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The Secret to Making Perfectly Crispy Bacon Is Already in Your Kitchen

If you want the perfect crispy bacon, it's time to ditch the frying pan.

Headshot of David Watsky
Headshot of David Watsky
David Watsky Managing Editor / Home and Kitchen
David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. David earned his BA from Northeastern and has toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom. Right now he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or tinkering with a toaster. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.
Expertise Kitchen tools | Appliances | Food science | Subscriptions | Meal kits
David Watsky
3 min read
Strips of bacon

Cooking bacon doesn't have to be a greasy mess.

 Paul Taylor/Getty Images
Home Tips

For plenty of people, making bacon at home is a messy affair. Cooking bacon in a frying pan can deliver a greasy, uneven product that's either overcooked or undercooked. Thankfully, there is a better way to get the perfect crispy bacon every time, and it doesn't require any fancy gadgets. 

The secret to ridiculously perfect, consistently crispy bacon is already waiting in your kitchen. Your oven can cook up the perfect bacon without any extra gadgets required. It delivers edge-to-edge crispiness with zero active cooking time and, best of all, no grease all over your kitchen.

This story is part of 12 Days of Tips, helping you make the most of your tech, home and health during the holiday season.

If you're ready to make flawless bacon every single time without the mess, this is the only method you'll ever need. 

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How to cook perfect bacon in the oven

bacon uncooked on tray

It's fine if the bacon touches, as long as it's not overlapping. 

 Hana Asbrink/CNET

Here are my tips for cooking perfectly crisp bacon in the oven. Spoiler alert: There aren't many steps, and none of them take very long.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I would avoid air fryer mode if your oven has it since the fast-moving air is more likely to blow grease around the inside. We're aiming for a mess-free scenario. 

Line a baking tray with aluminum foil, or use a nonstick sheet pan for a more eco-friendly approach. If you're going the foil route, make sure the edges ride up the sides of the tray so the grease doesn't spill over the sides and down onto the tray. 

If you're using nonstick bakeware, I prefer a ceramic sheet pan or tray, but Teflon works well, too.

Read more: Nonstick Cookware Guide: Teflon, Ceramic and More Explained

Arrange bacon on the tray. The strips shouldn't overlap, but it's fine if they touch since they'll shrink down significantly while cooking. If you prefer super crispy bacon with a bit less grease, you can arrange the slices on a wire rack above the tray for the fat to drip down below.

Cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Be sure to keep one eye on the bacon as some ovens run hotter than others. If you like your bacon crispy and well done, give it another few minutes. Remember, bacon does a lot of its crisping after it comes out and cools. 

Read more: No Grill, No Problem. This Is the Easiest Way to Male a Cheeseburger Indoors

bacon on a tray

Oven bacon is as good as it gets.

 Hana Asbrink/CNET

Drain the bacon on a sheet or two of paper towels. After a few minutes, you're ready to serve those crispy strips with eggs, in a BLT or crumbled to fancy up boxed mac and cheese. 

The best part? After cooking bacon in the oven, all you're left with is a small ball of foil to heave effortlessly into the trash.

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A few countertop ovens for cooking bacon

For bacon, I love using a smaller countertop convection model. A large oven works just as well but takes longer to preheat, and dang it, we want bacon now.   

The Ninja Double Oven and Breville's Smart Oven Pro are two multifunction ovens that work well. Both are large enough that bacon grease won't splatter on the ceiling, but are small and powerful enough to preheat quickly and cook bacon to a crisp in under 10 minutes. (We've also got tips for how to clean your cast iron skillet and how to make boxed mac and cheese taste so much better.)Â