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The best way to make bacon isn’t on the stove top, it’s in the oven! You’ll love this step-by-step guide for cooking perfectly crispy and delicious bacon – no skillet required. Check out all of my egg recipes as well to pair up with bacon!
How to Make Bacon in the Oven
If you’re cooking more than a few slices of bacon, you need to dump that skillet and switch to the oven! This is a super hassle-free way to make bacon, especially when you’re making batches, and it’s less messy too.
I love to make bacon this way because I can simply leave it in the oven to bubble away without having to stand over it flipping (and it means less chance of those ouchy grease splatters!).
I’m a serious bacon fan, and I’ve definitely been converted to this hassle-free way of cooking it – especially around breakfast time!
How to Make Bacon in the Oven: Ingredients
- Good quality bacon
- Parchment paper
- Large baking sheet
How to Make Bacon in the Oven Perfectly
- Preheat your oven to 375 °F.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Lay the bacon strips in a SINGLE layer on the parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake until the bacon is crispy, about 25-35 minutes, depending on its thickness.
- For chewier bacon, leave the bacon alone when cooking. Cook until there is still a little bit of fat left.
- For crispy bacon, flip the slices halfway through so that the other side cooks up crisp.
- When done to your desired texture, remove and lay the bacon on paper towels to drain. And serve!
The Quality of Bacon You Are Using Matters
Finding good quality bacon is everything when it comes to the end result of cooking, whether you use a skillet or the oven. If you’re buying packaged bacon, watch out for artificial flavorings such as “maple” or “hickory”. They’ll just give your bacon a strange chemical taste and good quality bacon won’t have these listed on the ingredients. Now hickory SMOKED bacon is totally different, that’s the wood that was used to smoke it, not artificial flavor.
Fat content really depends on how you like your bacon; if you prefer crispier bacon then you may want to go for a slightly thinner cut.
How to Choose Good Bacon in the Store
I always try to buy my bacon from my local pro producer to get the very best quality, but if you are picking yours up from the refrigerated section then make sure that you get the bacon that’s labeled center cut. Center cut bacon comes from the leaner and meatier part of the pork belly, which means more meat and less fat! That’s always a good thing! You can see that I love the Kirkland thick cut bacon from Costco, it is honestly the BEST. It bakes up perfectly, has good fat marbling and the end result is perfection!
Watch out for bacon that is all fat with no meat, or is too much meat. You need a good balance between the two.
Why not give these bacon recipes a go and check out our pork recipe section too!
- Classic Bacon Broccoli Salad Recipe
- Bacon and Egg Breakfast Cauliflower Fried Rice
- Keto-Friendly Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
- Bacon Wrapped Roasted Cabbage Wedges
Look at how crisp these slices get! It may look like the fat isn’t cooked in these photos, but when cooked properly the meat in the bacon is crispy and the fat melts in your mouth. This the the Kirkland brand I mentioned above.
More Breakfast Recipes to Enjoy
Try out any of my pancake recipes, waffle recipes or my breakfast casseroles for an easy and delicious breakfast with bacon!
Who else loves cooking bacon in the oven? No spitting grease from a pan (I have almost fallen from grease that spit onto my hardwood, no word of a lie) and the clean up is a breeze!
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
How to Cook Bacon in the Oven
Ingredients
- 1 package of your favorite good quality bacon
- parchment paper
- large baking sheet
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 °F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Lay the bacon strips in a SINGLE layer on the parchment lined baking sheet. Do not let them touch or overlap or the strips will stick together.
- Bake until the bacon is crispy, about 25-35 minutes, depending on its thickness. The Costco bacon can take up to 35 minutes but it’s worth it!
- For chewier bacon, leave the bacon alone when cooking. Cook until there is still a little bit of fat left, fat is chewy.
- For crispy bacon, flip the slices halfway through so that the other side cooks up crisp. No need for a baking rack at all, this works like a charm!
- For crispy bacon the secret is to cook the fat out of the bacon. Fat is chewy, so if you leave fat in it , you will have chewiness.
- When done to your desired texture, remove and lay the bacon on paper towels to drain. Serve and enjoy!
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Julie Scriver says
I have been baking bacon in the oven for a few years now. I use a cooling grid, spray it with olive oil spray then lay my bacon on the grid. Thinner bacon would stick to the grid, so I started spraying it lightly. I have a big piece of parchment under the grid to catch all the grease. I bake at 400 F for 20 minutes, flip and bake for another 5-10 min. I do as many as will fit, we eat about 2-3 slices each, and save the rest in the fridge for Ceasar salads.
missingtx78@gmail.com says
I’m with Evelyn here! I too use the metal grid that you would use for cooling cakes or cookies, but I do not open out the legs I leave them folded closed so that my bacon is barely over the top of the rimmed cookie sheet. They get just as golden brown & the reason I like it is that the bacon has not soaked in it’s grease while cooking & I do not have to flip it!
All of our five are grown & gone, I’m able to cook 12 slices on that grid & neither of us need six slices each. Pro on con on using grids at least we all agree it’s the best way to “fry” bacon!
I’ll kill two birds with one stone here, Karlynn; I love your “man catching baked oven fried chicken” Margo
Evelyn says
I’ve been making bacon in the oven for a long time. The only thing I do differently is lay the bacon on a grate, like the one used to cool cookies out of the oven. This way, the bacon doesn’t lay in the drippings & it crisps up beautifully.
Karlynn says
I’ve actually never found that it makes a mess due to splattering, I’ve never had any smoke on the elements or anything when I make it in the oven. Just make sure to cook it in the middle of the oven and I think the lower temp of 375 helps with that as well.
Daphne says
Hi Karlynn-
I enjoy your recipes so much! Does cooking bacon in the oven make a big mess due to splattering?