When it comes to getting the most precisely crispy, uniformly cooked bacon, nothing beats baking it. However, it’s remarkable how few people have tried it. The cooktop seemed to be in charge. Today, I’ll explain why you should switch to baking bacon instead of frying it. And believe me when I say that after you’ve cooked bacon in the oven, you’ll never cook it again on the cooktop!
Bacon is a salt-cured pork chop generally made from the belly or more minor fatty sections of the back. It can be served as a side dish (especially for breakfast), as the main ingredient (for example, in the BLT sandwich), or as a flavoring or accent (as in bacon crumbles in a salad).
There are many ways to cook bacon, but after much research (and a lot of bacon, guys), we’ve discovered that the best way to cook slices is in the oven: there’s less mess, this is So easy to serve bacon to a crowd, and the results are just as crispy.
Bacon Nutrition Fact
Best Temperature For Cooking Bacon In The Oven
In the oven, the ideal temperature for cooking bacon is 400 degrees F. Cook the bacon slices for 20 minutes on a baking pan, rotating halfway through. Remove the bacon from the oven when it is crisp and place it on a paper towel-lined platter. If you don’t have any paper towels, a metal cooling rack will suffice, and it is also safe to use in the oven. If you don’t have a cooling rack, you can use the baking sheet as a cooling rack. Remove the bacon from the oven and lay it on a rimmed baking sheet once it has finished cooking.
Depending on the width of your slices, you can cook bacon at any temperature. When cooking bacon, you want it to be crispy, but you don’t want to overcook it. If you don’t want the bacon to burn, cook it at a lower temperature and watch it throughout the process. It will be easier to cook your bacon evenly if you use a large baking sheet.
If you are using a sheet pan, you can add a layer of aluminum foil over the bacon. It would help if you then placed it in the oven. This way, it will cook evenly and prevent the bacon from sticking. It will be ready in around 20 minutes, but the exact timing depends on the thickness of your slices. You can also sprinkle a little brown sugar over the bacon before cooking it in the oven. It is essential to monitor the bacon carefully to prevent burnt ends.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Some recipes suggest baking bacon at 425 degrees F, 375 degrees F, or starting in a cold oven. Still, I found that the optimal temperature for baking bacon is 400 degrees F. It cooks the bacon uniformly, regardless of thickness, and doesn’t splatter.
Make use of a rack. The rack not only makes the bacon healthier, but it also makes it crispier and more evenly cooked. To prevent the bacon from sticking to the rack, spray it with nonstick spray first. If you don’t have an oven-safe rack and want to know how to cook bacon in the oven without one, cook the bacon directly on aluminum foil.
Medium-cut bacon should be cooked at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. When cooked properly, the bacon should be firm and dark-colored. Depending on the thickness, it may be necessary to turn it over after 12 minutes. For thick-cut, it may take up to 30 minutes to cook. To avoid overcooking, lay the bacon in a single layer on a sheet of aluminum foil.
Is It Healthier To Eat Bake Bacon?
One of the best things about baking bacon this way is that the fat drips off and collects below the rack, which means the grease stays off your bacon and off of your body. Another thing I do to make my oven-baked bacon healthier is to use a paper towel to absorb any residual fat. This minimizes the quantity of fat on each slice even further.
As a bonus, the bacon will be crispier. Although baked bacon is healthier than fried bacon, it is still bacon. Consume it in moderation as part of a well-balanced diet. I like to serve bacon with other lean proteins, fruits, nutritious grains, or veggies whenever we have it to make a balanced meal.
How To Storing Baked Bacon?
Cooked bacon will keep for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator. Throw it out if it starts to smell unpleasant or changes appearance.
Recrisp your bacon slices on a baking sheet at 350 degrees F in the oven.
Baked bacon slices can be frozen for up to 3 months in an airtight freezer-safe storage container. Remove the slices from the freezer and thaw them as needed.
How to Use Baked Bacon?
Cooked/Crumbled Bacon can be used in any recipe that calls for it. Aside from the obvious benefit of eating the slices straight from the plate, baking bacon in the oven is a great way to add cooked, crumbled bacon to a recipe or to make a typical meal a bit more luxurious. To give just one example, these Roasted Brussels Sprouts are excellent with a bit of bacon sprinkling.
After cooking the bacon, place the sheet pan on a cooling rack and keep it in the refrigerator. Don’t forget to blot off excess grease from the bottom of the pan, which will keep the fat from escaping. You can also save the leftover grease and fry eggs or vegetables. The grease from cooking bacon is an excellent source of flavor. Besides frying eggs, you can also save the grease by placing it in a mason jar.
Conclusion
When you cook bacon on the stove, it splatters all over the place and leaves scorching areas on the pan. As a result, some bacon bits may cook faster than others. And it’s why you might have some bacon pieces that have mistakenly charcoaled a little too much while others are still raw.
When you cook bacon in the oven, the heat evenly cooks all of your bacon slices. They sizzle slowly, don’t splash, and cook evenly. It’s a lovely thing. Bacon cooked in the oven is perfectly crispy and tasty. It’s also effortless, makes less mess than cooking on the burner, and allows you to multitask in the kitchen. Give baking bacon a shot if you’ve never done it before! So, what do you eat with your bacon? Everything! Poached eggs, soft and hard-boiled eggs, and fried eggs are among them. Not to mention my paleo pancakes (and bacon dipped in maple syrup — fantastic).
