How To Cook Bacon In The Oven

Cook Time:

18 mins

Active Time:

5 mins

Total Time:

23 mins

Servings:

Cooking bacon in the oven can help you achieve evenly crisp bacon slices and prevent burnt ends and chewy and raw middles. It can also help you prevent the spurts and splatters of frying bacon on the stove. It’s a win-win for cooks who want the always-popular breakfast meat but need the process to be a little bit easier.

Learn how to cook bacon in the oven, whether you need four slices for your own breakfast or 40 slices for a crowd.

Why Cook Bacon in the Oven

Cooking bacon in the oven is the easiest way to cook it and has other benefits like:

• Cooking bacon in the oven is less messy. Cleaning up is a breeze when the baking tray is lined with aluminum foil. Using the stovetop to cook bacon can cause splatters and become a greasy mess.
• You can cook bacon in big batches. Load up one or two baking trays and stick them in the oven. To help the bacon cook evenly, swap the pans at the half way point of cooking.
• You won’t be glued to the stove. While the bacon is cooking in the oven, you can multitask and prepare other food.

Tips From The Southern Living Test Kitchen

I’ve made a lot of bacon in the oven, so I’ve picked up these tips over years of using this technique:

• Bacon should be cooked at 400°F. Medium-thick bacon slices will need 18 to 20 minutes to reach the perfect level of crispiness. But check the bacon at 10 minutes, and adjust your cooking time to your preferred degree of doneness.
• Don’t mix bacon cuts. Thick-cut bacon slices will need more time than medium-cut slices. If you wait for the thicker slices to be crisp, the thinner ones may burn.
• Line pans with aluminum foil. You can use parchment paper if you want, but it won’t trap the bacon grease. If you use aluminum foil, you likely can drain the grease, ball up the foil, and not have to wash a single dish.
• Skip the wire racks: Some cooks swear by baking bacon on cooling racks that are sitting inside the baking sheet. This method works, but it makes a mess. Cleaning the racks is a headache.

Parchment paper can also be used but it won’t catch the grease, so aluminum foil is preferred.

How To Store Cooked Bacon

Bacon can be stored in the fridge for three to four days and can be frozen for two to three months. Before you store, let the cooked slices cool. Then, put them in a plastic zip-top bag.

Reheat chilled cooked bacon in a skillet or microwave for several seconds until warmed through. Let frozen bacon thaw at room temperature for several minutes before reheating in a skillet or microwave. An air fryer is a great option for reheating bacon if you have one, too.

What To Do With Leftover Bacon Grease

Once cooled, the bacon grease can be poured through a sieve to remove any bacon bits and into a glass jar. The grease can be stored for up to three months and be used for frying up eggs and other dishes. My grandmother always stirred a spoonful into her grits to make them taste a bit more decadent.

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Ingredients

• 1 lb. bacon

Directions

1. Prepare oven and equipment:Gather aluminum foil, a large rimmed baking sheet, tongs, a plate, and paper towels, in addition to bacon. Preheat oven to 400°F.Photo: Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox
2. Prepare pan:Line baking sheet with aluminum foil.Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox
3. Add bacon to pan:Place bacon in a single layer on aluminum foil-lined baking pans. Use more than one pan if needed for the number of bacon strips you plan to cook.Photo: Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox
4. Bake bacon:Cook the bacon in the preheated oven on a middle rack 18 to 20 minutes or until the bacon is crisped. If using more than one pan, rotate shelves after 10 minutes for even cooking.Photo: Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox
5. Transfer bacon to platter:Bacon will continue cooking on hot pan, so transfer slices to a paper towel-lined plate. Serve immediately.Photo: Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox

Frequently Asked Questions

• Should you flip bacon in the oven?
• How do you know bacon is done?
• Should the bacon be covered in the oven?