Baked Bacon: Perfect Every Time

The first time I saw my husband cook bacon I thought he was crazy.  He put it...in the oven.

Not the frying pan.  The oven.

Who does that?

Well...he did.  And I'm sure lots of other people do to, but I'd never heard of such a thing.

There was no denying the results, though- it was as perfectly cooked as I could imagine bacon being and he was able to cook it in one big batch while attending to whatever else he was cooking at the time.

Knowing him, it was probably a stovetop full of sausage gravy.  :-)

Needless to say, it changed the way I make bacon forever.  No more small batches.  No more grease splatters.  No more burned bacon strips.  Possibly the biggest bonus of all?  No messy pan to clean up.

That's right.  No mess AND perfectly cooked bacon.  Intrigued yet?

I start with a jelly roll pan and line it with foil.  It's narrow enough that the foil covers the entire bottom and sides- keeping the grease from the bacon contained.

Next I lay out the bacon.  It doesn't have to be perfectly flat, in fact you'll notice from my pictures that I king of arrange it in waves so that all of the bacon will fit. It's ok if the bacon touches other pieces- it's not ok if they overlap.  If they overlap the bottom piece won't cook at the same rate as it's bacon strip brothers.

Put it in the oven and forget it.

Well ok, maybe not forget it.  Keep an eye on it, set a timer, whatever you need to do.  I can tell you that I allow mine to bake for 15 to 20 minutes and I like mine crispy.  I really can't stand flabby bacon.

If you don't like yours as well done as I do you might want to pull it out at the 10 to 12 minute mark- just check it and learn what works for you.

That's it.  Simple, right?

I'll never fry bacon on the stove again!  With as much bacon as I've had to cook lately this has been a lifesaver!

Baked Bacon

Click to see the recipe on Allrecipes.com

1 package bacon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a jelly roll pan with foil.  Lay bacon strips out on foil-lined pan.

2. Bake for 15-20 minutes for crisp bacon, adjust time according to preference.  Transfer cooked bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.