How To Cook Bacon in the Air Fryer | Easy Bacon In Air Fryer Tips and Tricks

One of the easiest things to cook is Air Fryer Bacon. If you've not made bacon in the air fryer, today is the day to start!

Why cook bacon in the air fryer?

So many reasons why! Let me list a few

• Hands off. You put the bacon in there, you walk away, and you come back to perfectly crisp Air Fryer bacon.
• It’s pretty fast. It takes less time than preheating the oven and baking.
• No splatters. It makes clean up so much easier. Best of all, just put everything in the dishwasher for even faster cleanup.
• Even cooking. No burned edges, and soggy middles.
• Crisp but not fatty. The fat drips down in the bottom of the tray so your bacon isn’t fat-logged, just perfectly cooked.

Best of all, because the fat is at the bottom of the pan? You can still collect it later and save it for future use. I always have a small 1-pint mason jar to save bacon grease. Just pour the hot grease into the jar before it congeals. It is pure goodness, people.

Ingredients You'll Need

Bacon. Yep, that's it. You'll just need bacon and an air fryer to make this incredibly easy air fryer bacon.

A slice of bread (optional). This is to soak up some of the fat that is released during the cooking cycle. But if you don't have a piece of bread (low carb foodies understand that struggle) just use a piece of aluminum foil in your air fryer basket to prevent the renderings from hitting the hot tray.

Save yourself all of the extra ingredients and cleanup time. All you'll need is an air fryer, bacon, and a slice of bread (or aluminum foil) to get the perfect breakfast protein.

What's That Smell?

While the air fryer is notorious for muting the smell of certain foods while they're cooking, you can still smell the bacon while it is in the air fryer.

But if you're anything like me or my kids, there's nothing like bacon to get the whole family out of bed on a lazy weekend morning.

How Long Does It Take To Cook Bacon In The Air Fryer?

I love how perfectly crisp bacon turns out when it is cooked in the oven. Unfortunately, the time it takes to preheat the oven before you even begin to cook can be frustrating if you're in a hurry.

That's why I decided it was time to give it a shot in the air fryer. Plus I absolutely ADORE my air fryer, so why not use it?

In as little as 8-10 minutes you can have perfectly cooked air fryer bacon!

How To Prevent Your Air Fryer From Smoking While Cooking Bacon

Air Fryer bacon doesn’t create any more smoke than cooking it on the stovetop, that’s for sure.

But there are a few options for reducing the smoke even further.

• Water. Put a little bit of water in the bottom pan/basket of the air fryer. You put some water in it, you put the bacon on the rack/grill part of the basket, and you have at it.
• Bread. Place pieces of bread at the bottom and let them soak up all that lovely grease!
• Foil. I would not recommend parchment paper if you plan to use the bacon grease, as it is very hard to pour it out of a sheet of parchment. You are better off using foil to gather than bacon fat instead when making Air Fryer Bacon.

How to cook bacon in the air fryer:

1. Layer. Layer the bacon in the air fryer basket. You can overlap the slices a bit because that bacon is going to shrink and shrink. You can also cut the bacon into fourths, allowing you to fit more bacon in the air fryer. This also allows the bacon to cook more evenly.
2. Air Fry. Set your air fryer to 400F for 10 minutes. You should have not have to flip the bacon at all. Didn’t I tell you it would be easy??
3. Adjust. If you use very thick bacon it will take longer. In contrast, thinner bacon will get done faster. Many times I find turkey bacon cooks up in about 7-8 minutes so keep an eye on it from time to time.
4. Drain. Remove the bacon on to a plate covered with paper towels, and let it drain. If you can be patient enough that is!
5. Cleanup. You can carefully pour the bacon grease from the foil sheet into a mason jar. If I have a very small amount I save it on the countertop. Otherwise, I like to save it in the fridge so it’s there when I feel I must have it right now! Just use a paper towel to wipe up the grease after pouring the grease into a jar and soak the basket in hot soapy water for 20 minutes. Rinse and it's good to go.

NOTE: If the soak doesn't work the first time, There's no need to scrub the basket. Just give it another soak or throw it in the dishwasher and let it do all the work for you.

How To Make Bacon In The Oven

Depending on who you ask, it can be even easier than air fryer bacon. You can actually cook an entire giant package at a time. You also get very little smoke from this method and once again, it’s fairly hands-off and cleanup is easy.

How to cook bacon in the oven:

1. Gather your equipment. You will need a large baking sheet and an oven rack.
2. Line with foil. I like to line the baking sheet with foil or a silicone mat before putting the rack and the bacon on there. I find this really helps with cleanup.
3. Cook at 425F for 15-18 minutes.
4. Adjust. If you use very thick bacon it will take longer. In contrast, thinner bacon will get done faster. Many times I find turkey bacon cooks up in about 10-12 minutes so keep an eye on it from time to time.
5. Drain. Remove the bacon on to a plate covered with paper towels, and let it drain. If you can be patient enough that is!
6. Cleanup. You can carefully pour the bacon grease from the foil sheet into a mason jar. If I have a very small amount I save it on the countertop. Otherwise, I like to save it in the fridge so it’s there when I feel I must have it right now!

Can I Sous Vide bacon?

Only if you can wait for 8+ hours for it to be ready.

I am not usually that patient.

But you know what I LOVE about sous vide bacon? You can cook it directly in the package it comes in! No seriously, you can.

The water temperature for sous vide bacon is about 143-145F so it’s not like it’s ever going to boil that plastic and water.

The #ruthlessefficiency of this is super appealing to me. If you’d like to try it, here’s how to do that.

You can learn more about Sous Vide in my "What Is Sous Vide?" Guide For Beginners!

How to Sous Vide Bacon

1. Gather your equipment. You will need a sous vide stick and a large pot, or an Instant Pot Ultra.
2. Preheat. Get your sous vide water to about 145F.
3. Cook. Put the plastic package of bacon into the water bath. Set your timer for 8 hours. (Good reason to do this at night, so you can have breakfast bacon in the morning)
4. Crisp. Open the package and remove the slices you will be crisping. Put the rest into a ziptop bag and refrigerate for later.
5. Cook. Preheat a skillet. When the skillet is hot, add bacon slices and press down to crisp. Keep in mind the bacon is cooked. You don’t need to cook it, just crisp it. This shouldn’t take more than a minute or two for both sides.
6. Drain. Remove the bacon on to a plate covered with paper towels, and let it drain.
7. Cleanup. You’ll need to wash the sous vide water bath and the skillet but that’s really it.

Is Bacon good for you?

Bacon is good for your soul! Bacon is what dreams are made of, or at least my dreams anyway. It's the meat that smells so good when it cooks it will get you out of bed in the morning.

But, is it good for your body?

Calories. Bacon is surprisingly low in calories since most of the fat is usually cooked off. Bacon has about 43 calories per cooked slice. Turkey bacon has about 30 calories per cooked slice.

Keto advantages. If you're currently living a Keto lifestyle, or have in the past, you know that bacon is the golden meat of Keto. It's high in protein and the bacon grease makes an excellent fat source.

Taste. You can't beat the taste of a perfectly cooked piece of bacon. This is why Air Fryer bacon is so incredible. All the desirable taste, and none of the fuss and mess of traditional cooking methods.

Want More Air Fryer Bacon Recipes?

• Air Fried Green Beans and Bacon - easy and delicious!
• Mushrooms with Bacon - not air fried, but super simple.
• Swiss Chard with Bacon - done in a few minutes on the stovetop.
• Cauliflower Mac-N-Cheese with Bacon and Jalapenos - as good as it sounds.
• Tacos De Alambre - all the taco flavor plus bacon.
• Easy Baked Chicken Poppers - easy Keto meal or appetizer.
• Brussels Sprouts with Bacon - made with yummy caramelized onions.
• Philly Cheesesteak - Not traditionally served with bacon, but it's delicious.

Air fried bacon is going to be your new favorite way to cook bacon. You'll soon be free of grease splatters, and will have a belly full of crispy bacon instead.

Originally Published January 20, 2020

And don't forget to check out my air fryer cookbooks! Every day easy air fryer, and Air Fryer Revolution.