How To Bake Bacon
Published February 17, 2020. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Baking bacon is hands down the best way to make it delicious and crispy and you will never make it any other way again after this.
I’ve made more bacon then I care to remember stemming all the way back to my restaurant days. I’ve pan-fried, grilled, even deep-fried it, but to this day I’ve never found a better way to prepare it than this.
Baking in the oven is a very popular easy way to prepare food, just like in my Sheet Pan Chicken or my Oven Baked Spicy Salmon Fajitas.
The Best Way to Cook Bacon
The absolute best way to cook bacon is in the oven. It perfectly browns it up while staying way longer in shape then when it shrivels up pan-frying it. The two most important things you need are:
Parchment Paper – this will not only help crisp up the bacon, but it will assist in the cooking time.
½ Baking Sheet Tray – no more small odd shaped cookie sheet trays, upgrade to ½ size.
Temperature to Bake Bacon
The two best temperatures to make oven-baked bacon are 375° and 400°. These temperatures are not convection and make sure your sheet tray is in the middle rack of the oven when cooking it.
How Long Does It Take
While it does take up to 25 minutes to bake it in the oven, it’s well worth it and no going back to the old way. Follow these easy temp and time guidelines:
- 375° for 22 to 25 minutes
- 400° for 18 to 22 minutes
How to Make It
Place the bacon about a ½” apart from one another on a ½ size sheet tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake in the oven at 375° for 22 to 25 minutes or until golden browned and crispy.
Place the cooked bacon onto paper towels to let it drain.
How to Make It Crispy
There are 3 keys to making oven baked bacon perfectly crispy so that you never make it any other way again.
375° or 400° – make sure the bacon is at a high enough temperature where it has the opportunity to brown.
Parchment Paper – this will assist in the browning of the bacon as well as with the amount of time it takes to brown.
Paper Towels – don’t let the bacon sit in its own rendered fat as it will become soggy. Immediately remove it from pan and place it on paper towels to drain.
Make-Ahead and Storage
How to Reheat: There are several ways to reheat bacon. You can grill it, place it in a pan and cook over low heat until hot or place back in the oven at 350° for 2 to 3 minutes or until hot.
Make-Ahead: You can make bacon up to 1 day ahead of time. Reheat and drain before serving.
How to Store: Place covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
chef notes + tips
- Pay close attention to it when reheating as it can burn very easily.
- This recipe is done for regular cut bacon. If you want to use thick-cut bacon add 3-5 minutes to your baking time.
- Try adding some cracked pepper to the top of the bacon before baking or drizzling on a little maple syrup for baking to enhance the flavor.
- Don’t you dare throw away the rendered back fat, strain it off into a container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or it will freeze for up to 2 months.
Amazing Recipes With Bacon
How To Bake Bacon
Ingredients
- 1 pound regular cut bacon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°.
- Evenly place the bacon 1/2” apart on 2 sheet trays lined with parchment paper.
- Place the trays in the oven as close to the middle rack as possible and bake at 375° for 22 to 25 minutes or until browned and crisp.
- Immediately remove the bacon from the tray and place it on paper towels to drain any excess fat and serve.
Notes
- How to Reheat: There are several ways to reheat bacon. You can grill it, place it in a pan and cook over low heat until hot or place back in the oven at 350° for 2 to 3 minutes or until hot.
- Pay close attention to it when reheating as it can burn very easily.
- Make-Ahead: You can make bacon up to 1 day ahead of time. Reheat and drain before serving.
- How to Store: Place covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- This recipe is done for regular cut bacon. If you want to use thick cut bacon add 3-5 minutes to your baking time.
- Try adding some cracked pepper to the top of the bacon before baking or drizzling on a little maple syrup for baking to enhance the flavor.
- Don’t you dare throw away the rendered back fat, strain it off into a container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze it for up to 2 months.
Does the grease from the bacon splatter on the oven walls for a bad clean up mess?
not at all
My bacon came out perfect!
love it!
I couldn’t believe it. I had tried baking bacon on a sheet pan tray and it was meh at best. But when I put the parchment paper under the bacon and tried it in the sheet pan it was perfect! Thank you so much.
my pleasure!
Chef, agreed this is the best way to cook bacon, and a lot easier clean up as an additional benefit. We are making your BLT dip today and using a pound of bacon which created a good quantity of bacon fat that we are saving. A question on that in the future when we cook additional bacon can we put that fat in the same container or do we have to store separately
Depends on how many days apart you are cooking it.
Always bake my bacon. So clean and easy, and perfect way to have leftovers for sandwiches or salads!
Best way to do it!
Turned out perfectly!!!
Fantastic!
The only way we do bacon. The best.
yes!
There is no way this can be reheated the next day Chef. It would never ever last that long❤️😘
😂😂😂
I will be 60 this year and have never been able to make good bacon, no matter the method I tried – until now. Absolutely perfect! I’m celebrating with a BLT, and thinking how grateful I am that chefs like you take the time to teach the basics. Thank you!
awesome!
Thank you love all your recipes…♥️ I love this little hack I’ve never cooked bacon that way before thanks Chef Billy
The best!