Here’s the Best (and Fastest) Way to Make Crispy Bacon [CNET]

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You can make sizzling hot, crispy strips of bacon in as little as 8 minutes at home. Here’s the method.

David Watsky Senior Editor / Home and Kitchen

David lives in Brooklyn where he’s spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips. David earned his BA from Northeastern and has toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom. Right now he’s likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or tinkering with a toaster. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.

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Dan was a writer on CNET’s How-To and Thought Leadership teams. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, NBC News, Architectural Digest and elsewhere. He is a crossword junkie and is interested in the intersection of tech and marginalized communities.

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We’ve become a tad obsessed with making bacon around here. You can pan-fry those fatty slabs but that leaves a greasy mess. Bacon made in the oven turns out crispy strips and there’s not much mess to clean, but there’s a bit more prep involved and the cooking time takes longer.

Air fryer bacon was next on our list of methods to test, and things worked out well.

Air fryer bacon turned out as crispy as any method with minimal mess to clean and, best of all, bacon takes only 7 to 10 minutes depending on the recipe you follow. Does that make air fryer bacon the best bacon? We’ll let you decide, but if you want crispy bacon in a flash, an air fryer is the fastest way to make crispy bacon.

Making bacon in the air fryer is also simple, takes almost no skill, very little time and no special equipment other than your air fryer. If there’s one drawback, it’s that air fryers have limited capacity so you might not be able to cook an entire package in your air fryer depending on its size. But air fryer bacon cooks so fast, that making it in batches is no big hassle.

One Reddit user even suggested placing pieces of bread beneath the bacon to function as a grease trap, which could potentially save a lot of cleaning time with the air fryer later. There are some leftovers from the cooking process you might want to use later though, so keep that in mind when you’re starting to place the bacon in the air fryer.

For more cooking tips, find out how to make bacon in the oven and what to do with leftover bacon fat, and see how using your air fryer can actually save you money.

How to cook bacon in an air fryer

Air fryers have replaced the larger oven for a ton of recipes around here. We’ve cooked cheeseburgers, whole chicken, salmon filets and of course, plenty of wings, fries and frozen snacks in the speedy countertop cooker. That has us wondering, can you make crispy bacon in an air fryer? 

According to TikTok chef Skyler Paladino, aka @cookswithskye, you can make perfect bacon in your air fryer in 8 to 10 minutes. You just have to make sure the machine is cleaned thoroughly and that you haven’t set the temperature too high.

Paladino, who has nearly 180,000 followers, says bacon made in an air fryer tastes the same as it would in a frying pan.

“The air fryer just makes it easier to cook, allowing for more even cooking and control,” he told CNET. 

How to make bacon in the air fryer

1. Place your bacon in the air fryer. Lay the strips next to each other, careful not to overlap them. You may have to make your bacon in batches or cut strips into smaller pieces if they’re too long. 
2. Fill the bottom with water to cut down on smoke. If your air fryer doesn’t have a bottom, Paladino said, be sure to clean the drip tray between each batch and keep a close eye on your fryer while it cooks.
3. Set the temperature on your air fryer. There’s some wiggle room depending on how thick your bacon is, what kind of machine you have and how you like your bacon done.
4. Cook for 7 to 9 minutes on air fry and voila, that’s it.

How long should you cook bacon in the air fryer

Paladino — who likes his crispy — recommends air frying your bacon for 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. (The smoke point for bacon is 400 degrees Fahrenheit, so you’ll want to keep it under that.)

Food blogger Natasha Kravchuk, who has more than 3 million YouTube followers, suggests 7 minutes for softer bacon and 8 to 9 minutes if you like it crunchy.

If you have thick-cut bacon, according to Kravchuk, cook it a bit longer: 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 9 to 10 minutes for tender strips, and 10 to 12 for crispy.

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