Crispy Air Fryer Bacon Recipe - Evolving Table (2024)

FAQs

Does adding water to bacon make it crispier? ›

Yes! I cook bacon with enough water to just cover it. I let the water completely evaporate and then fry until crisp. It also renders out more fat than just frying.

Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of your air fryer basket. This will prevent the rendered bacon fat from smoking.

Generally, thin-cut bacon, which is most readily available at grocery stores, takes around 16–20 minutes at 400°–425° Fahrenheit to get crisp without being too charred. I like mine just this side of burnt, which I can easily achieve by cranking up the heat to 425°F and letting the strips cook for 16 minutes.

Preheat an air fryer to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C) according to manufacturer's instructions. Lay bacon in the air fryer basket in a single layer; some overlap is okay. Fry for 8 minutes. Flip and continue cooking until bacon is crisp, about 7 minutes more.

Place bacon in air fryer

If you're using an oven-style air fryer, you'll want to put the bacon on an air-fry basket (basically a mesh rack) with either a solid pan or a piece of aluminum foil folded up on the edges underneath to catch any bacon grease drippings.

The key is to slowly render the fat to achieve bacon's character-defining crispness. Unless you walk away from the stove while cooking — which you should not be in the practice of doing outside of a handful of situations anyway — this method produces superior results every time.

They cook it the best way possible, on a sheet pan in the oven. The bonus is while it takes longer to make this way, you can make more at once, the pieces are more or less flat and they come out crispy. Or they throw it in the deep fryer once it's done.

As with other meats, allow some room between strips, about an inch, when placing bacon in the pan. Crowding creates steam and prevents the bacon from cooking evenly, giving you limp bacon instead of crispy strips. Cook in batches if needed.

In just nine minutes, you can have hot bacon ready to serve. The best part about the air fryer is that the grease collects underneath the basket in the drawer, so there's no grease splatters in the kitchen and the grease is a cinch to discard (simply tip the drawer to pour off).

Not only can it make crispy bacon in less than 10 minutes in most cases, but the finished product isn't as greasy as fried or baked bacon, either. Best of all, you'll spend less time cleaning up, especially if you line your air fryer with parchment paper.

Is it better to bake bacon at 350 or 400? ›

Bacon should be cooked at 400°F. Medium-thick bacon slices will need 18 to 20 minutes to reach the perfect level of crispiness. But check the bacon at 10 minutes, and adjust your cooking time to your preferred degree of doneness.

Tastin' Bacon

You then smell and taste them, which is why bacon smells so good when cooking. The Maillard reaction also contributes to bacon's delicious flavor. This chemical reaction occurs between amino acids and sugars when meat is cooked. It gives bacon its characteristic brown color and crispy texture.

Long Term Storage: Keep it in the Freezer

For long-term storage, the freezer is your best bet. Similar to refrigerating bacon, allow the meat to cool before sealing it in an airtight bag. Remember, condensation is the enemy of crunchy bacon!

If the strips do overlap, they probably won't all cook fully and evenly. Bacon doesn't normally blow around too much in an air fryer, but if you want to keep it from curling, you can place a small rack directly on top. I used the trivet from my Instant Pot.