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Air Fryer Bacon is quick and easy, an efficient method that contains all the grease for less mess in your kitchen. Whether you’re making regular, thick-cut, or turkey bacon, the air fryer is sure to be your new favorite method.
Meggan’s notes
Using the air fryer is a fast and fuss-free way to make bacon, and as a classically-trained chef and busy mom of three, I am always looking for shortcuts in my meal prep routine.
Air fryer bacon became my favorite method, even surpassing oven-fried bacon, simply because of how easily the grease is contained. It’s also super easy to coral the bacon fat at the end in case you want to save it for frying potatoes and eggs (which I highly recommend).
Whether you’re cooking bacon to eat as-is or adding it to another recipe, using your air fryer is a no-brainer that will make everything else easier. Faster to cook, easier to clean up: these are things we can all appreciate!
Table of Contents
Ingredient notes
- Bacon: These recipes work for all bacon: regular bacon, thick-cut bacon, turkey bacon, cured or uncured bacon. The cook time will very between regular and thick-cut bacon, though.
Step-by-step instructions
- Preheat air fryer to 350 degrees. To the basket of an air fryer, add 5 or 6 strips regular bacon (use the amount the fats, cutting to fit if needed).
- Fry regular bacon for 7 to 10 minutes and thick-cut bacon for 10 to 12 minutes (cook to desired crispiness).
- Remove from air fryer basket and drain on paper towels. Discard any leftover bacon grease in the bottom of the air fryer between batches.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: 1 pound of regular bacon usually has 16 slices, enough for 8 servings, 2 slices each. Thick-cut bacon will have 10-12 slices per pound.
- Storage: Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Freezer: Add cooked bacon slices in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and freeze until solid. Then, transfer to a freezer-safe bag, label, date, and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or reheat right from the freezer (in the microwave, a skillet, or air fryer).
- Keep the fat: Store bacon grease in a jar in the fridge for up to 3 months or freeze it indefinitely. Personally, I like to strain the warm grease through a fine-mesh sieve before I pour it into the jar, but you don’t have to. Use bacon grease for air-frying Brussels Sprouts or making fried eggs and scrambled eggs.
- Soups with bacon: Crumbled bacon is a delicious topping on Loaded Baked Potato Soup, Corn Chowder, Split Pea Soup, New England Clam Chowder, and Manhattan Clam Chowder.
- Salads with bacon: Put your cooked bacon to work in Broccoli Salad (aka Piggly Wiggly salad if you’re from Wisconsin), Seven Layer Salad, Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, a classic Wedge Salad, BLT Pasta Salad, and the Best Macaroni Salad.
Frequently Asked Questions
That is up to you and how you like your bacon. Since most bacon is already cured, there is no hard and fast rule about cooking times—most of it is eyeballed. How do you know when bacon is done? Look at it. It should be browned, crisp, and tantalizingly juicy.
On the stove or in the oven, most bacon fully cooks within 10-18 minutes. One thing to consider is that thick-cut bacon might take longer to fry than thin bacon. And turkey bacon cooks much faster. Do you like tender, soft bacon with rippled fatty edges? Take it out on the early side. Or do you like it crisp and brittle? Leave it in a little longer.
It certainly can be! Seek out uncured bacon with no sugar added and you’ll be Paleo-compliant and Whole30 compatible.
Put your bacon to work
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Join Us
Air Fryer Bacon
- 1 pound bacon (see note 1)
- Preheat air fryer to 350 degrees. To the basket of an air fryer, add 5 or 6 strips regular bacon (use the amount the fats, cutting to fit if needed).
- Fry regular bacon for 7 to 10 minutes and thick-cut bacon for 10 to 12 minutes (cook to desired crispiness).
- Remove from air fryer basket and drain on paper towels. Discard any leftover bacon grease in the bottom of the air fryer between batches.
- Bacon: These recipes work for all bacon: regular bacon, thick-cut bacon, turkey bacon, cured or uncured bacon. The cook time will very between regular and thick-cut bacon, though.
- Yield: 1 pound of regular bacon usually has 16 slices, enough for 8 servings, 2 slices each. Thick-cut bacon will have 10-12 slices per pound.
- Storage: Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.