4 Varieties Of Costco Kirkland Bacon, Ranked From Worst To Best

There are few meat products quite as ubiquitous as bacon. Strips of this salty treat will make appearances at any hour of the day from breakfast to dinner, emerging on sandwiches, salads, wrapped around steaks, and even crumbled over cheesecake at dessert. With endless options, it only makes sense to buy bacon in bulk from one of the stores most well known for wholesale sizes: Costco. There are many benefits to having a Costco membership, but perhaps the access to four kinds of delicious Kirkland Signature bacon is one of the best (for the bacon lover, at least).

Costco sells a few other brands of bacon, such as Oscar Mayer, but the Kirkland Signature kinds take center stage (and comes at a more affordable price). So the question remains — between the lower sodium, original, fully cooked, and thick cut, which one should you buy? They each have some pros and cons, but for this taste taster there was a clear winner. I bought, cooked, and tried all four of the Costco-branded bacon options and, taking into account the balance of flavor and texture, have ranked them in order from my least to most favorite.

Prices are accurate as of the publication date and may vary by region.

The lower sodium, sugar free, hickory smoked bacon from Costco was my least favorite of the bunch, and it all came down to flavor. It's cured with water, salt, and various curing salts, and hickory-smoked just like the other Kirkland Signature bacon varieties. The sodium in this package is cut in half from the original hickory-smoked bacon — reduced from 380 milligrams to 190 milligrams per two pan-fried slices. There are 7 grams each of fat and protein in a serving, and 90 calories.

The absence of sugar on the ingredients list was very noticeable in the flavor (and not in a good way). Despite this product being labeled lower sodium, it still tasted shockingly salty to me. Not having a balancing ingredient (like sugar) just made the saltiness that much more blatant, even if it does have less sodium comparatively. It's great that Costco offers this product as an alternative for those who need to pay attention to their sodium and sugar intake, but if your shopping requirements are purely based around flavor, I'd skip this one. Sugar goes a long way in making bacon taste smoky and well-rounded, and I missed those qualities in the lower sodium strips.

I cooked these bacon strips in the oven at 375 F for about 15 minutes. It was easy to achieve a crispy bite with this medium-sliced bacon, although some strips were quite fatty. It cost about $13.99 for four 1-pound packs, or approximately $3.50 per pound.

Purchase Kirkland Low Sodium Bacon for $13.99. 

When I initially surveyed the options for Kirkland Signature bacon, I immediately judged the fully cooked package, thinking that it wouldn't be able to compare in flavor to any of the freshly-cooked choices. Yet, as compared to the lower sodium bacon, its flavor was surprisingly good. 

I cooked these strips both in the microwave and the oven to see which way worked best, and was surprised to find that I didn't need to heat up the oven — bacon can get quite crispy in the microwave, and it only takes a minute. Flavor wise, I was able to taste the hickory smoke in the chewier pieces, although the strips tended to lose that subtlety when they cooked longer and became more crispy. The pre-cooked bacon was quite salty and slightly sweet, a quality that set it apart from the aforementioned sugar-free option, but it still lacked intensity. Plus, the texture of the chewier pieces leaned toward rubbery. While the pre-cooked Costco bacon wasn't quite as bold in flavor as some of the other choices, it did have the added benefit of being much easier on clean-up, given that all the excess fat had already been rendered out before packaging.

There are 6 grams of fat and 6 grams of protein per two-slice serving of the fully cooked bacon, with 320 milligrams of sodium and 90 calories. And 1 pound costs about $11.49, which may sound exorbitant, but when you take into account how much the weight of bacon is reduced through cooking, it doesn't seem unreasonable.

Purchase Kirkland Fully Cooked Bacon for $11.49.

Bacon lovers can be divided into two categories: Those who like their bacon chewy and fatty, and those who like it crispy and dark. Costco's thick-sliced center cut bacon may just make members of both categories happy. It had the chewy, fatty sections that come with a thicker slice, as well as a higher meat-to-fat ratio than the other packages, which allowed it to become much more crispy overall.

The advantage of the thick-sliced option is that it's also center cut. The process of making bacon (in the typical American method) involves curing the belly of a pig, smoking it, and slicing it. The edges of this belly section tend to be much fattier and uneven (that's why you sometimes get wavy-shaped bacon), whereas the center section is more uniform and has more pink meat. While I loved the meatiness and the texture of the thick sliced Costco bacon, I found that in taste it wasn't quite as smoky and robust as I wanted. The flavor just wasn't as pronounced as one other package that truly made my mouth water.

The thick-sliced bacon took about four minutes longer than the original size bacon to cook in the oven. I cooked it at 375 F for close to 20 minutes. A serving size is one slice, which has 70 calories, 5 grams of fat, 5 grams of protein, and 260 milligrams of sodium. And 3 pounds costs around $11.49, or approximately $3.80 per pound.

Purchase Kirkland Thick Sliced Bacon for $11.49.

Sometimes original flavors are original for a reason. The standard Kirkland Signature bacon, naturally hickory smoked, cured with salt, sugar, curing salts, and sliced to a medium thickness, was my favorite of them all. It all boiled down to the taste (although it didn't disappoint on texture, either), with this bacon having the most well-rounded flavor of all the Costco-branded options. The hickory smoke was subtle and earthy, the bacon was salty (but not too salty), and there was a hint of sweetness that made my mouth water. Texturally, it was easy to achieve either a fatty, chewy slice or a crisp one depending on how long I cooked it. I found a nice middle ground, where there was both a little chew and a little crunch, by baking these strips at 375 F for about 15 minutes. If you're wondering how to achieve the perfect cook, check out our pro tips for cooking bacon in the oven.

Costco's hickory smoked bacon comes in four 1-pound packs for around $13.99, rounding out to approximately $3.50 per pound. In a two-slice serving it has 90 calories, 7 grams each of fat and protein, and 380 milligrams sodium.

Purchase Kirkland Hickory Smoked Original Bacon for $13.99.

These four Kirkland Signature bacon options are generally available at Costco around the United States, although I found that the lower sodium package is only available at select locations. Your best bet is to check the warehouse section of Costco's website for availability before you pay them a visit. The bacons I tasted to write this ranking were paid for by Daily Meal without sponsorship by Costco or any other brand.

The criteria I used for ranking was focused on flavor and texture, specifically the balance between sweet, salty, and smoky. While I listed the price and nutritional value of each bacon, these were not factors that played into my ranking.