Bacon is AWESOME. Cooking it is NOT.  When you cook bacon, it shrinks and curls. It splatters grease everywhere. Some pieces aren’t cooked enough and others are burnt. Then, when the cooking is done, there’s the mess. How does bacon grease make it across the entire kitchen? There’s an easier way with less clean up. Here is my favorite way to easily cook bacon.

Common Ways to Cook Bacon

The three most common ways to cook bacon are in the microwave, on the stove or in the oven.

The Microwave

I don’t know the last time I cooked bacon in the microwave. It involves using a special microwave bacon cooker or putting the bacon on a plate with and a ton of paper towels for soaking up the grease.

You don’t want the bacon slices overlapping when cooking so you are limited in the number of slices you can cook at once.  When cooking bacon in the microwave, slices may or may not cook evenly leaving the edges crispy and the middle chewy.

I guess using this method for cooking bacon is OK when cooking a couple slices, but it’s hard eating just two slices of bacon. This method isn’t for me.

The Stove

If I cook bacon on the stove it’s usually because it’s needed for the start of a recipe.

Bacon cooked on the stove tends to curl up a lot and, like the microwave, it doesn’t always cook up evenly.

The biggest reason why this isn’t my favorite method is because bacon grease gets everywhere. I then spend a lot of time cleaning the stove. Tara, then spends a lot of time cleaning what I missed on the stove.  Trust me, she doesn’t like it.

The Oven

This is my favorite way to cook bacon. It comes out perfect every time.

Why Using the Oven is the Perfect Way to Cook Bacon

You Get Flat Even Pieces of Bacon

When using the oven, bacon cooks flat on a cookie sheet instead of draping across the frying pan where it may not fit flat.

The Bacon Cooks Evenly

Baking the bacon allows it to all cook evenly at the same rate. Sometimes there is a stray piece of bacon in the package that is smaller. That piece will cook a little faster. Overall, the bacon all cooks in the same amount of time.

Less Attention to the Cooking

While I don’t recommend leaving the bacon unattended, you don’t have to stay at the stove and watch it the whole time either. It’s in the oven doing its thing. Take that time and get the rest of your breakfast together or cut up tomatoes and lettuce for BLTs.

Cook More Bacon at Once

You can cook more bacon on a cookie sheet than in a skillet. There’s more surface area and it’s flat.  A large cookie sheet holds an entire pound of bacon so you can cook it all at once.

Less Cleanup

Yes, there is still cleanup when you cook bacon in the oven but it’s not much.  I cook bacon directly on the cookie sheet. I clean the pan as soon as I remove the bacon while that pan and grease are still warm. Using hot soapy water helps dissolve the grease.  No stove top cleaning needed when cooking bacon in the oven.

For even faster cleanup cover your cookie sheet in aluminum foil. After the bacon is cooked, you just have to dispose of the aluminum foil.

Now that you know why I cook bacon this way it’s time to tell you how.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Place bacon on a rimmed cookie sheet. You want each bacon piece bumped up against the one next to it. It will shrink some in the oven.  For less cleanup, cover the cookie sheet in aluminum foil.
3. Once the oven is preheated, place the bacon in the oven for 12 minutes.
4. At the end of the 12 minutes, remove bacon from the oven and drain off the fat.*
5. Flip the bacon pieces over and return to the oven. Bake for an additional 8 minutes or so until the bacon is as crisp as you like it.
6. Remove the bacon from the oven and place on a paper towel lined plate for soaking up any additional grease.

*Bacon Fat

Do not put bacon fat down your kitchen drain. I drain the bacon fat into an empty glass jar. Once the bacon fat is cool, put the lid on the jar and keep it in the refrigerator. The bacon fat can be used for cooking (it has a ton of flavor) or you can toss the filled, closed jar in the trash once it has cooled.

I use sausage in my Gluten Free Pancake Slider Bites but bacon would be a great swap out if you have some bacon to cook up.

Now that you know how easy cooking bacon in the oven is, try making it last more than one meal. We have a hard time with that at our house.

If you’re looking for other How-To posts check out my posts on Cutting a Watermelon, Cutting a Pineapple, and Making Homemade Butter.

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