Air Fried Bacon

People enjoy discovering new and exciting ways to use their air fryers, and cooking bacon is by far the most common.

In under 10 minutes, you can have air-fried bacon with no greasy mess on the stove! Some also claim that cooking bacon in an air fryer is the healthiest choice, but is it?

Is air-fried bacon healthier? No, cooking bacon in the air fryer isn’t any different from cooking bacon in the oven or a skillet. However, if you use a skillet, make sure to drain your bacon on paper towels. It could be more convenient for you to cook bacon in the oven!

There are various ways to cook bacon. So, I put three of the most common methods to the test to see which one is truly the best.

It’s an oven vs. air fryer vs. conventional skillet fight. Which method is the simplest and most effective, and which produces the most delicious bacon strips?

Cooking Bacon in an Air Fryer vs. Other Traditional Methods

Cooking bacon in the air fryer is similar to cooking bacon in the oven or a skillet. The air fryer works similarly to a small convection oven.

Bacon produces a lot of grease, which makes it unhealthy if you do not prepare it well. The best way to make bacon healthy is to have it as crispy as possible.

This will render as much fat from the bacon as possible, making it healthier. If you don’t cook your bacon until it’s crispy, it’ll have more fat, which equals more calories.

Air Fryer vs. Oven vs. Skillet

Air Fryer

Are you planning to jump on the air fryer train? People love how easy it is to make crispy, crunchy, and tasty keto dishes with this handy kitchen appliance. Bacon must, of course, be cooked in the air fryer basket.

Procedure:

1. Set the temperature to 350°F and the timer to nine minutes for this air fryer bacon. This method is for thick-cut bacon. If your bacon is thinner, start at five minutes.


2. Check on the bacon and adjust the cooking time if necessary.


3. Remove some grease from the basket. Next, wipe it clean to prevent the fat from oxidizing if you want to cook another batch.

Because bacon has a smoke point of 374°F, cook it in the air fryer at 350°F. When bacon fat reaches this temperature, it begins to oxidize and smoke. This technique is how to prevent the bacon from smoking while frying!

The Advantages of an Air Fryer

• Grease is kept at bay.
• It’s ideal for cooking a few bits at a time.
• Bacon can be prepared in 8-10 minutes.
• Crispy bacon is the result.
• It’s not a messy situation, and it’s easy to clean up.

The Disadvantages of an Air Fryer

If you’re feeding a big group or in the morning, you may need to make multiple batches. I prefer thicker bacon, and I’ve noticed that the air fryer produces extremely thin and crispy bacon.

Skillet

The tried-and-true bacon-on-the-stove system. We couldn’t leave this out because this is how most people prepare their salty strips.

Procedure:

1. On the burner, fire a 10-inch skillet over medium heat.
2. Cook for 10 minutes, turning halfway through, with three to five strips in the pan.

The Advantages of a Skillet

• Perfect for a few strips.
• At a glance, the crispiness degree is easy to assess.
• If you use a bigger skillet, you can cook more.
• After the bacon has been removed from the pan, you can conserve the grease for later use.
• Alternatively, you can cook eggs or vegetables right away in the bacon grease in the same pan.

The Disadvantages of a Skillet

It is a common process. However, it would help if you used a grease shield. Otherwise, it can result in a major mess.

The mess will require you to clean both the pan and the stovetop. It also necessitates continuous monitoring because the bacon will burn in a flash!

Oven

Will you need to cook a lot of bacon at once? You can still have crisp bacon strips in the oven on a baking sheet! This method is quick, and unlike conventional stovetop cooking, it does not necessitate constant monitoring or flipping.

Procedure:

1. Place up to 10 bacon strips on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 400°F. Do not preheat the oven.
2. When the bacon is sizzling and crispy, remove it from the oven after 18-20 minutes.
3. Drain the grease and rotate the pan halfway through the cooking time to ensure the bacon cooks evenly.

The Advantages of an Oven

• Ideal for large-scale cooking.
• Cleaning up is a breeze. You have two options:

1. Toss the foil into a ball and throw it away.
2. Save the drippings in a jar so you can use them later.
3. Both of the strips have been cooked uniformly.

The Disadvantages of an Oven

Bacon can take up to 20 minutes to finish cooking, which is the longest cooking time of the methods tested. However, you can cook more strips at once.

So, the timing is more reliable than with the other methods, which involve cooking in batches.

How to Clean the Air Fryer After Cooking Bacon

It’s very easy to clean the air fryer after cooking bacon. Here’s how:

1. Pour the bacon grease out of the air fryer and discard it until it cools. You may also save it for later cooking!
2. Allow the air fryer to cool fully before cleaning it with damp paper towels, including the burner.
3. Never let grease go down your drain, so make sure it’s clean!

You may now traditionally wash the air fryer.

Tips When Air Frying Bacon

• When cooking the second batch right after the first, drain and scrub out any grease from the basket.


• Right after the air fryer has cooled down, clean any grease that has splattered on the interior. Use a damp paper towel, paying particular attention to the top burner. This will prevent the bacon from smoking the next time you cook it.

Conclusion

Baking bacon in the oven is the perfect way to prepare it and make it even healthier. It takes the longest, but it needs the least effort—you don’t even have to preheat the oven!

The strips are all cooked to the same amount of doneness. Plus, you won’t have to cook the bacon strips in batches, and you can eat them all at once!