I’m going to show you something today that just might change your life. Do you avoid the whole bacon thing because you have to make a big greasy mess, have bacon oil splattered all over the place, and run the risk of scalding your forearms? Well let me show you a little trick where you can cook bacon and not have a single dirty dish. Really, not one! It’s so easy that you might just find yourself cooking bacon every day purely for the purpose of snacking on it. Errr…okay, maybe that’s just me. Pretend I didn’t say that.
You’re going to need your favorite bacon, a baking sheet, and some aluminum foil.
- Turn on your oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Use heavy duty if you have it. Lay out bacon slices in a single layer. They can be close together, just avoid overlap. You can also lay a metal cooling rack in your pan and lay the bacon on top of that. Personally I think it tastes way better when it cooks up in its own drippings!
2. You don’t need to wait for your oven to preheat. Place pan in the oven for about 12-15 minutes. Watch bacon after that and cook until desired level of crispiness. I like mine on the crispy side so I cook it for about 15-17 minutes. Cooking time depends on the thickness of the slice as well.
3. Immediately remove bacon from pan and place on paper towels to soak up grease.
Now you’ve still got that pan full of drippings. And I promised no mess and no dirty dishes. Don’t worry, I’m a woman of my word. Note that at this point, you could save the drippings if that’s your type of thing (and according to the comments it’s quite important to many of you!) Or…when your bacon has cooled take the paper towels it was draining on and place them right on the baking sheet. They’ll immediately start soaking up the grease so you don’t accidentally spill on yourself, and this way you don’t have to find something to pour the oily mess into.
Then take the foil and wrap it right up into itself until you have a little package to toss right in the garbage can.
And as long as you didn’t pierce any holes through the foil, your pan is completely clean! Now how easy is that? Plus, you have the best, crispest, flattest bacon, the bacon dreams are made of!
Back to baking. Baking bacon also results in nice flat pieces. Flat bacon comes in handy for stuff like Bacon-Pineapple Burgers and Egg Salad BLT’s
I especially love baking bacon when I need a whole bunch to crumble up and sprinkle on stuff like Chicken-Bacon Stuffed Pizza Rolls, Spinach Mandarin Poppyseed Salad, and Bacon & Blue Twice Baked Potatoes. You can be cooking the bacon in the oven while you prep the rest of the food so you don’t have to sit there and babysit a hot skillet.
Questions & Reviews
Thanks for the tip! This worked great & saved me having to wash yet another pan as I am cooking & baking for Christmas. Love it!!
Instead of using paper towels to soak up the grease from the pan, if there are no holes in the foul then place it in a bowl and let the grease turn solid. Then close foil into a ball and throw away. Found this idea in Pinterest and it works great!!
We did this today! Thank you so much, this is how I will be cooking our bacon from now on!!!:)
Or…instead of tossing those bacon soaked paper towels, put them in a plastic bag and stick them in the freezer. Next time you want to barbeque, use them as non chemical fire starters for charcoal!
Hi, Have you ever tried to cook your bacon on your “GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL”. Works really slick, no splattering, cook your bacon as “crispy” as you like it and clean up is a breeze.
Give it a try, if you haven’t already.
Mary
I realize I’m like years late to this conversation, but does the bacon splatter all over the inside of your oven when you cook it in there?
Nope 🙂
I guess I’ve been stalking here since I use your recipes often but have never commented! Not that I remember, anyway. 🙂 I have loved every recipe I’ve tried.
Have you ever tried wrapping meatloaf in bacon? I know, I know, meatloaf…
My husband has never liked meatloaf before, but I baked it as a shaped loaf wrapped in bacon (with the sauce spooned on top) on a broiler pan. He’s sold on it. 🙂 Just another thing to use bacon with!
Thanks for your wonderful blog. It’s everything a recipe blog ought to be!
I’m trying your breakfast bacon and potato recipe tonight! I wasn’t much looking forward to cooking the bacon… but now I can’t hardly wait to give this a try. So perfect for a busy mom!!!
THANKS!
Sounds great!! and the other recipes you have at the end look heavenly!!!
Thanks!
Friends & family make fun of my love for bacon! Who cares, right? The oven, pan fried & microwave all tend to have a different taste & texture. Baking is the very best! I try to find the THINNEST sliced I can find…cooks up crisp & not hard. And I like that with the right pan…I can cook LOTS at one time. Found a butcher who says he’ll slice some FRESH bacon as thin as I want it! OMG!