bacon
Joe Rumrill
Danny Palumbo
Justine Sterling
