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The best way to make bacon isn’t on the stove top, it’s in the oven! You’ll love this step-by-step guide for cooking perfectly crispy and delicious bacon – no skillet required. Check out all of my egg recipes as well to pair up with bacon!

How to Make Bacon in the Oven

If you’re cooking more than a few slices of bacon, you need to dump that skillet and switch to the oven! This is a super hassle-free way to make bacon, especially when you’re making batches, and it’s less messy too.

I love to make bacon this way because I can simply leave it in the oven to bubble away without having to stand over it flipping (and it means less chance of those ouchy grease splatters!).

I’m a serious bacon fan, and I’ve definitely been converted to this hassle-free way of cooking it – especially around breakfast time!

How to Make Bacon in the Oven: Ingredients

Good quality bacon
Parchment paper
Large baking sheet

How to Make Bacon in the Oven Perfectly

Preheat your oven to 375 °F.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Lay the bacon strips in a SINGLE layer on the parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake until the bacon is crispy, about 25-35 minutes, depending on its thickness.
For chewier bacon, leave the bacon alone when cooking. Cook until there is still a little bit of fat left.
For crispy bacon, flip the slices halfway through so that the other side cooks up crisp.
When done to your desired texture, remove and lay the bacon on paper towels to drain. And serve!

close up cooked strips of bacon on paper towels

The Quality of Bacon You Are Using Matters

Finding good quality bacon is everything when it comes to the end result of cooking, whether you use a skillet or the oven. If you’re buying packaged bacon, watch out for artificial flavorings such as “maple” or “hickory”. They’ll just give your bacon a strange chemical taste and good quality bacon won’t have these listed on the ingredients. Now hickory SMOKED bacon is totally different, that’s the wood that was used to smoke it, not artificial flavor.

Fat content really depends on how you like your bacon; if you prefer crispier bacon then you may want to go for a slightly thinner cut.

How to Choose Good Bacon in the Store

I always try to buy my bacon from my local pro producer to get the very best quality, but if you are picking yours up from the refrigerated section then make sure that you get the bacon that’s labeled center cut. Center cut bacon comes from the leaner and meatier part of the pork belly, which means more meat and less fat! That’s always a good thing! You can see that I love the Kirkland thick cut bacon from Costco, it is honestly the BEST. It bakes up perfectly, has good fat marbling and the end result is perfection!

Watch out for bacon that is all fat with no meat, or is too much meat. You need a good balance between the two.

Why not give these bacon recipes a go and check out our pork recipe section too!

crispy oven baked bacon on a baking sheet with parchment paper

Look at how crisp these slices get! It may look like the fat isn’t cooked in these photos, but when cooked properly the meat in the bacon is crispy and the fat melts in your mouth. This the the Kirkland brand I mentioned above.

More Breakfast Recipes to Enjoy

Try out any of my pancake recipes, waffle recipes or my breakfast casseroles for an easy and delicious breakfast with bacon!

close up of a piece of crispy cooked bacon strip

Who else loves cooking bacon in the oven? No spitting grease from a pan (I have almost fallen from grease that spit onto my hardwood, no word of a lie) and the clean up is a breeze!

Happy cooking!

Love,

Karlynn

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven

Step by step how to make deliciously crispy bacon in the oven – and what type of bacon is the best bang for your hard earned buck!

5 from 7 votes

Review SavePrint

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Course: Breakfast Meals

Cuisine: American

Servings: 4

Author: Karlynn Johnston

Ingredients

▢ 1 package of your favorite good quality bacon
▢ parchment paper
▢ large baking sheet

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 °F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Lay the bacon strips in a SINGLE layer on the parchment lined baking sheet. Do not let them touch or overlap or the strips will stick together.
Bake until the bacon is crispy, about 25-35 minutes, depending on its thickness. The Costco bacon can take up to 35 minutes but it’s worth it!
For chewier bacon, leave the bacon alone when cooking. Cook until there is still a little bit of fat left, fat is chewy.
For crispy bacon, flip the slices halfway through so that the other side cooks up crisp. No need for a baking rack at all, this works like a charm!
For crispy bacon the secret is to cook the fat out of the bacon. Fat is chewy, so if you leave fat in it , you will have chewiness.
When done to your desired texture, remove and lay the bacon on paper towels to drain. Serve and enjoy!

All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.

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Step by step how to make deliciously crispy bacon in the oven - and what type of bacon is the best bang for your hard earned buck!