Cooking bacon in the oven is the easiest, mess-free way to make a full pound of perfectly crisp, golden slices. No splatter, no flipping, just hands-off, evenly cooked bacon every time.
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Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Flavor: Oven cooking melts fat slowly for rich, savory flavor and a perfect crispy bite.
- Skill Level: Foolproof! Even beginners can master this.
- Prep Note: I line the pan with parchment paper or heavy-duty foil for easy clean-up.
- Recommended Tools: There is no need to babysit or flip bacon over; simply bake in a rimmed pan.
- Serving Suggestions: Serve it for breakfast, add it to a BLT sandwich or burger, or crumble it over a salad.
Choose the Best Bacon!
- American Bacon is the most common type of bacon, which is strips of pork belly. Flavored bacon (like maple or peppered) is great oven-baked, too.
- Thick-Cut Bacon works well in the oven. This bacon is cut about ⅛” thick, so it will need a bit more time.
- Turkey Bacon is a bit leaner and requires less cooking time in the oven to ensure it doesn’t dry out.
Holly’s Pro Tips
- While you can use a wire rack or cooling rack on the sheet pan, I prefer to bake the bacon slices directly on the baking pan. It will crisp nicely as it bakes in its own fat.
- Arrange the bacon in a single layer, without overlapping, for even cooking.
- For a big batch, use two baking sheets, rotate them halfway through, and add a few minutes to the cooking time.
- Adjust cooking time slightly based on your desired level of crispiness.
Storage
Leftover bacon can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 2 months. You can use bacon right from frozen; it thaws in minutes.
Easy Breakfast Favorites
Have you made this crispy oven bacon? Leave a comment and rating below.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 package bacon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. If desired, line a rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- Arrange the bacon slices in a single layer on the prepared pan.
- Bake for 12 minutes. Check on the bacon and continue cooking for an additional 6 to 8 minutes* or as needed until crisp. Thick-cut bacon will need extra time.
- Use tongs to transfer the bacon strips to a paper towel-lined plate.
- If desired, allow the bacon fat to cool for 10 minutes and reserve in a jar for cooking.
Notes
- *Be sure to check the bacon early. Cooking time can vary based on the pan used as well as the brand of bacon.
- Store brand bacon is often cut very thin and can sometimes cook faster than national brands. Check it early!
- For easy cleanup, line a rimmed sheet pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper before adding the strips of bacon. No baking rack is required.
- Ensure the bacon slices are in a single layer, overlapping pieces won’t crisp as well.
- If you’re making larger batches of bacon, use two pans and switch the placement of the pans after about 10 minutes. You may need to add a few minutes of cooking time.
- Keep leftover bacon in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Reheat in the oven, in the microwave, or the air fryer.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Breakfast, Pork
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Thanks for the Bacon tip, love Bacon!!
You are very welcome, enjoy Nola!
I am anxious to try a lot of these recipes! They look delicious!!!!
line Jellyroll pan with foil for easy cleanup. If you do save grease for seasoning beans or whatever can still recover from foil as funnel into container.
Great tip Ronald.
This recipe is the best for turkey bacon and I have tried many!
What shelf is best for cooking bacon in the oven? Recipes never tell this information and to me, it is important. Thank you!
If only baking one pan of bacon I would put it on the middle rack, Francie.
Do you use thick cut bacon or the thinner cut?
Hi Vicki, regular cut bacon was used in this recipe but it will work for thicker cut bacon too. You might just have to leave the bacon in the oven for a couple minutes longer until it reaches your desired crispiness! Let us know how it turns out!
Love the recipes!
This is my new favourite way of cooking bacon, and it frees up time to multitask more efficiently. Tried it for the first time today: we lined ours cookie sheet with a wider width of tin foil which for this recipe is a nice replacement for parchment paper (no issues getting the bacon off).
It’s even better when you put the bacon on a cooling rack (for cookies) then place cooling rack on the cookie sheet and bake. And don’t forget to spray the cooling rack with Non Stick spray! Yummo!!
Thanks for the tip!!
Thankyou thankyou so much for the way to cook bacon in the oven, I’ve tried it and failed, but now I have your way I’m sure I’ll succeed. Thats the thing I Hate hate standing over the stove cooking it getting splattered etc, so hubby usually does it, and I clean up yucky. However now I’ll be able to cook it as I have your clever way of doing it in the oven. Thank you for this and for all your other lovely recipes that I’ve started getting, I so did’ent know you existed until a short while ago. Anyway as I live in NZ its now time to get dinner sorted, so once again many many thanks.
Kindest regards
Janies
Hello Jane! So glad you have enjoyed the recipes! I hope this helps you to avoid getting splattered!
Have yall ever gone down to the CAROLINAS?? I know I sure have! My time there has been STUCK IN MY MIND!! FOR YEARS on end!! I know a thing or two about the locals in those ol’ Carolinas!!!!
….
Now ol Molly knows that that store damn sure can’t make bacon like it used to. Molly said years ago she would fix their stuck-up redneck-like attitudes but it never happened as they put up TOO MUCH of a fuss for her! You go gal’!
….
love yall
Faaushn.
We have been doing this at the fire halls for sometime, but we enjoy sprinkling a little Montreal steak spice over them. Both ways are awesome!
I bet the steak spice is amazing on it. I’m definitely going to try it! Thanks for sharing!
I found that if you line your rimmed pan with parchment paper, the bacon doesn’t splash grease on top and sides of oven and fries up crisp.
Thank you for sharing Jennie!
What type of oven was used to cook the bacon? I have an electric stove and I’m afraid to start a fire. Do you know if it is safe to cook bacon in an electric oven?
I have a regular electric oven (Samsung) and haven’t had any problems cooking this.
My problem with cooking it in the oven is the mess it would make with the grease splattering. Does anyone have a suggestion for preventing the mess?
I find that it doesn’t splatter quite like when you cook it stovetop, so we don’t really have that issue. I am sure someone will have some input for you!
I have tried this several times. I love the fact that I don’t get my stove top splattered with grease. However, every time I have tried the oven method, the bacon comes out extremely greasy. Even after being drained on paper towel. I don’t eat bacon, my husband does. He LOVES bacon, so I know when he won’t eat it because it’s too greasy, it must be REALLY greasy…Would baking the bacon on a rack help?
Cooking it on a rack may help get the perfect bacon for your husband’s taste. Let us know if you try it Amy!
Even better is to put it on a rack that is inside the baking sheet all the excess fat drips down below. I cook mine at 350 for 30 minutes. Love bacon cooked in the oven!
I should have mentioned that I also sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar and freshly grated black pepper on my bacon before baking and recently tried putting a splatter guard on top
of the bacon. Hoping this helps!
Does it cause splatter in the oven? And can you address the comment about the smoke detector? Thanks!
I haven’t had any issues with splatter or smoke with this method.
This sounds like a good method, but I am concerned about grease popping all over the oven. Is there any issue with grease splatters inside your oven?
I don’t have problems with grease splatters in my oven.
sets off the smoke detector no matter what I try to prevent it can’t make it in the oven
Mine does that too
I have made my bacon this way for many years! I always line my pan with foil and then the cleanup is so easy! Also, I never preheat my oven. Just put the pan in and turn it on to 400! So easy!
It definitely saves time Sarah!