Oven-Baked Bacon

A tray of oven-baked bacon cooked ahead can save a whole week of mornings. This is less a recipe than a technique worth keeping. Baking it in the oven gives a more even, almost buttery result than the spattering pan, and it cooks itself while you do something else. A hands-off win like this is worth having in your back pocket.

Bacon from a well-raised pig is a source of protein and B vitamins, and the fat it renders is a clean, stable cooking fat you can save and use for roasting vegetables later. Choose a brand with a clean label, free of added sugar and seed-based additives, since the cure is where ingredients that do not belong here usually hide. Read the package, not just the front.

Source it from an animal raised with care, and let yourself feel the gratitude in using the whole animal, the rendered fat included. Nothing here is wasted. When the tray comes out, take a breath over the smell of it before you eat. A few seconds of presence is part of the meal.

Ingredients

• 1 package bacon (choose a clean-label brand with no added sugar and no off-limits additives)

A single ingredient, so the only AIP work here is reading the label. Many cured bacons carry added sugar, smoke flavorings, or seed-based additives, so pick the cleanest brand you can find. Nothing needs to be swapped in the method itself.

Method

• Heat the oven to 425 F.
• Lay the bacon out in a single layer on a rimmed sheet pan so the strips do not overlap.
• Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until crisp, rotating the pan halfway through so it browns evenly. If you are using two pans, swap their positions at the halfway point.
• Lift the bacon out and drain it on paper towels. Save the rendered fat in a jar for cooking.

Air fryer variation

Lay the bacon in the basket in a single layer, working in batches if needed, and air fry at 350 to 375 F for roughly 8 to 12 minutes, checking near the end since it crisps quickly and the fat can smoke. Empty the rendered fat between batches. This time is an untested conversion, so start low and watch it.

*Adapted from acleanplate.com*