Oven-Baked Bacon (Crispy or Chewy)

For perfectly crispy oven bacon, set the oven temperature to 400°F and bake the bacon for 20 minutes. Prefer it chewy? Start with 15 minutes.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 30

Total Time 35

Servings servings

Calories 88kcal

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and fit it with a wire rack.
Arrange the bacon slices in a single layer on the wire rack. You can also arrange them directly on foil or parchment paper instead of using a rack.
Bake until the bacon is as crispy as you want it. As a general guideline (but remember that ovens vary), bake for 15 minutes for chewy bacon, 20 minutes for crispy bacon, and 25 minutes for extra crispy bacon. There's no need to flip the bacon midway.
If you didn't use a rack, place the cooked bacon briefly on paper towels to drain before serving.

Whether you use a wire rack or not, please use a rimmed baking sheet to prevent grease from dripping onto the oven floor.
The bacon shouldn't splatter too badly. But if preventing splatters is important to you, a simple method is to loosely cover the bacon while it cooks with a sheet of parchment paper.
Make sure to wear long oven mitts when removing the pan from the oven.
I experimented and was surprised to find that there is no significant difference between using foil and parchment to line the baking sheet. Both produced almost equally crispy bacon.
You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for about 4 days. Reheat them, covered in a paper towel, in the microwave at 50% power, or enjoy them cold.