Oven Bacon

When cooking a whole pack of bacon, the easiest way to do it is cook it in the oven. No mess, less clean up and delicious crispy bacon every time.

Cooking your bacon in the oven is the safest way to cook it. No hot oil splatters, no mess. Every piece of bacon cooks evenly to your desired crispiness.

Why I like to cook bacon in the oven

I just came back from a 2 week trip where we cooked bacon for breakfast every single morning.

We were feeding 10-15 people every day so cooking 2 packages of bacon was the most efficient.

The first day we used a big cast iron skillet. The first batch came great but after that there is a lot of debris left in the pan and too much oil.

We tried cleaning the pan in between batches but it was a pain. It was dangerous to remove the hot oil from the pan and a paper towel wasn't enough to remove the burnt bits leftover.

So after the first batch your other pieces of bacon are burnt and it takes a long time to cook the whole package.

Recipe highlights

If you are on the fence about to why cook bacon in the oven, here is why it is the best cooking method:

• Easy clean up: Line up the baking tray with foil and a wire rack for easy clean up.
• Safety: No oil splatters, no removing hot grease from the pan in between batches.
• Efficient: Bacon cooks evenly, all at once.
• Hands off: No standing next to the stove flipping bacon.

Ingredients

You can use any type of bacon you want.

The cooking time will need to be adjusted depending on what kind of bacon you choose; thick-cut or thin-cut. I personally like thick-cut bacon the best for this method.

But as you can see in the picture below, both thin and thick cut work just as well.

Kitchen tools

To cook bacon in the oven you will need to gather a few kitchen tools:

• Large baking tray: They have specific baking sheets with a wavy pattern that are for cooking bacon in the oven. If you have one great! If not, use a baking rack on top of your baking tray. The rack allows air to circulate and crisp up the bacon.
• Aluminum foil: Line the baking tray with foil to make the clean up breeze!
• Tongs: To easily remove your bacon from the cooking rack.
• Paper towels: Although most of the grease will drain, I like to pat my cooked bacon with a kitchen paper towel to remove any excess oil.

Cooking Method

Preheat the oven to 375°F and set a rack in the center.

Line the baking sheet with foil. Place a fitting wire rack on top.

Place the bacon strips on the rack. They can be pretty close and touch but not overlap.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until it reaches your desired crispiness.

Storage, freezing and reheating instructions

If you have leftovers, store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Bacon freezes well. Allow it to fully cool down before freezing. Store in a zip top bag or ideally in vacuum sealed bag and freeze.

To reheat the bacon, you can use the microwave, stove or oven. To make it crispy again I like to quickly broil it in the oven for 2 minutes.