Name: Crispy Bacon in The Oven
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 12 strips sliced, center-cut bacon

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Do you cook your bacon in the oven? Crispy Bacon in the Oven is the best-ever method for enjoying the most beautiful, flat and wonderful bacon in the history of the ever!

How to Cook Crispy Bacon Right in Your Oven Recipe

Howdy! Chef Alli Here. Let’s Get You Cookin’….Shall We?? 🙂

Things to Love About this Crispy Oven Bacon Recipe –

Not only is oven-baking the easiest method for cooking bacon, I also find that it’s the non-messiest (that IS a word, right??) method, as well.
I love keeping all the bacon splatter in my oven instead of all over my stove top…..for the whole world to see.
Once you begin cooking your bacon in the oven, I’m pretty sure you’re never gonna go back to frying it in a skillet.
And, if you make sure to line your baking sheet with a large sheet of heavy-duty foil, you will find that the bacon clean-up is way faster and easier as well.

I have several recipes that call for pre-cooked bacon so I cook a lot of bacon in my oven! Some of those bacon dishes are our favorites (of course) – BLT Pasta Salad, Bacon Cheeseburger Sliders, and Roast Pork Tenderloin with Bacon and Cran-Apple Sauerkraut.

The 3 Easy Steps for Making Crispy Bacon in the Oven

1. Yep, You Gotta Start With an Ice Cold Oven….It’s the SECRET STEP

Do not preheat the oven when you want to make Crispy Oven Bacon. Yep, this may seem odd, but this is actually the what allows your bacon come out perfectly flat and crispy.

When you pop bacon into a hot, preheated oven, the heat is what causes the strips of bacon to shrivel and shrink up, as if each strip is saying “Yikes! This oven is much too HOT!”

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2. Heavy-Duty Aluminum Foil is Your Friend When You Are Making Oven Bacon

Line a rimmed baking sheet very well with heavy-duty aluminum foil. I like to use the extra-wide aluminum foil for lining my baking sheets when cooking bacon.

If you use to skinny, over-lapping pieces of foil to cover the baking sheet, the bacon fats can find their way between them and you’ve got a mess to clean up later. Yuck.

Lay a single layer of bacon over the foil. It’s perfectly fine if the bacon strips touch each other, since they will shrink back a bit as they cook. However, it’s best if the bacon slices don’t overlap each other.

3. Baking the Bacon…..You Will Love This Mess-Free Method

Place the baking sheet of bacon into the cold oven on the center rack. Now set the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Cook the bacon to your preferred degree of done-ness. We like ours more crispy, with a little bit of chew, which is right around 25 minutes.

You may have to play around a bit to get to the very best and specific cooking time for your preference and also for your brand and thickness of bacon.

Sometimes, depending on the bacon, I flip it over, or at least turn my pan around in the oven half way through the baking time to ensure really even cooking.

I think turning the bacon over half way through the cooking time helps it cook faster and ensure crispy-ness on both sides.

Lastly, use your tongs to carefully transfer the cooked bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain away any excess fats.

Pour the excess bacon fat remaining on the baking sheet through a strainer into your “Bacon Fats” jar to use for future cooking. Let the bacon cool just a bit to allow it to get nice and crispy. Enjoy!

Easy Recipe Tips for Making Crispy Oven Bacon

Why do you NOT preheat the oven when cooking bacon?

Starting the bacon in a COLD oven allows it to heat up right along with the baking sheet and the oven, preventing the bacon from curling up and shrinking back. This is the SECRET technique to the most beautiful, flat and crispy bacon ever! Plus, starting your bacon in a cold oven keeps it from splattering as much, too.
Is it really important to use a foil-lined baking sheet when cooking bacon?

You certainly do not HAVE to do this step. An unlined baking sheet works fine, but you’ll have so much more CLEAN UP to do!

I find that the extra step of covering the baking sheet with a big sheet of foil is SO WORTH IT because it makes clean-up such a total breeze.
Washing bacon baking sheets is super messy otherwise….yuck.

Also, make sure you don’t puncture any holes in the foil when lining the baking sheet, or it will leak and you’ll still have a lot of clean up. Be gentle!
Can the bacon strips touch each other when placed onto the baking sheet?

They sure can. Just place them in a single layer over the foil. It’s perfectly fine if the bacon strips touch each other, since they will shrink a bit as they cook. Just don’t OVERLAP them.

I can usually “snuggle” about 10-12 bacon strips onto a baking sheet, depending on the brand of bacon I’m using.
What if you prefer your bacon to be less crispy and more chewy?

That’s an easy fix! Just reduce your baking time to the 20-minute range for chewier bacon or try closer to 30 minutes for crispier bacon.

The cooking time will vary based on the type and brand of your bacon. I usually begin checking my bacon at about the 15 minute mark.

Also, every oven bakes differently so that’s why we can’t always cook by time alone – we also have to cook by sight, touch, and temperature.
Why should you save the bacon fats?

It’s great for future cooking! I save the excess bacon fat in a glass jar that sits right next to my olive oil so I can easily grab it when I want to sauté something in a skillet at a later time – it adds so much extra flavor!
Why do you need to strain the bacon fats before storing them?

Straining your bacon fat through a mesh strainer as it goes into your storage jar ensures the bacon fat always stays safe and flavorful.

Straining is a very important step because it keeps little pieces of bacon from going into your jar which could later cause your bacon to go rancid. Never good.

More BACON Recipes Your Family Will Enjoy –

Printable Crispy Oven Bacon Recipe –