Baking Bacon- Less Messy Method

Who doesn’t love bacon? Not me. I don’t not like bacon (that was probably too much for a Monday.) Who doesn’t like cleaning up after frying bacon? Me!

First off, bacon grease gets spattered everywhere. Everywhere! Second you have a pan of bacon grease to dispose of, which is a gigantic pain. Third, you can only cook a few slices at a time, even if you have a large pan. So you have to repeat the process over and over, compounding all those messy problems.

But bacon. Salty, crispy, luscious bacon. You can’t not make it. (Whew, again. Too much for Monday.)

Here is the solution to all your problems. Bake your bacon. This is my absolute favorite way to cook bacon. Baking bacon is less messy and more convenient. No more standing over the stove waiting to get a nice bacon grease splatter to the eyeball. Just toss it in the oven and set the timer. Clean up is a breeze and you can’t make quite a few pieces at once.

Here we go!

Preheat oven to 400.

Begin with a bare naked sheet pan.

Cover it with heavy duty aluminum foil. It is so much better to use the heavy duty kind that is big enough to cover the whole sheet pan. I have tried to layer the smaller foil, but the bacon grease always seeps through and then you have to clean the pan.

Place a metal baking rack on top of the aluminum foil. (If you don’t have you, you can put the bacon directly on the foil, but it won’t get quite as crispy.)

Place strips of bacon on rack. They should not overlap, (although the bacon will shrink some, so if they overlap a bit, it’s okay.)

Place in the oven for 12-15 minutes. How long it takes will depend on how thick you bacon is cut and how crispy/burnt you like your bacon. Watch it carefully.

Remove the bacon from the oven and do what you will with it.