How To Cook Bacon in the Oven

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Cooking bacon in the oven is hands-down the easiest way to achieve evenly cooked, crispy bacon without the mess of stovetop splatter. Whether you’re cooking for a crowd or just want to make breakfast a breeze, this method ensures perfectly crisp bacon with minimal effort.

bacon on parchment paper

If there’s one thing that always gets my family circling the kitchen, it’s the irresistible smell of sizzling bacon. Whether served on its own, next to pancakes, scrambled eggs, or a cheesy omelette, or added to salads and baked potatoes, bacon makes any meal better. While you can cook a few slices on the stovetop or in the microwave, learning how to cook bacon in the oven is a game-changer.

It’s the easiest way to prepare a large batch with minimal effort, ensuring crispy, chewy, evenly cooked bacon every time. Plus, cleanup is a breeze, and you can easily multi-task while it cooks.

With this oven method, you can cook about 12 slices of bacon on a single baking sheet. To make more than that, just use two baking sheets and increase the cooking time by a few minutes.

Oven-Baked Bacon In 5 Simple Steps

  • Preheat oven to 400°F and set rack in the middle.
  • Line a baking sheet with foil and parchment paper.
  • Lay bacon slices in a single layer on the baking sheet.
  • Bake 14-18 minutes for regular bacon, 18-20 for thick-cut.
  • Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.

Different Types of Bacon

bacon on cutting board

When cooking bacon in the oven, American bacon (regular bacon) is the most common choice. It comes from the belly of the pig and is known for its crispy texture and perfect balance of meat and fat. Canadian bacon, which comes from the loin, is leaner and often used in dishes like eggs Benedict. Italian bacon, such as pancetta, is salt-cured and not smoked and typically used in sauces or pasta dishes.

Most supermarkets carry both regular and thick-cut bacon. The main difference is thickness—thick-cut bacon is about 50% thicker than regular bacon. Regular bacon cooks crispier, while thick-cut has more chew. For the oven method, I recommend using regular bacon, as it renders less grease, making it easier to handle the baking sheet and ensuring a cleaner cooking process.

Want to use turkey bacon? It will cook much faster, but it won’t crisp up like traditional bacon.

Step-by-Step Instructions To Bake Bacon

Preheat the oven and position an oven rack in the center. For easy cleanup, line a 13×18-inch rimmed baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil, leaving some overhang, and top with parchment paper. Arrange the bacon in a single layer on the baking sheet, fitting about 12 slices without overlapping.

raw bacon on lined baking sheet

Bake for 14 to 18 minutes for regular bacon and 18 to 20 minutes for thick-cut, rotating the sheet pan halfway through. Keep an eye on the bacon near the end, adjusting the time by a minute or two based on your desired level of crispiness.

bacon out of the oven

Carefully remove the bacon from the oven, as there will be hot grease. Using tongs, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate or cutting board. If you’d like to save the bacon grease, strain it into a heatproof jar.

Bacon draining on paper towels.

Storing & USing Leftover Bacon

If you have leftover bacon, let it cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze for longer storage. Reheat in the microwave or oven before serving. Leftover bacon can be used in a variety of dishes—chop it up and toss it into salads, add it to soups for extra flavor, or incorporate it into breakfast casseroles. It’s also great on sandwiches, smash burgers, or mixed into mac and cheese.

What To Do With Bacon Grease

Don’t toss out that flavorful bacon grease! After cooking bacon, strain the grease through a fine mesh sieve into a heatproof container and store it in the refrigerator for up to a month or freeze for longer storage. Bacon grease can be used for sautéing vegetables, frying eggs, or adding depth to dishes like beans, potatoes, and cornbread. It’s also great for greasing pans when baking savory goods.

Love Bacon? Try These Recipes

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven

The easiest way to cook bacon? In the oven! It’s perfectly crispy, evenly cooked, and mess-free—great for any meal or when cooking a big batch.

Servings: 12 slices
Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 15 Minutes
Total Time: 20 Minutes

Ingredients

  • 12 slices bacon, preferably not thick-cut (see note)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and set an oven rack in the middle position.
  2. For easy clean-up, line a 13 x 18-inch rimmed baking sheet with heavy-duty wide aluminum foil and so that there is some overhang on all sides (this prevents the grease from getting onto the baking sheet), then cover with a sheet of parchment paper. Lay as many slices of bacon as you'd like to cook in a single layer on the baking sheet. You should be able to fit about 12 slices (try to keep them from overlapping).
  3. Bake 14 to 18 minutes for regular bacon and 18 to 20 minutes for thick-cut bacon, carefully rotating the baking sheet from front to back about halfway through cooking. Keep an eye on the bacon towards the end of the cooking time, as you may need to add or subtract a minute or so depending on how crispy you like your bacon.
  4. Carefully remove the bacon from the oven – there will be a lot of hot grease – and, using tongs, transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate or cutting board.
  5. If you'd like to save the bacon grease for another use, strain it into a heatproof jar.
  6. Note: With this method, you can cook up to one pound of bacon on a single baking sheet. To make more than a pound, just use two baking sheets and increase the cooking time by a few minutes.
  7. Note: Most supermarkets carry regular and thick-cut bacon. Both types will work, but I prefer regular bacon for this method – it gets crispier and thick-cut bacon renders a ton of grease onto the baking sheet, making the pan difficult to move in and out of the oven safely.

Nutrition Information

Powered by Edamam

  • Per serving (6 servings)
  • Serving size: 2 slices
  • Calories: 90
  • Fat: 7 g
  • Saturated fat: 3 g
  • Carbohydrates: 0 g
  • Sugar: 0 g
  • Fiber: 0 g
  • Protein: 7 g
  • Sodium: 360 mg
  • Cholesterol: 20 mg

This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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Comments

  • Hi Jen, tried your oven method for the first time this morning. We LOVED it! Thank you for sharing! Have tried a few oven methods in the past that didn’t turn out so well. This will be my new go to!

    • — Lisa Littell on December 18, 2023
    • Reply
  • Jen, I love your recipes. You are my go to for new ideas, so thank you! Bone of contention here for me LOL. I am a firm advocate for thick sliced bacon in the oven at 375 deg for about 20 mins. I flip once and rotate in the toaster oven and get perfectly cooked bacon, with still a bit of crunch to it.

    • — Jackie Cree on April 12, 2023
    • Reply
  • After cooking (thawed frozen) bacon per recipe, can you refreeze for future use?

    • Based on what I see online, it looks like you can. See this post for more information.

  • This is the way I have been making bacon for years. It’s perfect!

  • Thank you for this tip! I appreciate all the great things you teach us! I also use the Hormel Black Label brand. Super yummy! Thank you again for all the tips and tricks.

    • — Cheryl Skornik
    • Reply
    • My pleasure! 🙂

  • Hi, Jen – I’ve been using parchment for years because I want to avoid having food come into direct contact with aluminum foil. For the sake of producing less waste, I don’t even use foil under the pan and the method still works great. The small amount of grease that may gravitate to the pan is easy to wipe up or wash off; all the crusty bits stay on the parchment. Result = less aluminum in the landfill. Speaking of landfills, I’m switching over to a kitchen bar soap to clean dishes – you just swipe your wet sponge over it and voila – in order to eliminate the plastic soap bottles. Any posts you can publish regarding eliminating plastic or waste while cooking or in the kitchen would be much appreciated!

    • Parchment paper for the most part is covered with silicone to create a non-stick surface. Thus, we use a reusable silicon mat not just to make cookies but to bake other foods. The caveat here is parchment paper soaks up grease better so the bacon still needs to be drained on some paper towels afterwards. Parchment paper is also mostly non-recyclable although there are 1-2 brands out there that claim to be so.

  • Hi Jenn! I’m used to baking my bacon, but instead of laying the bacon on the parchment, I lay the parchment over the bacon to cut down splatter. If I continue to do that, and follow your instructions, would I need to adjust my baking time/temp? Thanks and Happy Mother’s Day!

    • Hi MaryKathryn, I don’t think you’d need to adjust the time or temperature if you put the parchment on top. I’d love to hear how it comes out! 🙂

  • Hi Jen, I’m a frequent “bacon-in-the-oven” preparer and consumer, but I’ve never used parchment paper on top of the foil…. Just curious about the recommendation for that? and wondering if perhaps baking directly on aluminum foil is unhealthy?

    • Hi Alison, Some brands of aluminum foil can stick to bacon, so I recommend the parchment to be safe – if yours works well, no need to use the parchment. 🙂

      • You can buy non stick heavy duty Aluminum foil.

  • I’ve been using the oven for years, and would never go back to frying. I lay mine on a sheet pan with a rack, so the fat merely drips through. Also, I crack black pepper to cover, then into the oven. Living in Mexico, our bacon is smoked, but not cured, and the fat is crystal clear.
    Great tip, great site! Best regards!!

    • — Vaughn Burckard
    • Reply
  • I find that different brands of bacon cook better than others. I look at how it’s sliced in the package. I prefer slices that are narrow verses wide. The brands I used to love seem different now. They are just a bit too thick and don’t uniformly cook.
    Any suggestions on what you like for regular bacon?
    Thanks.
    Sunny Drohan

    • Hi Sunny, I usually buy Hormel Black Label Original. Hope that helps!

      • Thanks Jenn! I love cooking bacon this way. Mine turned out perfect.

      • It does. Next batch will be that one. Much thanks.

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