Easy Big Batch Bacon in an Oven

By Catherine Newman

Active Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15-25 minutes
Total Carbohydrates: 0.1 grams per slice

Here’s game-changing advice: Make your bacon in the oven. You’ll think it can’t possibly be as good, because if it were, why haven’t you done it before? But it’s great! It’s perfect. I mean, unless you love standing around getting fat-splattered at the stove, cooking bacon that never makes it to the table because everyone wanders by to snack on it. Just saying (#teenagers). Use the best, nitrate-free bacon you can find. Then simply heat the oven to 375, lay the bacon in a single layer on a large, rimmed baking sheet (you’ll fit about 10 strips per sheet, though you can bake more than one sheet at a time), and bake for around 15 minutes, checking it first at 10 and being prepared to go to 20. Remember, as you’re evaluating it for doneness, that it will crisp more as it cools. Drain it on paper towels, and be a hero.

Note 1: You can also slightly undercook the bacon, store it in the fridge in a Ziploc, and then reheat it in the microwave on a paper towel, when you “need” bacon.

Note 2: Are you wondering about bacon’s giant cameo appearance in this good-for-you article? Well, it’s true that bacon isn’t conventionally thought of as a health food. But it’s actually a decent source of protein and an excellent source of pleasure – and it won’t jack up blood sugar, which is nice!

About Catherine

Catherine loves to write about food and feeding people. In addition to her recipe and parenting blog Ben & Birdy (which has about 15,000 weekly readers), she edits the ChopChop series of mission-driven cooking magazines. This kids’ cooking magazine won the James Beard Publication of the Year award in 2013 – the first non-profit ever to win it – and a Parents’ Choice Gold Award. Last year they started the WIC version of the magazine for families enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and are currently developing Seasoned, their senior version, commissioned by the AARP. They distribute over a million magazines annually, through paid subscriptions, doctor’s offices, schools, and hospitals. Their mission started with obesity as its explicit focus – and has shifted, over the years, to a more holistic one, with health and happiness at its core. That’s the same vibe Catherine brings to the diaTribe column.

[Photo Credit: Catherine Newman]