I’m going to show you something today that just might change your life. Do you avoid the whole bacon thing because you have to make a big greasy mess, have bacon oil splattered all over the place, and run the risk of scalding your forearms? Well let me show you a little trick where you can cook bacon and not have a single dirty dish. Really, not one! It’s so easy that you might just find yourself cooking bacon every day purely for the purpose of snacking on it. Errr…okay, maybe that’s just me. Pretend I didn’t say that.
You’re going to need your favorite bacon, a baking sheet, and some aluminum foil.
- Turn on your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Use heavy duty if you have it. Lay out bacon slices in a single layer. They can be close together, just avoid overlap. You can also lay a metal cooling rack in your pan and lay the bacon on top of that. Personally I think it tastes way better when it cooks up in its own drippings!
2. You don’t need to wait for your oven to preheat. Place pan in the oven for about 12-15 minutes. Watch bacon after that and cook until desired level of crispiness. I like mine on the crispy side so I cook it for about 15-17 minutes. Cooking time depends on the thickness of the slice as well.
3. Immediately remove bacon from pan and place on paper towels to soak up grease.
Now you’ve still got that pan full of drippings. And I promised no mess and no dirty dishes. Don’t worry, I’m a woman of my word. Note that at this point, you could save the drippings if that’s your type of thing (and according to the comments it’s quite important to many of you!) Or…when your bacon has cooled take the paper towels it was draining on and place them right on the baking sheet. They’ll immediately start soaking up the grease so you don’t accidentally spill on yourself, and this way you don’t have to find something to pour the oily mess into.
Then take the foil and wrap it right up into itself until you have a little package to toss right in the garbage can.
And as long as you didn’t pierce any holes through the foil, your pan is completely clean! Now how easy is that? Plus, you have the best, crispest, flattest bacon, the bacon dreams are made of!
Back to baking. Baking bacon also results in nice flat pieces. Flat bacon comes in handy for stuff like Bacon-Pineapple Burgers and Egg Salad BLT’s
I especially love baking bacon when I need a whole bunch to crumble up and sprinkle on stuff like Chicken-Bacon Stuffed Pizza Rolls, Spinach Mandarin Poppyseed Salad, and Bacon & Blue Twice Baked Potatoes. You can be cooking the bacon in the oven while you prep the rest of the food so you don’t have to sit there and babysit a hot skillet.
Questions & Reviews
We’ll be trying this method this weekend – as a full-time working mom I need all the short-cuts I can get!
I’ve been cooking bacon this way for over 50 years, first in a wood stove oven, then gas, and now electric. Had to adjust the time length from 15 to 20 minutes over the years depending on the stove! HINT: Cool the bacon on the paper towels and newspaper and then store in zip-lock bags in the freezer. I cook two to four pounds at a time and store it this way. The bacon doesn’t clump together if it is cool when stored, and you can remove as many pieces as you want in a jiffy for a BLT or an egg dish. It thaws quickly at room temperature, so I don’t have to pop it into the microwave, if you just want chopped bacon to top off a salad. Or, place in a pan that you later use to cook some eggs. I warm up the bacon slices and then place them in my warming drawer while I cook the scrambled eggs in the newly released bacon grease (which is a sacrilege to throw out – please, use the grease to cook scrumptious foods!)
Awesome tip! I’m gonna try it soon – my forearms will thank me. And you. Cheers! 😀
I cooked my bacon on a George Forman Grill, but then I have to cut the pieces in half and only get 5-6 half-slices at a time. I will do this next time. My girlfriend freezes it after baking so her Saturday Breakfast time is quicker–but I personally have not done this.
I Love Best Bites!
Oh girl, I am ALL over this the next time I need bacon.
Just tried, it’s the best looking bacon I’ve ever made. Man, you guy’s make me look good. BTW- I’m using this for your Baked Potato Soup.
TOOO EASY! Just made some perfectly crispy and FLAT bacon:) LOVE the site!
It's a BLT day and I had to hop on here to see how to bake the bacon. Mmmmmm. I hate how when I skillet fry bacon I always smell like it afterwards and feel like I'm covered in grease. This way is truly so much better! Thanks chickas.
We use parchment paper and it's dreamy – no sticking! The best is once the bacon's close to being cooked to your liking, drizzle with maple syrup (we just use Aunt Jemima's original pancake syrup) and cracked black pepper. SO YUMMY!
LOVE your site. Just used the glaze icing recipe today and it's wonderful. THANKS
I have steered away from bacon for a long time mostly due to the mess of cooking. I just made a batch in my oven and it came out so well, and such a minimal mess for BACON!
Thanks so much! I hate the mess/smell/burnt arms/drama of cooking bacon. I'm going to try this tonight!
thank you for the tip, i love making blt sandwiches but hate the mess,so tonight i think i will give this a try
My all-time favorite way to cook bacon! Not for the mess, but because it doesn't splatter all over my glasses while I'm baby-sitting it. I use my pampered chef stone to do it, and then there's even less grease, and it seasons the stone as you go.
This is a great tip, just curious if the bacon grease makes a mess to the 'oven'????
Thanks!
This is the best post ever! combine it with the this tip if the only other people in your house are (say) cats – bring home the bacon, seperate it into portions, say 4 strips each out of a 16 strip package. Lay the strips side by side on a piece of saran-wrap, then fold the wrap over on itself and the bacon lengthwise until you have a little sealed pack. Wrap the plastic wrapped packs in foil wrap. When you need a little bacon take out the big package, then take out a little plastic wrap of your 4 slices, unwrap those. they will be perfectly stiff separate slices that you can pop onto your foil then into the toaster oven. BLT-ready in a snap.
Everything about this post made me hungry.
I love this! It'll really cut down on mess & dishes in my kitchen! 🙂 Oh and I have to mention, just because it was amazingly delicious when we first tried it, bacon is also really good in pancakes. I know it may not sound like it would be good, but we had bacon pancakes at a breakfast place in San Diego & got hooked!
That is the best tip ever. I've done it twice now. I love how the whole package fits on the sheet (barely), and there's no splattery mess, and no fussing with it. And, it stays flat. Genius.
FYI, Erica– I was just looking at the Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook and she cooks bacon this way for 15-20 minutes, then brushes maple syrup on top and bakes it for another 3-5 minutes.
Thanks for the tip. I always end up doing it by hand on my griddle. Thanks for the time saving tip. I am going to try this Saturday Morning.
Just made some this morning! Thanks for the tip =) I loved the crispyness. mmmm…this could be bad for me ;o)
It worked. Thank you for that awesome tip. 16 minutes made for perfect bacon.
We eat bacon ALL of the time (more than we should!) and tried this method last night in the oven. GENIUS!!!! Even my skeptical skillet loving husband was so impressed as to how amazing it tasted, how perfectly it cooked and how crunchy it was. THANK YOU for this fantastic tip.
I love to cook it in the oven…SO easy! I use the broiler pan (you know the one that comes in the oven that is only good for this and making a meatloaf on) then the grease all drips below. Perfection!
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I used this tip this weekend – so much cleaner and easier than microwaving! Thanks!
I made breakfast for dinner tonight, and I cooked the bacon using this method. Thank you for posting about this, because it really was wonderful. I even think it made the bacon taste better than usual.
Lamberts- honestly, it doesn't make a huge splattery mess in the oven- that's why I do it this way!
Is there a way to keep the bacon greese from splattering on the oven walls? Can you cover it with something? Does it splatter less in the oven compared to a fry pan? We cook in the frypan w/lid, and it still leaves behind a mess on the stove. I guess I will have to just try it, who knows, maybe my bread would taste good with a hint of bacon. Love your blog! Thanks!!
I was wondering the same thing. That seems like a way bigger mess to me or at the least your oven is going to smell like bacon every time you use it and possibly give off a bacon flavor to everything you cook. I’m curious to know what you learned if you did it.
This is genius! Why didn't I think of this?
I have used this trick many times and absolutely love it! The other great thing about this tip is that your house doesn't smell from cooking either.
Brown sugar totally works in the oven. Add cinnamon to it as well, so addictive! 🙂