How To Cook Bacon in an Air Fryer

If you love everything about bacon, and your air fryer just so happens to be your favorite appliance in the kitchen, boy, are you in for a treat!

While there are plenty of ways to cook bacon, and many claim their approach is the absolute best, we want you to know about one method that trumps them all.

Why Air-Fried Bacon Is Best

Bacon is delicious on its own but does wonders in accompanying so many dishes. The salty slices complete a big breakfast, and a few pieces of bacon bring a crispy flare to your juicy burger like no other ingredient.

But let’s be real here for a second— no matter which method you choose, the task of cooking it isn’t all that fun. If you plan on frying your bacon in a skillet, you know grease will splash everywhere. Throwing bacon in the oven is excellent for big batches, but it takes a whopping 20 minutes to reach that perfect crisp.

And yes, toaster ovens, microwaves, and waffle irons will get the job done, but our new favorite method is quick, efficient, and only involves pressing a button.

Here is why air-fried bacon is the best:

• It’s convenient: Nothing quite beats the convenience of putting bacon in a basket and pressing a button.
• You don’t have to babysit it: When cooking your bacon in a skillet, there’s no such thing as walking away. Not only is it unsafe, but you’re risking burnt bacon. Nobody wants that.
• It’s less messy: Let’s face it, bacon grease is super messy, but it doesn’t have to be. The basket design allows fat to fall to the bottom, and it contains all the grease splatter.
• Even cooking: The air fryer is designed to rapidly circulate hot air around the food, so your bacon will cook more evenly with this method. So, no more burnt middles and chewy ends.
• It’s healthier: Because the bacon slices are elevated in an air fryer basket, all that fat will drip down rather than adhere to the pieces, which means your bacon will be slightly healthier.
• Draining the fat is easy: Your baskets are equipped with a handle, so pouring the melted fat into a coffee cup or mason jar is easier than ever. Plus, if you started with a clean air fryer, you’re more than welcome to save that precious grease and use it for cooking purposes.

Alright, we’ll stop bragging about air-fried bacon. Now, let’s get to the actual cooking part, shall we?

How to Air Fry Bacon

Air-frying bacon is a straightforward process, and you’ll be reaping those tasty rewards in no time. So, grab a pack of your favorite cut, and let’s get to it.

Follow these three simple steps:

1. Place bacon strips in your air fryer basket, and ensure the strips do not overlap.
2. Air fry at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Regular-cut bacon and turkey bacon take about 7-9 minutes, depending on desired crispiness. Thick-cut bacon takes about 10 minutes, depending on desired crispiness. Check bacon after about seven minutes and go from there.
3. Using tongs, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined dish. Transfer oil before putting it in the next batch to avoid smoking.

That’s it! It’s so easy, and the results are fantastic every time. We are having bacon cheeseburgers for dinner tonight; how about you?

How to Store Bacon Grease

By now, you probably already know that pouring bacon grease down the drain is a big no-no. It causes your drain pipes to clog up and contributes to sewage blockages. But besides racking up hefty plumbing charges, we simply don’t believe in discarding bacon grease for one reason; we like to cook with it.

If you love bacon as much as we do here at LifeSavvy, do yourself a favor and store the leftover grease for a rainy day. Either place a small fine mesh strainer over a coffee mug, pour the oil to catch all the bacon bits, or use a grease container with a built-in filter. 

From there, store your bacon fat in the fridge for up to three months and use it for home cooking. You can substitute it for butter when making a roux or add a teaspoon of grease to a scratch gravy. It’s great for sauteing vegetables and for bringing flavor to homefries on brunch day.

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We love air frying our bacon because it’s so easy and turns out perfectly every time! From there, all left to do is give it a good scrub down to make it shine again, and there are plenty of cleaning hacks for that too.