By learning how to cook this Air Fryer Bacon recipe, you can simplify your breakfast meal prep while still getting perfectly crispy bacon in just 10 minutes! In the air fryer, strips of bacon are roasted from all sides while the fat drips away, leaving them fully cooked and quickly ready to eat. Once you’ve given this no-smoke method a shot, you’ll never want to try another kind again!
For many years, there has been a rumor floating around which I didn’t want to be true. The buzz in the food community has been that air fryer bacon is better than ANY other method of cooking it – in a skillet on the stovetop, on the grill, or even oven-baked bacon!
Surely, I thought, there’s no way this could be possible. These people obviously haven’t had my father-in-love’s Saturday morning bacon, lovingly cooked in a cast-iron skillet and tended to for close to 30 minutes!
Yet after the man himself reported the cold, hard truth that air-fried bacon WAS, indeed, the best, I knew I simply had to give it a try!
With one batch of Whole Foods thick-cut bacon, fully cooked, crispy, and ready to eat with practically no time and no hassle, I knew I was sold. The intense, open-air heat of convection baking makes the perfect environment for bacon to crisp evenly on all sides, while also shedding excess fat along the way.
Types of Bacon
Much like the oven, the air fryer is pretty forgiving when it comes to cooking just about anything in it. But there are a few general rules of thumb you’ll want to follow when selecting your bacon and knowing how long to cook it.
The thickness of the bacon is a huge determinant for how long you will need to air fry it. Thick-cut bacon will take a minute or two longer than regular-cut while thin slices will take a minute or two less.
The leanness of the bacon strips will also play a small role in how long it needs to cook. Leaner strips will cook up more quickly since there is less fat to render off, while fattier slices will take a little longer to cook.
How to Make Air Fryer Bacon
Despite the simplicity of the preparation method, there are still certain steps which must be followed carefully for the sake of quality and safety. These are the steps to follow to make bacon in the air fryer:
Heat the Air Fryer
Preheat your air fryer to 350°F. Some recipes call for cooking it at 325°F while others call for 400°F. Cooking bacon at 350°F is low enough that it gives the bacon time to release all of its excess fat, but fast enough that it can be ready in just 10 minutes.
This lower temperature is also good for helping to keep your air fryer from generating smoke with the bacon drippings, as the smoke point of bacon fat generally lands around 400°F. However, in the case that it still does, adding a small bit of water – which risks making the bacon soggy – or placing a few slices of bread beneath the cooking basket to soak up the grease may also work to prevent smoking.
Arrange the Strips
Carefully arrange the strips of bacon on the metal rack in a single layer. Try to leave a little bit of space in between the strips, and avoid overlapping them, as any covered parts will remain soggy instead of crisping with the rest.
If the bacon is too long to fit, or if wavy pieces are desired, pieces may be carefully creased or cut in half.
Cook the Bacon
Keeping the type of bacon you’ve purchased in mind, set the timer on the air fryer and cook the strips for 9-10 minutes, adding or subtracting 1-2 minutes based on leanness and thickness.
The safest practice is to err on the side of 7-8 minutes, check the bacon, and then return it to the air fryer to finish cooking, if still underdone. If desired, you can flip the bacon strips at this stage in order to ensure even crisping, although this isn’t usually needed.
When the desired level of crispness has been reached, carefully remove the bacon strips from the air fryer with a pair of long tongs, to avoid burning yourself.
While most of the excess fat will have drained off into the pan during the cooking process, a bit of extra surface fat will still remain. To soak it up, either arrange the strips in a single layer on a plate lined with a paper towel, or dab away the excess with a clean paper towel.
Storage and Reheating
- To Store: Cooked bacon may be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
- To Freeze: Freeze cooked bacon in a freezer-safe container for up to 3-4 months.
- To Reheat: The best way to reheat bacon is in the air fryer, set to 300°F. Cook it for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Avoid using the microwave, as this will make the bacon soggy and limp.
FAQs
Since food is suspended in the air fryer basket, most of the excess fat from the bacon will be rendered off during cooking. This makes air-fried bacon significantly healthier than bacon cooked in the oven or on the stovetop, because it isn’t cooking in its own grease.
While air frying is an excellent and relatively healthy way to cook bacon, depending on the size of your air fryer, you may be quite limited in the amount you can cook at one time. Overcrowding the bacon even a small amount can cause it to cook unevenly and turn out soggy rather than crisp.
Due to the amount of grease that the bacon will generate on its own as soon as it begins cooking, there’s no need to add any additional oil to the air fryer while cooking bacon.
If the strips have been arranged in a single layer, there’s no need to flip the bacon in the middle of cooking. The convection oven-like setup of the air fryer will ensure even crisping throughout.
Expert Tips and Tricks
- Give it space. Even if it means cooking in smaller batches, giving the bacon enough space that no pieces are overlapping or touching each other is important to achieving a fully crisp texture.
- Clean the bottom. If making multiple batches of bacon, taking a moment to drain or wipe the excess grease out of the bottom of the air fryer can prevent burning and smoking.
- Keep an eye out. Air fryers have the benefit of allowing you to frequently check the progress of your bacon, so use your sight along with the guidance of the timer to determine when exactly the bacon is cooked to your preference.
- Save the grease. Rendered bacon grease can bring amazing flavor to loads of recipes, so store it in an airtight glass mason jar and keep it at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 6 months.
- Make it sweet. Consider rubbing the bacon slices with a small amount of brown sugar before cooking, to make candied bacon – but beware of burns from the melted sugar!
More Bacon Recipes
If you have a little bit of extra bacon leftover, there are quite a few delicious recipes with which you can use it up:
- Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
- Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
- Easy Broccoli Salad with Bacon
- Bacon Wrapped Scallops
- Mini Quiche
- Breakfast Potato Hash & Eggs
- Bacon Wrapped Dates
- Savory Waffles
Air Fryer Bacon Recipe
By learning how to cook this Air Fryer Bacon recipe, you can simplify your breakfast meal prep while still getting perfectly crispy bacon in just 10 minutes! In the air fryer, strips of bacon are roasted from all sides while the fat drips away, leaving them fully cooked and quickly ready to eat.
Ingredients
- 4 oz. bacon about 4-5 strips
Instructions
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Heat Air Fryer to 350°F.
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Place bacon strips on the metal rack in a single layer. If the bacon is too long to fit or you’d like to get wavy pieces, place your pointer finger underneath a section of it to lift it up. Repeat this another time on the same piece of bacon and do this with all strips.
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Cook bacon for 9-10 minutes. Cook a minute less if very thin strips or 1-2 minutes more if really thick strips.
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Remove bacon from Air Fryer and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Eat immediately and enjoy!
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Storage and Reheating
- To Store: Cooked bacon may be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
- To Freeze: Freeze cooked bacon in a freezer-safe container for up to 3-4 months.
- To Reheat: The best way to reheat bacon is in the air fryer, set to 300°F. Cook it for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Avoid using the microwave, as this will make the bacon soggy and limp.
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Lynda Kirk says
How long do you cook bacon in an oven type air fryer?
London Brazil says
Hi Lynda! I don’t have an oven-type air fryer so I am not 100% sure, but I would assume the same time! You can always take a peek at it at the 8 minute mark to see how it’s doing though!
Chef John says
Great recipe. They always succeed. Great taste, just how I think it should be.
London Brazil says
Yay! So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe, John! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment and rating!