How to Bake Bacon

Have you ever wanted to have bacon that was cooked perfectly crisp and flat? Baked bacon is perfect for use in recipes, and in making a bunch of bacon for a large gathering. Scroll down to find out how to bake bacon with ease.

A pound of bacon that has been cooked in the oven.

Have you ever wondered how you could bake bacon?

I normally have breakfast out, I am not a morning person, and making coffee and wearing matching clothes is pretty much all I can do in the morning. I have breakfast at the same place every day, it is in the building where I work. Every day they have perfectly crisp, and perfectly flat pieces of bacon. So I asked them what do you do? They bake bacon, and so can you.

Baking Bacon is Easy to Do!

Preheat your oven, grab a jelly roll pan and a wire rack and you place slices of bacon on the wire rack, and you can cook bacon in no time at all.

Honestly, there are many advantages to cooking bacon in the oven. Cleanup is easy. Maybe you can cook bacon without it splattering everywhere, but I cannot, bacon for me goes, pretty much everywhere.

Flat pieces of bacon are no problem, sometimes cooking bacon in a frying pan means uneven pieces. Cook a whole package of bacon at once! Excess grease simply drips away.

Give baking bacon a try soon!

Cooked bacon on a baking sheet.

Use your perfectly cooked bacon for these recipes:

A pound of bacon that has been cooked in the oven.

How to Bake Bacon

Learn how to bake bacon. 
5 from 5 votes
Print Pin Rate Add to Collection
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Bacon Recipes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 236kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 pound bacon

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil, you can leave the foil a little crinkled so the grease doing pool under the bacon. 
  • Do not use a flat cookie sheet, use a bar pan. A flat cookie sheet will get you a mess in your oven, as the grease forms it will drip down the pan.
  • Lay out bacon one strip at a time on the cookie sheet. The bacon should not touch. You can leave about a quarter inch between of space between each slice of bacon. 
  • Place cookie sheet with bacon into the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes. When the bacon is browned and crispy, you will drain it on paper towels. Now wasn't that easy?

Video

Notes

What to do with all of this bacon goodness

  • You can precook bacon for a whole week on the weekend, and simply reheat just before serving.
  • Store cooked bacon in an airtight plastic bag, and use as you like
  • Be sure to save the bacon grease for cooking in other recipes.

Nutrition

Calories: 236kcal | Carbohydrates: 0g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 37mg | Sodium: 375mg | Potassium: 112mg | Sugar: 0g | Vitamin A: 20IU | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.2mg

About Stephanie Manley

I recreate your favorite restaurant recipes, so you can prepare these dishes at home. I help you cook dinner, and serve up dishes you know your family will love. You can find most of the ingredients for all of the recipes in your local grocery store.

Stephanie is the author of CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home, and CopyKat.com's Dining Out in the Home 2.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jacqueline Witty

    5 stars
    Before putting in the oven, I like to pepper my bacon! Adds zip and way cheaper than buying peppered bacon which is usually thick cut. Perfect for BLT’s and club sandwiches. Also burning a candle helps with the bacon smell in the house.

  2. Julie

    I also frequently make bacon in the oven, with the cooling rack. I don’t always use foil in the pan, but let the grease cool in the pan and then wipe it out with a plastic bag to wrap it up and throw it out. If I don’t do it in the oven, I use my microwave with lots of paper towels to sop up the grease as it cooks.

  3. Carla

    I used to bake mine at 400 until I read an article that if you bake at 375 it renders the fat in the bacon better and you get a crispier bacon. I tried it and it worked much better than the higher temp.. . I like my bacon extra crispy : ) just sayin’ 🙂

  4. Carla

    I used to bake mine at 400 until I read an article that if you bake at 375 it renders the fat in the bacon better and you get a crispier bacon. I tried it and it worked much better than the higher temp.. . I like my bacon extra crispy : ) just sayin’ 🙂

  5. Carla

    I used to bake mine at 400 until I read an article that if you bake at 375 it renders the fat in the bacon better and you get a crispier bacon. I tried it and it worked much better than the higher temp.. . I like my bacon extra crispy : ) just sayin’ 🙂

  6. mjj

    I have done this for years, only difference is I put the bacon in the oven and then turn it on to 400, found that I do not have it spatter as much when starting it in a cold oven, same goes for doing this on a gas grill.

  7. mjj

    I have done this for years, only difference is I put the bacon in the oven and then turn it on to 400, found that I do not have it spatter as much when starting it in a cold oven, same goes for doing this on a gas grill.

  8. Asimmons

    just made bacon in the oven for the 1st time. loved it. so easy – almost fool proof. the directions I had started with a cold oven and bake 17 – 22 minutes, depending on how thick the bacon is. came out perfect. wonder what the difference is between starting in a cold oven and pre-heating the oven.

  9. Aarushi Sharma

    Insane Cooking Skills. Check out the quick hands this guy demonstrates while preparing some egg fried rice.

    http://bit.ly/rNThHA

  10. Aarushi Sharma

    Insane Cooking Skills. Check out the quick hands this guy demonstrates while preparing some egg fried rice.

    http://bit.ly/rNThHA

  11. Kelleygirl77

    could you use a broiler pan? I use them for jalapeno poppers because I love using the jalapeno bacon grease drippings with other recipes! Like pork chops fried in spicy bacon drippings? YUM! (not the healthiest, but still… amazing flavor!)
    I hate frying bacon. Hate the smell left in my kitchen and the mess! and I always manage to burn some on my ceramic cooktop stove, b/c the heat is so hard to slow down.

    • Saitaina Moricia-Malfoy

      I am aware this is two years old, but in case others wonder, yup! I do it all the time in order to save the bacon fat drippings for later use (I mix a bit with canola oil to impart bacony flavor without the full fat bacon grease hit).

  12. Melissa Waldron

    I LOVE baking bacon! I started doing this after I got tired of making things messy just to have unevenly cooked bacon. I use a porcelain-lined cast iron skillet or a pie tin and no foil at all, and they don’t stick whatsoever. So happy more people are learning to make bacon the easy way!
    I love cooking too, and have food blog full of personal recipes which are mostly very healthy with a heavy emphasis on taste and satisfaction. Please come and check it out! If you’ve got a food blog, too, post what it is in my blog comments! 🙂

    xoxo,
    Corner Girl

  13. Linda in NJ

    I have been baking bacon in my oven for years. It is the way alot of big restaurants do it. I don’t use the broiler pan either. I hate to wash that thing and would not use it for bacon. It spatters more in the oven on a broiler pan than in a flat cookie sheet with edges. Line the cookie sheet with (Reynolds non stick foil works the best.) Use a hot oven 425 degrees.Put it in the oven and bake till crispy. Every pack of bacon is different. Some cooks nice and crunchy,some doesn’t. Depends on the grade of bacon. Put it on a few paper towels to drain and get the fat off the top side by dobbing with another paper towel. Allow your baking sheet to sit until the grease hardens. Roll it up and throw away. No mess to clean up. Keep the broiler pan for your steaks….

  14. Debbie

    I love oven baked bacon; been doing this for years! When I moved from Tx to NJ, my hubby’s family had never heard of baking it…so they learned something useful…lol. Always did this at the retirement home (where I worked) too!

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