{mmmmm bacon} How to Cook Bacon in the Oven
Up until recently I always made bacon in a pan on the stovetop, but now that I have learned to cook it in the oven I realize I wasted many of my prime bacon-cooking years on an inferior cooking method.
There are many things that suck about cooking bacon on the stovetop. For one thing, I never have a pan large enough to cook all the bacon I desire so I invariably have to use two pans (which means more cleanup) or cook multiple batches (which means some of the bacon gets cold.) It requires attention to make sure the bacon is cooking evenly, not burning, and that the individual pieces are cooking at the same rate (which they never are.) Also, there is always a lot of greasy splatter on the stove to clean up afterwards.
Cooking bacon in the oven solves all of these problems. It cooks evenly and there is no splatter. You don’t have to pay attention or flip the bacon over. And if you line the pan with foil, you don’t even have to wash the pan afterwards.
How to Cook Bacon Perfectly in the Oven
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Get a flat sheet pan or cookie sheet with sides. (It is important that the pan has sides because a lot of grease is going to come out and if the pan doesn’t have sides you might light your house on fire.) For more bacon, get out another pan.
- Line the pan with aluminum foil that wraps around the sides. If you do a tight wrapping you will insulate the pan entirely and won’t have to wash it afterwards.
- Lay the bacon in a single layer. It can be touching and can even overlap slightly because bacon shrinks when it cooks.
- Put it in the oven. It will probably take about 15-20 minutes but cooking times will vary depending on how thick the bacon is. I check it after about 15 minutes and then just keep checking. You can also turn the pan around at the 15 minute mark to make sure it cooks evenly.
- When it’s done, remove it to a plate covered with paper towels to drain. Enjoy!
P.S. If you super love bacon then you might also want to learn how to make your bacon in the shape of a heart (awwwww), or try cheesy bacon breakfast strata, fettucine with bacon, Marcona almonds, and Brussels sprouts, BLT baked eggs, or pancake ice cream with bacon candy.
Flickr photo credit: Andrew
Finally — a REAL life hack! 😉 I am excited to try this. Thanks for looking into this and sharing. Can’t wait to impress my Nana when she visits this Christmas with my new easy bacon-cooking-skills.
Last but not least — a genuine lifestyle hack!; ) We are enthusiastic to attempt this particular. Thank you for researching this particular and giving. Can’t hang on to help enlighten the Nana any time the girl appointments this particular Yuletide with the completely new quick bacon-cooking-skills.
Really good to use the oven for bacon, especially when making a whole pack or more. I like to finish it off extra crispy with a minute or so with the broiler on.
@Oscar great idea with the broiler! Thanks
I’ve had great success with putting the bacon (on the foil-lined baking pan, of course) in the cold oven and THEN setting to 400 and walking away – if it’s regular-thickness bacon it’s pretty much perfect when the oven reaches full temp. Thick-sliced often needs a few minutes more for good and crispy. Voila!
@Jamie I will try that! Thanks.