There’s nothing quite like a crispy bacon breakfast, but frying it in a pan can often lead to a rubbery disaster. Many people opt to cook bacon with oil or butter, but as it naturally produces its own fat, too much grease can cause the white edges to burn before the centre is properly cooked. This results in bacon that is both charred and undercooked, leaving you with a soggy breakfast that hasn’t crisped up properly and a pan coated in hardened grease.
However, professional chef Billy Parisi has revealed a foolproof method to ensure your bacon cooks perfectly every time without any oil splatters, and it involves ditching the frying pan altogether. Billy confessed: “I’ve made more bacon then I care to remember stemming all the way back to my restaurant days. I’ve pan-fried, grilled, even deep-fried it, but to this day I’ve never found a better way to prepare it than this.”
He further explained: “The absolute best way to cook bacon is in the oven. It perfectly browns it up while staying way longer in shape than when it shrivels up pan-frying it.”
Cooking bacon in the oven ensures the heat will cook both the pink meat and white fat at the same time, so it will crisp up consistently, reports the Express. Any excess fat will simply melt away from the meat as the bacon cooks, so there is no chance of it becoming rubbery or greasy.
Not only will your bacon be tastier and have a better texture, but it will also be much healthier, as it will cook on its own without the added calories from butter or oil.
This is a simple trick to ensure your bacon strips are always crispy, and it also makes cleaning up a breeze as you won’t have to scrub a greasy pan afterwards.
How to properly cook bacon in an oven
Firstly, line a tray with baking paper and preheat the oven to 200°C (or 180°C for fan ovens).
Next, lay the bacon strips on the tray. If you prefer, you can place a wire rack over the tray, which allows all the fat to drip away, resulting in much crispier bacon.
Arrange the bacon in a single layer so it doesn’t touch each other, then pop it in the oven. Thin streaky bacon will take about 15 minutes to cook, while thicker cuts will need around 20 minutes.
However, cooking times can vary depending on your oven, so be sure to regularly check on the bacon after the 10-minute mark.
The bacon is ready when it’s golden brown and perfectly caramelised. Remove it from the oven, place it on some kitchen roll to drain the excess fat, and serve it on a buttered roll.