Everyone loves oven cooked bacon! It is just as crispy and delicious as in a frying pan, without the mess! Once you try it, you’ll be converted for life!
Everyone run to the kitchen, this is not a drill! We’re cooking bacon in the oven and you don’t want to miss it! We love bacon, but it is a pain. How many grease-stained shirts and 1st degree burns from oil popping can we tolerate before saying “ENOUGH!”? Well, a lot. Because it’s bacon. However, once we discovered cooking it in the oven, we couldn’t go back to the old-fashioned way.
Cooking bacon in the oven is so stinkin’ easy! It’s going to take longer than you’re used to, but we promise you, it’s worth it. Plus, it’s all hands-off cooking time. No more watching the stove and dangerous flipping of the bacon! So, get out your favorite pancake recipe, squeeze some fresh orange juice and pull out that bacon, because it’s breakfast time!
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Is bacon good leftover?
Bacon is always good. Really though, leftover bacon doesn’t retain it’s crispiness well, so it is great to use crumbled up as a topping or in a baked good. Why throw it out, when you could instead use it to make Cheesy Corn, Bacon and Scallions Pizza?
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How do you know when the bacon is done?
If you are using thin bacon or want soft, chewy bacon, then you should aim to bake for 15-20 minutes. If you are using a thick cut of bacon or want crispy bacon, then aim for 25-30 minutes.
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What should I use? A baking sheet or parchment paper?
The best way to cook bacon in the oven is on parchment paper because it allows for an easy cleanup. Once you’re done and it’s cooled down, simply roll all that grease up into the center of the parchment paper and throw it away! A baking sheet works, and we love reducing waste, but it does require more time cleaning up to scrub all of that grease out of both sides of the mat.
If you like this recipe, you may be interested in these other delicious bacon recipes:
- One Pan Breakfast Bake with Bacon, Hash Browns, and Eggs
- Spicy Maple Candied Bacon
- BBQ Bacon Jalapeño Popper Puff Pastry Twists
Watch the video below where Rachel will walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual, and we’ve always got you covered with our cooking show. You can find the complete collection of recipes on YouTube, Facebook Watch, or our Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
Excellent, easy-to-follow directions for perfectly cooked, low-mess bacon!!
I love to cook my bacon like this. Consistently comes out well. One tip from my experience (well, two): use a baking sheet with a deep edge. There will be a lot of fat. I used a shallow pan once and it did not go well when I took it out of the oven! Other note: skip the rack and let the bacon cook in the fat. It will cook evenly and thoroughly.
Does cooking the bacon in the oven make a mess in the oven? I want to try this but worried about mess in oven to clean up.
We haven’t had any splatter or mess from cooking bacon in the oven. It is SO much less messy than cooking it on the stove!
I use the aluminum foil on the baking sheet method and I do find that I get splatter in my oven. So then I started using an outdoor grill aluminum pan with holes in it on top of my baking sheet. It works to keep the splatter down,but it seems to make the bacon take longer to cook. I was going to try to use The parchment paper method, do you know if I can put the parchment paper on top of the bacon also to try to help with splatter ??
No. Just use Foil to line the pan, let the grease cool and fold up and trash it. Unless you save to cook with. It doesn’t curl up stays pretty flat. Taste so much better than pan fried.
There is no spatter, if that’s what you’re asking. Definitely use a deep sided baking pan, because there will be lots of bacon grease
It absolutely does mess up the oven glass door. But it’s the best way to cook bacon, especially on parchment paper.
Lower temperature = less splatter. I use 325 oF in a convection oven.
Rachel.
After many, many years of frying bacon in a frying pan, I FINALLY followed your oven baking method, and you are absolutely right, I will never fry bacon again. I’m converted. Thank you so much for sharing the how, to and why of cooking bacon in the oven. p.s. I watch your videos all the time and you are awesome.
I put mine in a cold oven. No real need to preheat. Works like a charm. Less mess than stovetop cooking.
This great! Sometimes before it is done I will sprinkle a mixture of brown sugar and cayenne pepper on it to make sweet hot bacon. It is so good – these strips can be added to bloody Mary’s too! Love your recipes thank you!
I’ll have to try this next time.
Parchment paper is a good way to cook bacon, however, DO NOT use the combination of parchment paper and a wire rack. The bacon grease will pool and catch fire on the paper. I set my stove top on fire in my apartment doing this.
Easy peasy! Will never fry bacon again! Thanks!
I will never go back to trying to fry it in the frying pan. It comes out flat and all equally cooked. So much easier, wish I had known that years ago. I use parchment paper and clean up is easy.
but: does this leave the oven all grease spattered?
It didn’t when I baked the bacon….had the rack in the middle of the oven.
If that’s a concern you can always place a large sheet in the rack surrounding the pan with a wall of foil. Also can lay a sheet of foil on the rack above. I have an electric oven and have done this the first few times to make sure it wasn’t going to be a mess. Never found splattering to be an issue.
No splatters in the oven.
Amazing who would have thought that you don’t have to deal with a scalding hot frying pan anymore? I cant believe how easy it is