Easy Oven-Baked Bacon

close up image of finished bacon after being baked in the oven

Skip the pan-frying process and make bacon in the oven instead! There is no popping grease, and you can make a pound at a time. Feed a crowd, make bacon for the whole week, or have a bunch of bacon ready for various recipes. Get my best tips for crispy or soft bacon, whichever you prefer!

Course Breakfast, brunch, meal prep

Cuisine American

Keyword Easy Oven-Baked Bacon Recipe, How to Make Bacon in the Oven, Oven Baked Bacon

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Total Time 20

Servings slices

Calories 92kcal

Ingredients

12 slices bacon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Use a sturdy metal baking sheet, one that doesn’t bend or warp easily. You can line it with parchment paper if you want, but I don’t tend to do that.
Space the bacon out on the tray, but don’t crowd the pieces. The edges of each piece can be touching, because the bacon will shrink up during the baking process, but don’t overlap the pieces.
NOTE: If you do overlap the bacon, those parts that overlap will not cook properly, and you will end up with crispy and underdone pieces on the same slice!
Bake regular cut bacon for about 12-17 minutes or thick-cut bacon for 17-22 minutes. Timing varies depending on the fat content in the bacon and your desired crispiness. If baking two trays of bacon at a time, rotate the baking sheets halfway.
NOTE: If you are baking less than half a tray of bacon, reduce the time by 5 minutes and check it often until at the end.
Once the bacon is cooked, remove it from the oven and place the finished bacon on a paper towel lined plate. Allow the bacon to drain for a few minutes before serving or storing.
If you’d like, pour the warm bacon grease into a glass jar and store for later. We like to use our bacon grease for homemade tortillas, as it makes a lovely soft tortilla!

Notes

This is an optional step, but if you want chewy, restaurant-style bacon, here is how to achieve that! When the bacon comes out of the oven, it will be very crisp… however, there is a simple way to soften it to perfection without having super fatty pieces of undercooked bacon!

This is also a wonderful way to store and reheat your bacon without any cleanup!

Bake as normal.
Place two paper towels on a large piece of aluminum foil.
Drain the finished bacon onto the paper towel lined foil.
Wrap the bacon up well, making sure only paper towel is touching the bacon before closing the foil well.
Place the bacon back into the oven and reduce the heat to 350°F. Let the bacon rest for about 10 minutes, and it will be perfectly relaxed and ready to serve!

Nutrition