The air fryer is the easiest and fastest way to cook bacon! It is done in under 10 minutes with no grease splatters everywhere and crazy simple cleanup.
Let’s be honest, nobody loves standing over a pan of splattering bacon cooking on the stove. We solved this years ago by starting to cook bacon in the oven, but I am here to tell you that my newest obsession is to cook it in the air fryer.
It will be done way faster than your oven or stovetop can and it is SO much easier to clean up after you are done!
This method also works equally well with cooking turkey bacon if that’s your jam.
Ingredients Needed:
Drumroll please…..it’s Bacon! Your favorite brand, thick or thin is fine. Personally I prefer a good thick cut bacon or a peppered bacon but my kids love the classic bacon so we do both.
Turkey bacon also works if you love it.
How Long To Cook Air Fryer Bacon
The cook time for this recipe can vary depending on the desired level of crispiness, the thickness of the meat, and the style of your air fryer. Also worth noting, we do not preheat the air fryer for this recipe. You can of course, I just don’t find it necessary.
- Regular Cut Bacon: for soft bacon, cook at 350˚F for 6 minutes, and for crispy bacon, cook 8 minutes
- Thick-Cut Bacon: for soft bacon, air fry at 350˚F for 8 minutes, and for crispy bacon, cook 10-11 minutes.
Pay close attention to your air fryer the first few times you cook it.
Check often to make sure it isn’t getting too crispy. Once you have dialed in the length of time it takes to cook the bacon to your liking, you won’t have to check on it while it cooks if you always use the same brand!
What Air Fryer Do You Recommend?
We use the 5.8 Quart Cosori Air Fryer and love it for it’s large basket and easy interface! It is simple to use and the entire basket is dishwasher safe and comes apart easily.
My 8 and 10 year old kids can use it independently no problem, which is honestly my favorite feature so they can make bacon before they head out for school on weekdays.
Storage Tips
- How To Store: You can refrigerate leftovers in an airtight storage container or zippered freezer bag.
- How To Reheat. Warm up leftovers in the air fryer at 350 degrees F until hot.
- How To Freeze: You can freeze leftovers in a freezer-safe storage container, a zippered freezer bag or vacuum packing. Reheat from frozen in the air fryer at 350 degrees F until hot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, if you want to use turkey bacon, this recipe works great. Just cook the turkey bacon as you would regular bacon with no changes.
We do not preheat the air fryer for this recipe.
We cook the bacon at 350 degrees. Bacon fat starts to smoke depending on which resource you look at between 325-400 degrees. In our tests we had very minimal amounts of smoking to no smoking at 350 degrees. If you find yours is smoking, your air fryer may run hotter than it says it is and you may benefit from lowering the temperature and cooking slightly longer.
If you are cooking a ton of bacon in batches be sure to drain the fat out of the lower pan to prevent a build up of grease after every batch.
It is worth noting that if your air fryer is ALWAYS smoking you likely need to clean the heating element (when it is fully cooled) as it has food or grease build up on it. Consult your manual on best procedure for this!
Yes!
If you prefer to not have to transfer the grease into anything else you can definitely line the bottom tray with foil. I don’t personally find it a big deal to wipe out the grease though so I don’t often do this.
The Best Air Fryer Bacon
Ingredients
- 5 slices bacon, thick cut or regular cut
Instructions
- Lay the bacon strips in a single layer in the basket of the air fryer. You can cut the strips if needed for smaller basket types.
- Cook at 350˚F for 6-8 minutes for regular thickness, 8-10 minutes for thick cut, until bacon is cooked to the desire level of crisp. You can add an additional 1-2 minutes if you like your bacon extra crispy.
- Remove bacon to a cooling rack or a plate with paper towels to soak up excess grease. You can place this plate in a warming drawer or warm oven that is turned off if you are making multiple batches.
Definitely going to be making bacon in the air fryer from now on! So much quicker and easier!
Truly appreciate the way you made this. Everything is so nicely described that really helped me lots.