My life is tough. When I go to make a sandwich, I can’t just make a sandwich. I have to make THE Sandwich. And that can’t be made in a single commercial break. It’s a serious life issue. But there’s a silver lining here. I get to eat some of the best sandwiches from the comfort of my own couch. And this one here? This one is a doozy.

BLTs are a great sandwich, but as we now know, I couldn’t just make any old BLT. I needed an Epic BLT. The EBLT, if you will (and you will). I started with guanciale instead of regular bacon (it comes from the jowl instead of the belly), and then I soaked it in pecan bourbon for a week. Bacon upgraded.

And since my bacon was upgraded, I had to upgrade some other bits. Instead of some avocado slices sliding around and making my sandwich hard to eat, I combined it with the mayo, and made a spicy creamy spread that’s amazing with the smokey-sweet bourboned guanciale.

To cap things off, I fried an egg in that delicious bacon grease, cause nothing makes a bacon sandwich better than some runny egg yolk. And while I was at it, I went ahead and griddled the bread in the grease too. It is, after all, the EBLT.

Makes 4 Sandwiches
Ingredients
– 1 lb guanciale, sliced (or bacon if you can’t find guanciale or wanna do it a bit cheaper)
– 3-4 cups pecan bourbon (William Wolf is the only version I’ve seen)
– Good hearty wheat bread (or whatever you like, but it’s gotta be a solid bread so you can load it up with the avocado it)
– Tomato, sliced
– Lettuce (iceberg is the best for this)
– 4 eggs

Avocado Mayo
– 1/3 c mayo
– 2 T spicy brown mustard
– 1/4 lemon, juiced
– 2 T fresh oregano, chopped
– 2 T fresh thyme, chopped
– 1 avocado, mashed
– 2 serrano peppers, deseeded but not de-pithed
– salt & pepper

• Soak the guanciale in the bourbon in an airtight container or bag; make sure the guanciale is submerged completely. Let that sit in your fridge for a week.

• A week later, take the guanciale out, and put it right on a cold griddle. SAVE THE BOURBON (cause we’re gonna make BBQ sauce with it). Put the heat to medium low, and flip often as it cooks. Be ready to wipe down your tongs a few times, as things get a little sticky with the sugar from the pecan bourbon.

• Put the finished guanciale on a wire cooling rack (it’s a bit sticky, in a good way).

• Mix all your avocado mayo ingredients.

• Grab a skillet, and scoop some of the bacon grease into it. Toast your bread to your liking on medium-high heat.
• Start building your sandwich. Avocado mayo on both sides, then on the bottom half put down a thick slice of tomato, topped with a layer of guanciale. On the top half, put down the lettuce.
• Go back to your skillet, scoop at the crumbs, at a little more bacon grease, and fry your egg(s). As soon as the egg is done, put it on top of the bacon, then put the top half of your sandwich on there.

• Make this for two people instead of four, cause you’ll probably want a second sandwich.