You can make oven-baked bacon with just about any cut of bacon, whether it be thick-cut bacon, center-cut bacon, or uncured bacon (my favorite because it is a nitrate-free bacon)! The only difference is that the cooking times may vary. 
Everyone loves crispy bacon at our house, and I love how fast and easy oven bacon is! I’m sure there are thousands of posts for cooking bacon in the oven, but I wanted to share my top go-to methods depending on what kind of time crunch I’m in.
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Once you learn how to bake bacon, these Bacon Egg and Cheese Sandwiches will come in handy for a quick breakfast.
Oven-Baked Bacon
Baking is an efficient way of creating evenly crisp bacon for a crowd.
After all, who wants to loathe over a hot stove and have oil splattered everywhere to then wipe everything clean afterwards? I know I don’t.
I have to feed a family of 8 every day, so when it comes to choosing what way to cook bacon for a crowd, it’s going to be baked bacon.
You see, if you make things complicated, you’ll want to skip bacon for breakfast and miss out, which is just sad.
I learned how to bake bacon this way before blogging was so popular. My sister-in-law actually worked for a senior living monastery where she would cook for a crowd of elderly people.
When I saw her arranging bacon slices at home to be baked in the oven, that was the moment that changed my bacon game for the better.
New Method of Cooking Bacon:
This is my go-to way for cooking bacon in the oven, especially if it’s summer and you want the oven on at a minimum.
You’re going to lay out your bacon slices into a single layer on a sheet pan lined with foil (so that you don’t have to clean the pan), then put this into a COLD oven. Turn the oven on to 400°F, and when it reaches 400°F, it will be almost done. This will prevent the bacon from burning and give the bacon that perfect crisp.
The neat thing about this bacon recipe is that by the time the oven preheats, the bacon is finished and ready for the baked potatoes to go in or whatever next you have going.
This makes it a very efficient and streamlined way to cook so that you can get other tasks done in the kitchen. I learned this from Christine’s Notebook Channel on YouTube.
My Oven-Baked Bacon Method:
This is the way I cooked bacon in the oven for years, I still do, but I feel like I save more energy by popping them in a cold oven for them to cook while the oven preheats (like in the previous method).
For baking bacon, you’ll need to preheat the oven to 400°F. Arrange all the bacon into a single layer on a foil-lined sheet pan and bake it until it’s crisp and the fat is rendered. This can take anywhere from 25-40 minutes, depending on how well done you want your bacon and how thick your bacon is.
Broil Bacon:
Broiling bacon is one of the quickest ways to cook bacon for a crowd. All you have to do is line a large sheet pan with foil and arrange all of the bacon slices into a single layer. Sometimes I let them overlap on the edges so I don’t have to use another pan and crimp them up to fit more in.
Set your pan on the middle to top rack and broil over high until crisp, this can take anywhere from 4-10 minutes depending on how close the bacon is to your heating element. So, keep a close eye on it so that it doesn’t burn.
How To Make Homemade Bacon Bits:
If you freeze oven-baked bacon, you can chop it up while they are semi-frozen (for easier cutting) and reheat the chopped bacon pieces on a dry skillet to crisp them up.
If you over-baked bacon and they turned out more crisp than you’d like, you can just crumble them with your hands (they will flake easily) and freeze those for bacon bits.
Pro-tip: for chewier oven-baked bacon, bake until golden brown so that it’s slightly limp; it will continue to crisp up as it cools. For extra crispy bacon, place a cooling wire rack over a lined baking sheet and bake to cook evenly and allow the fat to drip off.
Mise en Place
Equipment:
- Rimmed Baking Sheet– to contain the fat.
- Aluminum foil or parchment paper (for easier clean-up)
- Wire rack For extra crispy bacon
- Gallon-sized freezer bags (for freezing cooked bacon)
Main Ingredient for Oven-Baked Bacon:
- Bacon- I like to buy the hickory-smoked uncured bacon that contains no nitrates at Aldi. It’s the Never Any brand. However, you could use any kind of smoky flavored bacon of choice or even turkey bacon. In the old photo below, I used what I had.
Note: Thick-sliced bacon will take longer to crisp up at an oven temperature of 400°F (200°C), so count on a few extra minutes of baking.
How to Bake Bacon:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. 
2. Place the bacon strips into a single layer on the lined pan. I like overlapping them to avoid using another pan. Bacon tends to shrink after the fat renders, so it works out just fine. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how crispy you like it. 
3. If the bacon was overlapping, separate the bacon strips while they are still hot (using kitchen tongs) to prevent the bacon from sticking together. Cool completely.
4. Fold a 15 x 10-inch sheet of parchment paper in half and stack about 4-5 bacon strips onto each piece of parchment paper. Place into a gallon-sized freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months or 6 months in a deep freezer.
5. To reheat frozen bacon, place it in the microwave for 30 seconds. You may also store cooked bacon in the refrigerator until needed. I recommend doing so for up to a few days, then freezing if needed.
How To Render Bacon Grease:
Don’t throw away the rendered fat from the bacon! I use a nitrate-free bacon, so I feel good about using up the fat from that. Bacon grease has a high smoke point, making it perfect to cook with.
Bacon grease makes a great cooking fat for frying sunny-side-up eggs or sautéing vegetables, or meat. Add a dollop of bacon grease to a skillet anytime you need to use cooking oil. I will say the flavor doesn’t match everything, so pair with dishes that go well with bacon, as the smoky flavor will come out in the dish.
Never use plastic to render bacon grease (I’ve poured it into a durable plastic measuring cup before and burned the lining off). To render bacon grease, pour the hot fat drippings from the pan into a glass saucer or jar. You could line a fine mesh sieve with a piece of paper towel to collect any particles, but they don’t bother me.
Q&A
What is Uncured Bacon?
Uncured bacon means that the bacon was not treated with curing agents like nitrates. However, it is still cured with natural ingredients like celery powder or beet juice.
Cured vs uncured bacon? The main difference is in the curing process and the ingredients used. For instance, synthetic nitrates like pink curing salt help preserve the meat and maintain its pink color. Whereas uncured bacon uses a natural source for the curing process.
How Long To Cook Bacon In The Oven?
I think the perfect oven temperature for bacon is at 400°F (200°C) as it’s a nice steady temperature to render the fat from the pork belly and crisp it up at the same time. Oven-baked bacon recipes can vary, and it really depends on your oven and how thick of slices you’re working with are. It can even depend on the brand of bacon you use.
Typically, bacon will bake for as long as 15-20 minutes at 400°F. I’d check the bacon after the 15-minute mark and keep checking until the desired doneness. You don’t want to walk away as the bacon cooks pretty fast after this time mark.
Air-fryer Bacon:
Although I own an air fryer, I still prefer the oven method of cooking bacon. If you’re cooking bacon for one or two people or just need a few slices of bacon, I can grab the air-fryer and cook it until it’s crisp at 360°F for 7-9 minutes. But the reality is I cook bacon by the pack.
Tips For Oven-Baked Bacon:
- Double-line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. The grease tends to seep through little nooks with a single layer of foil, so double it up to skip washing the pan.
- If you’re baking one pack of bacon, overlap or crimp up the bacon slices to avoid using another pan.
- Freeze fully cooked bacon in a freezer bag and microwave as many slices as you need in the microwave in just 30 seconds!
- To make bacon bits, make extra crispy bacon and cool it, then crumble it up with your hands (this is easy with crispy bacon).
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Oven Baked Bacon- 3 Easy Ways
Equipment
- 1 18x13 rimmed baking sheet
- 1 gallon-sized freezer bag, (for freezing bacon)
Ingredients
Main Ingredient:
- 12-16 oz uncured hickory smoked bacon, (sliced)
Instructions
How to Bake Bacon:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Arrange the bacon slices into a single layer over the lined pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. For chewier bacon, bake until golden brown and slightly limp (check at 15 minutes); it will continue to crisp up as it cools. For extra crispy bacon or thick cut bacon, bake for an additional 5 minutes or to desired doneness.
To Freeze Fully Cooked Bacon:
- Cut parchment paper to the width of a gallon-sized bag. Arrange cooked and cooled bacon pieces into a single layer over each piece of parchment paper (about 4-5 slices). Stack and place into a gallon freezer bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
Reheating instructions:
- To reheat frozen bacon, place as many slices of frozen bacon as you need onto a plate in a single layer. Microwave for 30-60 seconds. Use a microwave cover to avoid grease splatter.
Notes
- If overlapping bacon, separate the cooked bacon slices from the oven with kitchen tongs while hot to prevent the bacon from sticking. I like to crimp up the bacon slices to avoid using another pan, this makes lots of room for the bacon and makes wavy bacon slices.
Nutrition (per serving)
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