Cooking Bacon in Oven
Wondering how to cook bacon in the oven? Follow this easy culinary school method to start cooking bacon that is perfectly crisp every time, without any splatters of grease on your stovetop!
I learned about Cooking Bacon in the Oven in culinary school
Going to culinary school certainly introduced me to fancy kitchen techniques like making French pastries and hollandaise sauce.
But it also introduced me to something so simple, so basic, so obvious, that I was left scratching my head as to why I hadn’t thought of it before: how to cook bacon in the oven (also: how to cook sausage in the oven). Truthfully, it might have been the most useful thing I learned!
This guide has been visited over 900,000 times and made in households across the world. Let’s find out why.
Why Cooking Bacon in Oven Will Change Your Life!
- No stovetop splatters. Oven bacon doesn’t splatter nearly as much as skillet bacon does, and even if it does, the splatters are inside your oven and not all over your counters.
- Leaves you free stovetop space for a griddle. Plenty of room to make pancakes or fried eggs without having to jostle a bunch of pans around between burners.
- The best way to prepare large quantities. You can fit much more bacon on a rimmed baking pan than you can in a skillet.
- Great when you’re preparing a brunch menu for a crowd (think Easter or Mother’s Day). The bacon can just cook away, unattended to, while you’re finishing up the rest of the meal.
- You end up with cartoon-like perfect crispy bacon. It’s not shriveled up little pieces – it’s mostly flat, perfectly cooked bacon. If you want to pull out your phone and take a picture of it, well, I won’t judge!
Readers love this guide for bacon in the oven
“I tried this today, and this is an absolute genius way to cook bacon. It doesn’t smell up the house, doesn’t splatter, and I’m sure my husband will love not having to clean up the stove after I cook bacon. So this is a winner all the way around. Thank you!!!”
—Susan
“I will never fry bacon again.”
—Cheryl
“As you promised, it really is “cartoon bacon” as it’s ridiculously perfect.
—Jenny
Your recipe’s the keeper. I’m going to dig deeper into your site, thank you!”
What you’ll need for Bacon in Oven
- Bacon slices – 8 ounces for 4 servings, or as many as desired.
- Rimmed baking pan(s) – make sure it has a rim or you’ll have a huge mess on your hands! Use multiple pans if you are cooking a large amount of bacon.
- Parchment paper – for lining the baking pan(s).
- Paper towel – for blotting the bacon when it’s finished cooking.
- Plate – that you’ll line with the paper towel.
- Tongs – for handling the cooked bacon, because it will be hot.
How to Cook Bacon in the Oven
1. LINE PAN. Line a rimmed baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. I love using pre-cut parchment paper sheets for ease. Please make sure the pan is rimmed, or you’re going to have a huge bacon grease mess on your hands.
2. LAY OUT BACON. Lay your bacon out on the prepared pan in a single layer. If you need two pans, use two pans. Make sure the bacon pieces aren’t overlapping or anything.
3. BAKE. Cook the bacon in the oven at 375° for 20 to 25 minutes (depending on bacon thickness) or until it reaches your desired level of crispness. You don’t even need to flip it. Just let it do its thing for 20 minutes or so.
4. BLOT. When the oven baked bacon is fully cooked, use tongs to transfer it to a paper-towel lined plate to blot some of the extra grease before serving.
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Best way to Cook Bacon in Oven
How long does it take to cook bacon at 375?
The biggest question most people have about how to cook bacon in the oven is, “how long”? Here’s a guide to cooking times when cooking bacon in the oven at 375 degrees F:
| Type of Bacon | Approximate Baking Time at 375 degrees F |
|---|---|
| Original (i.e. Meijer Hardwood Smoked Bacon, Smithfield Hometown Original) | 20 to 22 minutes |
| Center Cut (Oscar Mayer Center Cut, Kroger Private Selection Center Cut) | 20 to 22 minutes |
| Thick Cut (Hormel Black Label Thick Cut, Wright Brand Hickory Thick Cut Bacon) | 23 to 25 minutes |
No matter what you use, keep an eye on it as it cooks.
Your timing for bacon in the oven is also really going to depend on how you like to eat your bacon. Myself, I like it on the softer side of crispy. Some people like it super crispy. Cook it until its doneness suits YOUR taste buds.
I cook bacon in the oven at 375 degrees, but the temperature is flexible.
Don’t stress out about oven temperature too much. You have some flexibility when cooking bacon. If the only thing I’m making in the oven is the bacon, then sure, I like a 375 degree oven for baked bacon.
However, if you have other items going in the oven at the same time (say, my vegetarian quiche recipe), and those require a slightly different temperature (like 350 or 400), don’t worry about it.
Just put your bacon in the oven at the temperature for your other dish, and adjust the cooking time up or down by a few minutes based on the temperature. The bacon may only need 14 to 16 minutes at 400 degrees, or as much as 25 to 27 minutes at 350 degrees.
As long as you check it semi-frequently and take it out as soon as it’s done, it will turn out just fine.
Cooking Bacon in the Oven: How to store leftover bacon
Allow bacon to cool completely and then transfer to an airtight container or zip-top bag. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Bacon in the Oven FAQs
I’ve tried baking bacon in both a preheated and non-preheated oven multiple times, and I’ve included both methods in the recipe card below.
If you start with a preheated oven, baking bacon at 375 generally takes about 20 to 25 minutes.
However, also feel free to put your bacon in a cold oven. The fat will slowly begin to render as the oven preheats, which is just fine!
If you put the bacon in a cold oven and then turn the oven on, it will take around 28 to 30 minutes to bake. The oven baked bacon turns out great either way, so just do what works for you!
I do NOT flip it as it’s cooking! You’re certainly welcome to flip it if you feel like it, but I never have (we didn’t in culinary school, either), and it still turns out perfectly crispy and delicious.
Be sure to leave your bacon uncovered when cooking it in the oven. This allows the air to circulate around the bacon and crisp it up! If you cover the bacon, it will steam and turn out very soggy.
This comes down to personal preference, and both methods have their merits.
Cooking bacon in the oven is great for larger quantities, and keeps the stovetop clean. It’s also a more hands-off method, allowing you to accomplish other kitchen tasks as it cooks.
On the other hand, cooking bacon in a pan allows more control over its exact level of crispness, as you’re standing right over it watching it, and is quicker when you want to cook a small amount.
I almost always choose to go the oven route, but feel free to experiment with both methods and choose the one you like best!
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Cooking Bacon in Oven
Ingredients
- 8 ounces sliced pork bacon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line rimmed baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Arrange bacon over parchment or foil in single layer.
- Transfer to oven and cook 20 to 22 minutes for traditional or center cut bacon, or 23 to 25 minutes for thick cut bacon, or until bacon reaches your desired level of crispness. Use tongs to transfer bacon to paper-towel lined plate to blot excess grease, then serve immediately.
Notes
- Home Chef Tip: Don’t have time to preheat the oven? You don’t have to! Place bacon in cold oven, then turn oven on to 375 degrees F. Increase cooking time to 26 to 30 minutes or until bacon reaches your desired level of crispness.
Much better putting a wire cookie sheet in the pan. Pam. And much better if turned half way through
There’s definitely lots of ways of doing it 🙂
I put heavy duty foil over the pan instead of parchment, ans then you just wait for the grease to cool, and then just put the grease covered foil in the trash. Voila, no grease in your drain….
Smart! Thanks for the tip, Amy 🙂
I run a B&B & this is the way I have cooked bacon for years. For those who want to have fewer splatters in their oven , just place another layer of parchment paper on top before you put the pan in the oven. It doesn’t seem to effect the way the bacon cooks.
BRILLIANT, Candee. Just brilliant. I am definitely trying this next time, especially since I have a pretty brand new oven, still. I’d like to keep it nice and clean as long as I can 🙂
I have perused quite a few ‘bacon in the oven’ pins and they mostly mention put in a cold oven. What do you do? cold or preheat?
Thanks. Loving the tips in the comments-freezing, roast potatos on rack, etc
Hey Tina! So, I actually used to preheat, but in the few years since I’ve written this post, I’ve kind of stopped. I now put the bacon in a mostly cold oven, meaning that I’ll start the preheat right as I’m also getting the bacon out of the fridge and onto the pan. I then put the bacon right into the oven as it continues to preheat.
If your really feeling creative you can render your own lard by “washing” the left over fat.
Time consuming, but gives a sense of accomplishment.
When I was a kid my mom always cooked bacon on a broiler pan so the grease dripped away (they came with the oven then) and always flipped half way. The grease was always saved for frying eggs and baking… Old family recipe for pastry was to use bacon grease for lard, everyone loves my mom’s pastries, I on the other hand am hopeless with pastry!.
When I cook bacon it is on a lined cookie sheet with a wire rack treated with cooking spray, grease is saved for frying eggs, roasted potatoes, stir fry and what ever else I need a dab of grease on.
Thanks for stopping by, Anita! Cooking the bacon on a wire rack is a great idea!
This is great! I worked at IHOP for 4 years during college and this is how we made our bacon! It turns out wayy better than frying it or microwaving it.
Thanks Lexi!
Another helpful hint on this: I use cooling racks for cookies. I put parchment paper down on the cookie sheet with sides, then I put a cooling rack on top of that, which sits inside the cookie sheet, then spray it with PAM , and lay the bacon on top of it. It keeps the bacon out of the grease, and then afterwards, I pick up the sides of the paper, and set it standing up in an empty ice cream bucket and let it drain into it for future dishes, like green beans, corn, for the country taste. Sometimes, I use that grease to mix alot of bird seed in, then scoop out with cookie scoop onto another cookie sheet, flash freeze, bag and store in freezer, to set out for the birds during winter.
Such a smart idea, Sharon! Cooling racks are SO handy to have around. I use them to roast potatoes – they get nice and crispy that way 🙂
Everyone doesn’t cook mass quantities of bacon, not even all the commenters here. If it’s a matter of 2 or 3 rashers of bacon you’re still going to need a pan, the smell, and the splatters. Or foolishly waste all of that energy cooking them in the oven to cut down on the smell and the splatters.
To be fair, the first advantage of this method that I listed was “it’s a great method to use when you’re preparing breakfast for a crowd.”
Personally, I would also use this method for cooking just 3 slices. It’s my energy bill, and to each his or her own.
toaster oven for just a few slices
Bake a whole pan and then just freeze the remaining slices you don’t eat. We do this all the time and it’s perfect for when, out of the blue, you crave a BLT. 🙂
Hi Nancy – On all of my recipes, I have a “printer-friendly version” link (just below the number of servings information), that will open a window with JUST the recipe (no photos or comments). Unfortunately, I didn’t do that here, because this isn’t a standard recipe, but more of just a method. But, hopefully that printer-friendly version button will help for any other recipes you’d like to print!
You’re welcome, Judy, thanks for stopping by! I hear you – I always had trouble with bacon before learning this method, too!
Can I print recipes without printing the numerous comments, which seems like a waste of paper. They all sound sooo GOOD!
Can I print recipes without printing the numerous comments, which seems like a waste of paper. They all sound sooo GOOD!
Hi Nancy – On all of my recipes, I have a “printer-friendly version” link (just below the number of servings information), that will open a window with JUST the recipe (no photos or comments). Unfortunately, I didn’t do that here, because this isn’t a standard recipe, but more of just a method. But, hopefully that printer-friendly version button will help for any other recipes you’d like to print!
Thanks for the fabulous hint! I have to try this, my luck with bacon has been less than satisfactory!
Thanks for the fabulous hint! I have to try this, my luck with bacon has been less than satisfactory!
You’re welcome, Judy, thanks for stopping by! I hear you – I always had trouble with bacon before learning this method, too!
Yeah – it’s not pretty!! 🙂