Baked Bacon

My favorite way to prepare bacon, by far, is baking it in the oven. It eliminates a mess on my stovetop, bakes all of the bacon evenly, and leaves me with a nice pan of bacon fat to use in other recipes. I use a jelly roll pan fitted with a cooling rack. Some people bake it without the rack, but I like to separate the bacon from the fat. I can fit a whole pound of bacon in the pan, although sometimes it overlaps a bit until the bacon starts shrinking. If you are using it in a recipe, such as veggie hash, you can also bake the bacon half way in the oven and then add it to a pan of other ingredients. I like to bake a pound of bacon and bring it for road food when we travel. Even the kids love munching on it! Try this cooking method the next time you make bacon...you'll never go back!

Makes one pound of bacon. Try not to eat it all at once...


Ingredients
1 pound nitrate-free thick-cut bacon


Preparation

1. Place bacon on a rack in a shallow pan (jelly roll pan works great). 
2. Set oven heat to 400 degrees F. 
3. Immediately place bacon in the oven (before it reaches temperature).
4. The bacon is usually ready by the time the oven reaches 400 degrees, or about 15-20 minutes.

NOTE: We like our bacon super crispy. Cooking time will vary depending on how you like your bacon.