Bacon Recipe – How to Bake Bacon Two Ways, baked

At a glance

What stands out: Love bacon but hate the hassle and mess? Baked bacon is the answer: little mess and reliable bacon slices every time! Learning how to bake bacon is a time saver.

How long it takes: 30 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: sheet pan, rack if desired
Servings: 4

True confession: we love bacon. We love bacon, eggs, and from-scratch buttermilk pancakes for Saturday morning breakfasts, we love bacon in salads, on pizza, in sandwiches (yum, BLTs), and well, you get the idea. You’ll find that plenty of our recipes include bacon.

But we don’t love making it. Frying it on our stove top always makes a big greasy mess that’s a pain to clean up. Plus, have you ever been hit by a burning hot splatter of bacon grease? Ouch! It almost makes us not want to make bacon. Almost.

But here’s a news flash: you don’t have to fry bacon. In fact, there’s a much easier method to cook bacon: you bake it!

Straightforward Baked Bacon

Reliable strips and no flipping. When you bake bacon, you get nice flat bacon slices every time. You don’t even have to flip it over. It will be evenly crisp every time.

Easiest clean-up. The bacon is baked in the oven on a rimmed baking pan lined with foil, which you can just throw away afterwards right along with the bacon grease. It’s o straightforward and no splatters of grease on the stove or on you!

Two ways to do it. You can bake it with a wire rack or without (that’s the two ways). The results are nearly the same. We usually bake it right on the foil without a rack but if you want the bacon grease to drain away from the bacon as it bakes, a wire rack works well.

Are you convinced yet? We hope so because baked bacon is a game changer in our mind. We're not sure we will ever go back to frying bacon strips. Besides, isn’t it kind of fun to say “baked bacon?” P.S. If you’re looking for another speedy way to cook bacon, try air fryer bacon. That method is particularly good for small batches of bacon.

What goes in

We like to buy center cut bacon because there is usually less fat. Choose what you like best. Thick sliced bacon will take slightly longer to bake than thin cut bacon.

How To Bake Bacon

Line a large rimmed baking pan with foil. Use heavy duty foil or two layers of regular foil. Make sure the foil goes right up the sides of the pan to ensure that the bacon grease doesn’t seep underneath. You don’t want that to happen because it will mean more clean up time. Parchment paper is a good alternative to foil.

Add a wire rack (optional). If you want to use a wire rack, set it in the baking pan and spray it lightly with cooking spray. The advantages of using a rack are that much of the grease will drip down off the bacon into the pan, leaving little on the bacon. Less grease means fewer calories. Using a rack also results in slightly straighter, flatter bacon slices.

Arrange the bacon. Separate the strips and place them either directly on the foil or on the baking rack, trying not to have them touch each other (kind of sounds like our kids in the back seat–he touched us, no we didn’t, she touched us! Sound familiar?).

Bake. Place the pan in a preheated oven or a cold oven. The bacon will turn out either way but it will take slightly longer in a cold oven. Bake it approximately 25 minutes. There’s no need to flip the bacon at all, not even once. It will crisp evenly, both on a rack or not on a rack.

Cooking Tip

Baking time will vary, depending on how thick the bacon slices are. Thick cut bacon will take a bit longer than thin-cut slices. Keep a close eye on the bacon near the end of the baking time because it can go from not done to overdone rather quickly.

Drain on paper towels. Using tongs, remove the bacon from the pan and place it on paper towels to drain. If we're feeling particularly health-conscious, we pat the tops of the bacon with more paper towels to blot up some of the excess grease.

Clean up. All you’ll need to do is remove the foil from the pan and toss it in the trash. Usually we don’t even have to wash the baking pan. If you used a rack, you will have to wash that (hopefully it will fit in your dishwasher!).

Make-Ahead Idea

Cook a whole pound of bacon even it you’re not planning on using that much. Store what you don’t use in the refrigerator or freezer. It thaws out quickly and is ready to use in recipes. For ways to use baked bacon, check out the recipes below.

Keeping leftovers

Refrigerate/freeze: After baked bacon has drained and cooled, put it in a zip-top bag in the refrigerator or freezer to use at a later date. In the refrigerator, it should last 4 to 5 days and in the freezer for 3 to 4 months.

Reheat: It doesn’t take long to thaw, 10 minutes at the most. Reheat it in the oven or toaster oven for 5 minutes or microwave briefly, 15 seconds. If you’re using it in a recipe, you can use it right from the refrigerator or freezer.

Recipes That Use Bacon

Here are a few recipes for that rich bacon (unless you plan to eat it all right from the oven which is always a temptation!):

• Ricotta flatbread with bacon, squash, apples and maple pepitas (a rich fall festival of flavors)
• BBQ chicken pizza
• Creamy loaded potato salad (with bacon and hard boiled eggs)
• Green beans with bacon, garlic, and onion (you’ll never look at plain green beans again)
• Bacon cheddar quiche with sweet potato crust
• Broccoli salad with bacon

• Yield: 4 servings
• Prep: 5 minutes
• Cook: 25 minutes
• Total: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound regular or center cut bacon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Line a rimmed baking pan (half sheet pan) with foil, using a couple layers, so the edges of the pan are covered as well (this prevents the grease from going under the foil). Parchment paper may be used instead if you prefer.
2. If you prefer, you can place the uncooked bacon on a wire rack, set on the foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Spray the rack lightly with cooking spray (see note).
3. Lay bacon on the foil or on the rack, in a single layer, not overlapping slices.
4. Bake for 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how thick the bacon slices are, or until the bacon reaches desired crispness. Rotate pan once during cooking so bacon cooks evenly. Keep an eye on it because it goes from not done to burnt pretty quickly.
5. Using tongs, carefully remove bacon from baking sheet and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain.

Notes

Forget to preheat the oven? Just put the bacon in the cold oven, turn it on, and bake slightly longer than directed.

Using a wire rack: If you would like slightly flatter bacon strips, with a little less grease, use a wire rack.

Using a convection oven: Baking 2 pans of bacon at once in a convection oven takes about 20 minutes.