September was the first time I had heard of anyone baking their bacon. After a little reading, I found out I was behind the times in this revelation. Many restaurants use this method because it cooks much more evenly; friends use it because it seems to produce less grease; and I will use this method forever more because I didn’t get popped with bacon grease one single time.
I cook breakfast for our families Christmas morning, and this year, I managed to set my alarm for PM instead of AM, so I didn’t get up quite when I meant to. Hence, no photos of this bakin’ bacon to be had.
- Start with a cool oven and cool baking sheets
- I lined mine with foil because I was using my good jelly roll pans and didn’t want to have to hand wash a big mess later (there are very few things I exclude from the dishwasher; my jelly roll pans are in that elite group) or have permanently baked on bacon residue.
- Lay the bacon flat on the sheets
- Put the baking sheets into the oven and turn it on 400 degrees
- Check the bacon at 17 minutes (this was the target time for everything I read; I will let mine go a minute or so longer next time so that it’s a tad more crisp)
- When you are pleased with the crispness of your bacon, take it off the pan and put it onto a paper towel-lined dish
I did make a second batch of bacon after letting the oven and the baking sheets cool a little. They were still too warm, and the bacon got pretty crispy. It wasn’t burned up, but it was very crunchy within about 12 minutes.
Both batches got rave reviews Christmas morning! I’ll never fry another piece of bacon on the stove again.
I always see that you can bake bacon, but I've never done it. I'm glad to hear it works well. I love crispy bacon but hate the mess of frying it.