How to bake bacon

Cooking bacon within the oven creates perfectly crispy, delicious bacon. It’s also super easy, creates less mess than cooking it on the stovetop, and allows you to multitask within the kitchen. If you’ve never baked bacon, provides it a try!

So what does one serve your bacon with? Well, everything! Including my poached eggs, soft and hard-boiled eggs, and fried eggs. And you can’t forget my paleo pancakes (and dipping bacon in this syrup – Yum).

COOKING BACON in the OVEN

When it involves the foremost perfectly crispy, evenly cooked bacon you actually can’t beat cooking bacon within the oven. But it’s amazing what percentage of people have not tried it. It seems the stovetop reigns supreme.

Today I’ll share with you why you ought to change your habits and cook bacon within the oven. And trust me, once you cook bacon within the oven, you’ll never cook it on the stovetop again!

Cooking bacon on the stove creates splatters everywhere on your stovetop and produces hot spots on the pan. this implies certain pieces of bacon may cook faster than others. And it’s why you would possibly have some bacon slices that accidentally charcoal a small amount an excessive amount of while other slices are still undercooked.

Cooking bacon within the oven cooks all of your bacon slices evenly because the heat surrounds them. They slowly sizzle, don’t splatter, and find yourself evenly cooked. It’s an exquisite thing.

HOW TO COOK BACON within the OVEN

It’s incredibly easy! Though it always helps to observe a fast video tutorial. Watch the video below!

OVEN-BAKED BACON – IN 6 STEPS

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Line an outsize baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Lay the bacon slices on the baking sheet.
• Cook the bacon for 18-20 minutes or until it’s as crispy as you’d like.
• Remove the bacon from the oven and transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate.
• Raw bacon on a sheet tray.

BENEFITS OF COOKING BACON within the OVEN

First, you'll be able to cook for a crowd (and sometimes that crowd is simply your immediate family). this is often key for vacations or when many people descend on your house. It’s also HUGE for helping you retain your sanity within the kitchen with the masses.

Second, cooking bacon within the oven is far cleaner than cooking bacon on the stove. I’m notorious for getting splatters everywhere on the stovetop because I probably cook my bacon a small amount too hot. But once you cook bacon within the oven you don’t get any splatters because the bacon just sizzles until it’s perfectly crispy (or done to your liking).

Lastly, cooking bacon within the oven allows you to multitask within the kitchen. Because once you toss that sheet pan of glorious bacon within the oven, you’re free for about a quarter-hour to fix some eggs or make a batch of pancakes or waffles.

Crispy oven-baked bacon on a sheet tray.

A FEW MORE TIPS

Line an oversized sheet pan with parchment paper (or don’t like it in any respect – but that’s messy). With parchment paper it’s as simple as tearing off a bit, placing the bacon on top, and cooking.

Should you place the bacon on a cooling rack to cook? I don’t think so. I attempted it and also the difference is negligible. on the other hand, I had to wash a cooling rack (and those buggers are hard to clean).

400 degrees Fahrenheit works well for both regular and thick-cut bacon. Heat your oven and cook the bacon for 18-20 minutes or until it’s reached your required level of crispiness. I do rotate the pan halfway through, just to make sure even cooking, but that’s it. And remember, your bacon will still crisp up once it dries.

WHAT to try to with BACON GREASE? SAVE IT!

If you buy organic bacon, as I do, definitely consider rendering and saving the bacon grease. Not only does bacon grease impart a richness of flavor into braised meats and other dishes, but it's also a high smoke point which implies it's way more stable to cook with.

Rendering bacon grease.

HERE’S the way to RENDER BACON GREASE:

Once you’ve cooked your bacon, remove the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.

Line a fine-mesh sieve with another towel (you could also use a nut milk bag or cheesecloth) and pour the recent bacon grease over the sieve and into a glass jar.

Note: it’s important to use glass and not plastic, as you’ll melt plastic with hot bacon grease.

You can see within the photo above that I had some previous bacon fat already in my glass jar that’s opaque and lighter in color. once I have a replacement batch of bacon, I just pour this straight on top then cover the jar and refrigerate it.

So what do i exploit my rendered bacon grease for? Oh, almost everything. It’s what I fry my eggs in and the way I sear just about any meat. It’s also great for sautéed or roasted vegetables to feature depth and flavor.

Why should you bake your bacon?

• Baked bacon does not curl – you get nice straight bacon pieces every time.
• Cooks evenly – no white fatty pieces on one end and burnt bacon on the other.
• No splattering of bacon grease all over the place.
• No need to babysit the bacon. You don’t even have to turn it over!
• Tastes delicious.