Try our Brown Sugar Bacon Wrapped Scallopsthese scallops wrapped in bacon and topped with brown sugar is the most good bacon wrapped scallop recipe ever! There is no appetizer we love more than bacon wrapped scallops – the buttery seafood flavor paired with crunchy, salty bacon and a light, sweet glaze is always one of our favorite ways to start a dinner or a party!

After years of making these good scallops, we created a method to ensure the solid crunchy bacon without overcooking the scallop – this recipe will get you the solid, crave-worthy results you are looking for, every time!

At Avdaye, we add lots of tips in all of our recipes – because we are a home cook without any formal training, and we find we are more confident making dishes when we understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. Our goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

How to Make Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon Scallops

Everything is better wrapped in bacon! Scallops are one of favorite seafoods and they take on the savory bacon flavor so well. We add a little savory garlic and onion powder and some sugar to balance out the saltiness of the bacon. Check out the ingredients and process below.

Bacon Wrapped Scallops Ingredients

To make these scallops, we will need the following ingredients:

Bacon. Bacon's smoky, meaty, rich flavor is a good compliment for the lightly sweet flavor of scallops, making this dish hearty and good.
Butter. Butter is essential in this dish to add a rich, creamy flavor to our scallops and help the scallops from sticking to the pan. If you don't have butter on hand, you can use olive oil.
Scallops. Use large, high quality scallops that are fresh or fully thawed, and do not have a fishy smell. Scallops are a light, mild flavor shellfish with a springy texture and almost sweet flavor that is butter-like.
Garlic powder. Garlic powder enhances the rich, hearty flavor of bacon and adds complexity to the brown sugar glaze, adding a pungent, addictive quality to our recipe that will leave you wanting more – and won't burn or turn acrid like raw garlic when pan searing at a high heat.
Brown sugar. Brown sugar has a rich, molasses like flavor and melts to turn sticky, creating a lovely glaze for scallops that balances the salty bacon flavor and enhances the lightly sweet scallop flavor.
Ginger. A bit of ginger gives this recipe a bright, strong kick and bit of heat to add complexity and balance.

Steps to Make Scallops Wrapped in Bacon

Once you've gathered the ingredients, we will follow this process:

Prep. Pat scallops dry with a paper towel. In a large pan, start to crisp bacon. Cook bacon until golden brown – but still soft and pliable. In a small bowl, mix salt, pepper, and garlic and then sprinkle generously over scallops. Wrap each scallop with 1/2 bacon strip and secure by pushing a toothpick through the bacon and scallop. In another small bowl, mix brown sugar and ginger. Sprinkle brown sugar and ginger mixture all over scallop, but reserve much of the sugar and gigner to sprinkle after the scallops flip once.
Sear. Heat butter in large pan until foamy and melted. Add scallops to pan and cook on medium high heat. Flip after 5-6 minutes, sprinkle with more sugar and ginger, and continue repeating steps until scallops are cooked.
Serve. Serve immediately.

Kitchen notes

Scallops should have no fishy smell. Scallops, like shrimp, should be light, crisp, fresh – without a fishy smell or tough texture. If your scallops smell fishy before cooking them, they might not be fresh (scallops will have a bit of a fishy smell, moreseo than shrimp, but it should be at most faint.) Despite having the freshest scallops, it still can be easy to mess them up – which actually makes any fishy flavor stronger!

Brown well. Scallops taste best with a little bit of charring from the pan – and starting with scallops that aren't wet are a great way to be sure you'll have a crisp, crunchy crust on the outside of your scallop – giving it the solid flavor!

Use butter or olive oil. Scallops can stick like nobody's business – so we are always sure to use a little butter (we prefer the buttery flavor with sweet scallop meat) when cooking scallops – you could use the bacon grease from pre-cooking your bacon, but we prefer a bit of butter to avoid being too bacon-y.

Cook hot and fast. Scallops get tough when cooked slowly or too long – for the most flavorful scallop meat, cook them hot, and quickly.

Partially pre-cook bacon. For bacon wrapped scallops, we think pre-cooking bacon part of the way is essential for the best scallops that aren't tough – and bacon that is evenly rendered.

Don't overcook. Don't overcook scallops – not only do overcooked scallops taste fishy – they are often tough and hard to chew, too.

Watch scallop's color. For solid scallops, brown each side, and watch the middle of the scallop. When the scallop turns bright white and opaque it is cooked.

Defrost properly. If you live somewhere you can't get fresh scallops (like us in Northern Colorado), never fear – you can still grab frozen scallops and have a good dish – if you let the scallops defrost properly. These tips will help you maximize your flavor when cooking previously frozen scallops.

If possible, break apart any scallops that might be stuck together (don't pull too hard, but if they will come apart, separate before defrosting or they will defrost unevenly.)
Set scallops on a dish, on top of paper towels.
Cover defrosting scallops with another paper towel and set in fridge for 12-24 hours, until scallops look jiggly and are soft to the touch, not frozen.

Precook Bacon. Bacon browns and crisps up at a much slower pace than what it takes to cook scallops, which need to be cooked hot and fast to keep their clean, sweet flavor and springy soft texture. To combat this, we pre-cook our bacon – so it is browned, but still pliable and soft. We like to think of cooking the bacon to 3/4 the way cooked – so it will need to crisp up as your scallops cook.

Serve it with

Bacon wrapped scallops are a good, easy appetizer that are great at dinner parties, alongside Bacon Raspberry Cheese Bites The Best Easy No Knead Breadand some Easy Bread Dip alongside it.

We love to serve scallops with Pan Fried Ribeye Steaks and Air Fryer Longhorn Steakhouse Parmesan Crusted Steakwith a Pear and Goat Cheese Salad on the side!

For more easy seafood dishes you'll love, check out our seafood recipes below:

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Bacon Sugar Wrapped Scallops FAQ's

Can we use keto sugar?

If you want to use a keto swap for sugar, go for it! We tested this recipe with keto brown sugar replacements and they were all fabulous.

How to get crunchy bacon wrapped scallops?

Scallops cook fast, but crunchy bacon doesn't – so we're parcooking bacon a bit before wrapping scallops so you can have crunchy bacon and solid tender, good scallops.

Can we store this recipe?

Scallops are best when eaten fresh after cooking, however you can flash-freeze them and serve later, or store in the refrigerator for up to one day – however, they will have the best flavor and texture if eaten right away.

Can we try a maple glaze?

Use maple syrup, soy sauce, and Dijon mustard for a simple glaze. Brush the scallops with the glaze before wrapping them in bacon. Drizzle some more glaze on top before baking.

Ingredients

4 strips bacon, *approximately – used 1/2 slice of bacon for each scallop.
2 tbsp butter
1 lb scallops
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper, fresh cracked
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp ground ginger

Method

Pat scallops dry with a paper towel.
In a large pan, start to crisp bacon. Cook bacon until golden brown – but still soft and pliable.
In a small bowl, mix salt, pepper, and garlic and then sprinkle generously over scallops.
Wrap each scallop with 1/2 bacon strip and secure by pushing a toothpick through the bacon and scallop.
In another small bowl, mix brown sugar and ginger.
Sprinkle brown sugar and ginger mixture all over scallop, but reserve much of the sugar and gigner to sprinkle after the scallops flip once.
Heat butter in large pan until foamy and melted.
Add scallops to pan and cook on medium high heat. Flip after 5-6 minutes, sprinkle with more sugar and ginger, and continue repeating steps until scallops are cooked.
Serve immediately.