How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (2024)

Learn How to Cook Bacon in the Oven for perfectly cooked bacon every time! Enjoy delicious, crispy bacon and less mess with this oven-baked bacon recipe.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (1)

Crispy, slightly salty bacon is one of my very favorite foods! It’s so good in many other dishes and perfect eaten piece by perfect piece! So when I learned what has to be the easiest way in the world to cook the best, most evenly cooked, crispy bacon, I was hooked!

Learning how to cook bacon in the oven is an essential cooking tip that I think you’ll love! It is the perfect way to cook to serve with breakfast with scrambled eggs and biscuits or platters of amazing French Toast or buttermilk pancakes! You can make a lot at once, which also makes it great for recipes that use bacon, such as BLT Pasta Salad, and as a topping on a big, juicy hamburger.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe

Cooking bacon in the oven is so simple. Once you make it this way, you won’t want to cook it any other way!

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (2)

Make sure you begin with a cold oven.

Lay the bacon slices in a single layer onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Additionally, you can place the bacon onto a wire rack and then place the wire rack onto a baking sheet if you prefer extra crispy bacon.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (3)

Place the baking sheet with the uncooked bacon into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 375º F and bake bacon for 15 to 20 minutes. The baking time depends on the desired amount of crispness for bacon.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (4)

Transfer the cooked bacon to a plate for serving.

Benefits of Cooking Bacon in the Oven

There are so many benefits, I can’t even begin to think of them all, but here are a few main ones that come to mind.

  1. No hot bacon grease splattering me as I cook!
  2. Easy cleanup.
  3. Great when cooking for a larger group.

How to Render Bacon Grease

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (5)

Once you’ve cooked your bacon, remove it from the baking sheet and pour the rendered bacon grease into a container. You can use a metal, glass, or crockery-style container. I use a container designed for storing bacon grease that is fitted with a fine mesh strainer. If you use another style container, line a fine mesh strainer with paper towels and pour the bacon grease through the strainer to remove any bits of bacon.

Store the bacon grease in the refrigerator for three to six months and in the freezer indefinitely.

How to Use Rendered Bacon Grease

From time to time, I add rendered bacon grease to recipes where I would enjoy the depth of bacon flavor. These recipes include roasted vegetables, scrambled eggs, quiche, biscuits, and more.

Storage Tips

To make ahead. Cook and cool leftover bacon. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat and serve.

To Freeze.Cook and cool. Store in an airtight, freezer-safe container for up to 1 month. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, reheat, and serve.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (6)

Here’s my Oven-Baked Bacon Recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!

How to Cook Bacon Recipe

Robyn Stone

4.82 from 11 votes

Learn How to Cook Bacon in the Oven for perfect bacon every time! Enjoy delicious, crispy bacon and less mess with this oven-baked bacon recipe.

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients

  • 1 pound bacon
  • olive oil spray, optional

Instructions

  • Arrange the bacon in a single layer on a parchment or aluminum foil-lined baking sheet.

  • If you prefer extra crispy bacon, place a wire rack on the baking sheet and spray it with olive oil spray. Place the bacon in a single layer onto the wire rack.

  • Place the baking sheet into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 375º F and bake bacon for 10-20 minutes, depending on the desired amount of crispness.

  • Remove from the oven and transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined platter to remove any excess drippings.

Notes

To make ahead. Cook and cool leftover bacon. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheat and serve.

To Freeze.Cook and cool. Store in an airtight, freezer-safe container for up to 1 month. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, reheat, and serve.

Video

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 315kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 50mg | Sodium: 500mg | Potassium: 150mg | Vitamin A: 28IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Enjoy!
Robyn xo

Categorized as:30 Minutes or Less Recipes, All Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, By Cooking Style, Camping, Christmas Recipes, Cooking, Essentials, Father’s Day Recipes, Freezer Friendly Recipes, Game Day Recipes, Holiday and Occasion Recipes, how to, Make-ahead Recipes, Mother’s Day Recipes, Pork Recipes, Recipes, Simple Recipes, Southern Favorites, Videos

Welcome to Add A Pinch

About Robyn

Robyn Stone is a cookbook author, wife, mom, and passionate home cook. Her tested and trusted recipes give readers the confidence to cook recipes the whole family will love. Robyn has been featured on Food Network, People, Southern Living, and more.

Read more about Robyn

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How to Cook Bacon in the Oven Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Is it better to bake bacon at 350 or 400? ›

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.

How long does it take to cook bacon in the oven? ›

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Arrange the bacon in a single layer on 2 aluminum foil-lined rimmed baking sheets, or, for extracrispy bacon, arrange on 2 wire racks set over 2 foil-lined rimmed baking sheets. Bake until the bacon is browned and starts to ripple, or to desired doneness, 10 to 20 minutes.

How long should bacon be in the oven at 400? ›

Regular, thin-cut bacon will typically bake in 12 minutes at 400 degrees F. If you want it extra crispy, you can let it bake a little longer, but keep a close eye on it. For Thick-Cut Bacon. Thicker bacon will take 14 to 20 minutes, depending upon your thickness and how crisp you would like it to be.

Do you need to flip bacon in the oven? ›

But oven-cooked bacon allows you to live your life for 18 minutes or so while the pork does its thing. You don't have to flip it, press it, or shield your kitchen from grease. And if you play your cards right, cleanup will take two minutes, flat.

Do you have to use parchment paper for bacon in the oven? ›

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!

Should I put foil under bacon in the oven? ›

Cover a baking pan with aluminum foil and place an oven safe cross-wire grid cooling rack in the pan. Lay slices of bacon on the rack. Do not overlap the slices or they will not cook properly. Place pan in oven and bake for 15-25 minutes.

How does Martha Stewart Cook bacon in the oven? ›

Bake the bacon in a 400°F oven until well-browned and crisp, this should take between 15 and 18 minutes depending on the thickness of your bacon. To follow Martha's method to a T, you'll need to rotate the sheet pan halfway through.

How does Rachael Ray Cook bacon in the oven? ›

It's so incredibly simple! Just preheat oven to 375°F, and arrange your bacon on a slotted pan (like Rach's!) and bake to crisp for 15 to 18 minutes. (Again, if you don't have a slotted pan, Rach says you can make your own by putting a wire cooling rack on top of a baking sheet with a rim.)

Why do chefs cook bacon in the oven? ›

And it's why you might have some bacon slices that accidentally charcoal a bit too much while other slices are still undercooked. Cooking bacon in the oven cooks all of your bacon slices evenly as the heat surrounds them. They slowly sizzle, don't splatter and end up evenly cooked. It's a beautiful thing.

How messy is cooking bacon in the oven? ›

Cooking bacon in the oven doesn't take any longer than in a pan. Oven bacon gets just as crispy, if not crispier, and there's very little mess to clean up after. Making a batch of bacon in the oven also means you can do other things while it's cooking.

How do you know when bacon is done in the oven? ›

Bacon is typically cooked when it reaches your desired level of crispiness and has turned a golden brown color. Here are some indicators to help you determine when bacon is cooked: 1. **Color**: Cooked bacon should be golden brown in color.

What not to do when cooking bacon? ›

Starting with a Hot Pan

I won't keep you waiting: always start with a cold pan. Whether you like your bacon shatteringly crisp or chewy, the goal is strips that are evenly cooked, without burnt bits of meat or rubbery pockets of fat.

Does bacon taste better in the oven? ›

Oven baked bacon has less fat than fried bacon, which means fewer calories but still tastes just as good. If this is you're first time cooking bacon in the oven, you will fall in love with this method! Once you see how easy it is to do, you'll be convinced and probably never pan fry bacon again!

Is bacon better in microwave or oven? ›

You can cook a few slices in a skillet or the microwave, but when cooking a big batch, the oven is the surefire way to go. This method is almost entirely hands-off and results in perfectly crispy, chewy, evenly-cooked bacon.

Is it better to cook bacon low and slow or high and fast? ›

Bacon cooks best low and slow. Whether on the stove or in the oven, don't cook it at a temperature that's too high or you risk uneven cooking, or worse, burned bacon. It's not worth rushing, so plan accordingly.

What is the best temp to cook bacon in pan? ›

Cook on medium-low heat—you want to render a lot of the fat out of the bacon and this takes time. Don't rush it. Turn bacon occasionally with tongs so bacon cooks evenly. Since most pans don't heat evenly, you should move the bacon to a different part of the pan when flipping it.

How long to cook bacon at 375? ›

Place the bacon in a cold oven, and set the oven temperature to 375°F. Bake the bacon in the oven for 15-20 minutes total. If you are doing more than one pan of bacon, rotate sheet pans from top to bottom halfway through. If you are not using a baking rack, flip the bacon strips halfway through cooking.

How long does it take bacon to cook at 300 degrees? ›

Instructions. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and line bacon up on top of parchment paper. Place in oven for 20-30 minutes, depending upon how crispy you like your bacon, and how thick it is. Remove tray from oven and place bacon on plate lined with paper towel to allow grease and fat to drain.

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