Baked Bacon
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Oven baked bacon is the key to crispy, flat, evenly cooked bacon without the mess. Perfect for an easy breakfast or for prepping ahead to use in salads, sandwiches or grabbing to-go during the week.
Oven Baked Bacon Recipe
Every Sunday I spend about 2 hours doing a quick meal prep for the week. Usually, this includes:
- a batch of a veggie-based soup (often my roasted bell pepper soup or butternut squash soup)
- a cooked protein (chicken or steak – easy to add to sandwiches, stir-fries, pasta, etc)
- a dip for veggies (something like a hummus or homemade ranch dip)
- a grab-and-go breakfast option (like breakfast wraps or muffins)
- homemade salad dressing (our coleslaw dressing and blue cheese dressings are our favorites)
- and, often, a batch of baked bacon (to enjoy on it’s own or in breakfast wraps, on sandwiches, crumbled over salads, etc.)
Bacon might seem like an odd choice to meal prep, but baking bacon is less high-maintenance than frying as needed. It involves no flipping and less risk of bacon grease splatters (and the related burns).
There is no chance I would ever fry up bacon while making lunchboxes (weekday mornings are busy enough as it is), but having it prepared and on hand allows me to add a couple slices to our sandwiches or crumble fresh overtop of a salad.
It’s very important with this recipe to place the bacon in the cold oven before preheating. This prevents any bacon grease splatters which would be annoying to clean out of the oven (although the house will smell delicious every time it gets rewarmed).
You can use this method for cooking all different types of bacon – Canadian bacon, turkey bacon, thick-cut bacon, etc. You may need to adjust the cooking time accordingly (for example, turkey bacon requires a shorter cooking time).
Pro Tips for Baking Bacon
Just a note about using tinfoil to line the cookie sheet. You can skip this step if you have a very well-seasoned cookie sheet (like mine seen above) and don’t mind giving it a wash after. With newer cookie sheets, the bacon grease can scald your cookie sheets and leave marks. Using tinfoil also allows you to either easily dispose of or save the bacon grease.
Regarding placing the bacon on the oven-proof rack, for me this is a non-negotiable because it distances the bacon from the grease that cooks off. Placing the bacon directly on the cookie sheet or tinfoil will result in a greasier bacon and I find it doesn’t cook as evenly as it does on the rack. The only annoying part of using the rack is cleaning it afterwards but if you have Dawn Powerwash, that works amazing for me. If you don’t use a rack, be sure to flip the bacon halfway through cooking to ensure it bakes evenly.
And of course, use a cookie sheet with a rim to contain the bacon fat and prevent it from running off into the bottom of the oven.
To save the bacon grease, allow it to cool for about 10 minutes on the baking sheet before pouring into a glass container. You can use a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth to strain out any small pieces of bacon, if desired.
Use the reserved bacon fat in place of butter or oil for a variety of dishes. I personally use it for frying eggs, pan-searing veggies, pan-frying chicken breasts, and sauteeing onions and garlic in the base of my soup recipes. You can even use it as a base for salads!
Store cooked bacon in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Use parchment paper to separate layers of bacon when freezing to prevent them from sticking together so you can just grab as many strips as you want. (This set of freezer containers is a crazy bargain.)
Baked Bacon Ingredients
- Bacon
- Optional ingredients: brown sugar, pepper, salt
Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.
Tip: if adding sugar to make candied bacon, watch the bacon closely to prevent burning.
Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful
- Tinfoil
- Baking Sheet
- Oven-proof Cooling Rack
How to Make Bake Bacon in the Oven
Set oven to 400F.
Line a baking sheet that has a lip around the edge with tinfoil or parchment paper. (The lip will prevent the bacon grease from getting all over your oven.)
Place an oven-safe cooling rack on the tinfoil and spray liberally with cooking spray (or brush with oil).
Lay your bacon overtop of your cooling rack, being careful not to overlap the slices.
Place the bacon in the preheating oven. (My oven was at 200F when I put mine in.)
Bake for 15-25 minutes, until bacon has reached desired level of crispness.
If doing two baking trays of bacon at once, rotate them halfway through the cooking time.
Place the cooked bacon on a paper towel-lined plate to drain off excess bacon fat.
You can discard of the bacon fat on the tray or save to use for cooking.
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Baked Bacon
Ingredients
- Bacon
- Optional ingredients: brown sugar, pepper, salt
Instructions
- Set oven to 400F.
- Line a baking sheet that has a lip around the edge with tinfoil or parchment paper. (The lip will prevent the bacon grease from getting all over your oven.)
- Place an oven-safe cooling rack on the tinfoil and spray liberally with cooking spray (or brush with oil).
- Lay your bacon overtop of your cooling rack, being careful not to overlap the slices.
- Place the bacon in the preheating oven. (My oven was at 200F when I put mine in.)
- Bake for 15-25 minutes, until bacon has reached desired level of crispness.
- If doing two baking trays of bacon at once, rotate them halfway through the cooking time.
- Place the cooked bacon on a paper towel-lined plate to drain off excess bacon fat.
- You can discard of the bacon fat on the tray or save to use.
Notes
It's very important with this recipe to place the bacon in the cold oven before preheating. This prevents any bacon grease splatters which would be annoying to clean out of the oven.
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