How to Bake Bacon Perfectly Every Time
There really is only one way we cook bacon. We bake bacon in the oven. Jump to our recipe showing you How to Bake Bacon or read on to see our tips.
Baking bacon in the oven is easy, there’s no spluttering of oil and it makes crispy slices of bacon heaven. It’s also perfect for making big batches for a crowd!
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You Should be Baking Your Bacon, Here’s How
We love using a cooling rack that fits inside a rimmed baking sheet for this. If you don’t have a cooking rack that will fit inside a baking sheet, just line the baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and place the bacon slices directly onto the foil (make sure they are in one layer). The fat won’t drip away from the bacon, but it will crisp up nicely anyway.
Equipment you will need: a rimmed baking sheet and a rack that fits inside.
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Depending on what you love, baking bacon leaves room for adding extra flavor to the bacon. Here are three favorites:
- For peppered bacon, grind fresh black pepper (we prefer a course grind) all over the bacon slices before or towards the end of baking.
- For maple baked bacon, bake for 12-15 minutes and remove from the oven. Brush maple syrup onto the bacon slices then place back into the oven for another 3-5 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
- For honey sriracha bacon, bake for 12-15 minutes and remove from the oven. Brush honey and sriracha onto the bacon slices then place back into the oven for another 3-5 minutes until golden brown and crispy.
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Recipe updated, originally posted October 2011. Since posting this in 2011, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear and added a quick video. – Adam and Joanne
How to Bake Bacon Perfectly Every Time
- PREP
To bake bacon, you’ll need to start with a hot oven. If you have one, use a metal (oven-safe) rack inserted inside a baking sheet so that the bacon sits on top of the rack and any fat drains underneath. We prefer to use thick cut bacon (1/8-inch thick), which usually means there are 12 to 14 slices per pound.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
You Will Need
1 pound bacon, preferably thick cut
Directions
Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. If you’re cooking multiple sheets of bacon, position one oven rack in the lower third of the oven and the second rack in the top third of the oven.
Arrange bacon slices onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper. If you have one that fits, place a rack inside the baking sheet then arrange the bacon slices in one layer on top. Season with fresh ground pepper.
Bake until the bacon is golden brown and crispy, 12 to 20 minutes. The exact baking time will depend on the how thick your bacon is and how crisp you like it. Keep an eye on the bacon while it bakes — we like to check around 8 minutes and then every minute or two after until it is done.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Equipment you will need: a rimmed baking sheet and a rack that fits inside.
- Thin cut / Lean Bacon: If you have very thin cuts of bacon or if it is lean, you may not need to use the rack. Simply lining them up on the baking sheet should suffice. Thicker cuts of bacon benefit from the rack since it lifts them up and away from the fat, helping them render more fat and become crisp.
- For peppered bacon, grind fresh black pepper (we prefer a course grind) all over the bacon slices before or towards the end of baking.
- For maple baked bacon, bake for 12-15 minutes and remove from the oven. Brush maple syrup onto the bacon slices then place back into the oven for another 3-5 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Watch for over-browning of the maple. It goes from caramelized to dark brown quickly.
- For honey sriracha bacon, bake for 12-15 minutes and remove from the oven. Brush honey and sriracha onto the bacon slices then place back into the oven for another 3-5 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Watch for over-browning of the honey. It goes from caramelized to dark brown quickly.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates and assumes about 14 slices of bacon equals 1 pound. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size 2 slices / Calories 130 / Protein 9 g / Carbohydrate 0 g / Dietary Fiber 0 g / Total Sugars 0 g / Total Fat 10 g / Saturated Fat 3 g / Cholesterol 26 g
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This was the best bacon I have EVER had! Every piece was perfect. This is so easy and with no mess. Thank you very much.
Absolutely perfect. Don’t know why I didn’t think to do this sooner. Tasted better then pan frying it. I was able to make 12 pieces Snd didn’t have to miss out on breakfast because I was making 4-5 pieces at a time. This will be my new method for bacon every time now. Thank you !
Excellent! We like ours crispy so it took almost 40 minutes at 400°. We all thought it was delicious!
Tried bacon in the oven 400 degrees lined a rimmed baking sheet with foil put a cooling rack on the pan cooked the bacon,, was the best bacon and the easiest no mess wonderful BLT sandwiches ever I’ll never make it any other way. Thank you
Perfect, thank you no more hot oil burns
Over the years, I’ve cooked bacon every way possible. Not sure why some cooks prefer the oven over the microwave? One thing is for sure, fresh bacon is built for the microwave. It has a high fat and water content and it is thin, so it cooks up crisp and tasty.
Take a look at the Bacon Pro for cooking 23 slices.
Make the best oven bacon ever by adding Montreal Steak Seasoning.
Always used the oven method its great. Cooling rack even better for draining oil no more paper towel dabbing after done! Now how to make rack easy to clean up after?? Ideas?
Hi there, a quick spray of nonstick cooking spray can help. We also have a rack devoted to this type of cooking (we bake chicken wings the same way).
Use some spay, like Pam…
Not to be dense but… I ended up with so much grease in the baking sheet that there was no way of safely removing it from the oven until it completely cooled down. Any suggestions? PS: The bacon itself did rule, once I finally got it out an hour later.
Hi Eliza, did you use a rimmed baking sheet? This is best when baking bacon.
Eliza, discarding the bacon grease is best done with lining the bottom of the rimmed sheet with aluminum foil. And yes, you need to let it cool to a safe temperature before you gather it up and discard it (or save it). IMHO, baking your bacon is the way to go. It’s pretty foolproof. Ideally, you should have another dish, bread, French toast to pop in the oven to take advantage of the hot oven, but it somewhat minor.
Absolutely amazing, I love cooking bacon now.my Family loves it..
If you use parchment paper instead of foil-no spatters in your oven!
Good to know, thanks! 👍
…What’s the temp on the oven…?
The bacon bakes at 400 degrees F.
5 stars for oven cooked bacon. A (little) messy
I have fixed the pepper bacon and it was lovely! My family’s favorite is bacon sprinkled with dark brown sugar for a delicious candied bacon. Don’t overdo the sugar – moderate amount for best taste. I LOVE baking bacon. Especially the thick cut by Hormel. YUM! 😋❤️
Yes! I’ m not very kitchen savvy, and my bacon usually ends up “extra crispy”. But everyone loved my bacon this morning. The cooling rack is genious! 5 stars definitely.Thank you.
I think cooking bacon in the oven is the best method, because the both sides of the bacon strips are heated relatively equally in this method. You will get more delicious bacon without have to dirt your stove badly.
We love to make bacon in the oven. I sprinkle a little sugar on top of the bacon slices before I put the bacon in the oven. You get both sweet and salty bacon. Great combination.
Fantastic post. That’s exactly what I was looking for.
this is the only way I’ve cooked bacon for years. So easy and less mess. Usually save some of the bacon grease for future use.
Your Recipes and Pictures look simply delicious. Thanks! and Cheers!
thanks so much!
My mouth just fell off my face in a river of drool.
This is genius! I had never thought of putting a cookie sheet in the bottom like that. Now I might be making bacon a little more often. 😉
P.S. Thanks for linking back to my cupcakes guys!
Jessica – You should definitely make bacon more often!
-Joanne