How To Cook Bacon In The Air Fryer

I love bacon but lets face it I hate cooking it. even more so when cooking bacon for my whole family. Cooking bacon tends to take forever and it is a lot more work than you bargain for when you need to make a large batch. This is where cooking bacon in the air fryer is a blessing.

My sister thought me this trick. We have some 8x 8 pans that fit into the air fryer that make this super easy and everyone loves that we can make bacon so easily now. I also love that it makes it super easy to save and use bacon grease.

Can you make bacon in an air fryer?

Odds are you are here because you were looking for the answer to this question or you heard someone say you can cook bacon in an air fryer and you wanted to know how to do it. the truth is cooking bacon in an air fryer is the easier way I have found to make bacon.

This method is easier than the oven method and takes very little attention to the details while still making the perfect bacon every single time.

We make our bacon in the Instant Pot Vortex but our other air fryer does make decent bacon though it is hard to find a good pan to fit it. Check out this list of the best air fryers if you are looking for a good one.

How to keep the mess down when cooking bacon in the air fryer

While you can place the bacon directly in your air fryer and even make it where you can skip the string by using a rack in your air fryer and cooking in a single layer this can be a pain to clean.

The trick to making bacon in the air fryer without making a mess is to contain the grease. Adding a liner or pan to the inside of your air fryer is the best way to do this. As an extra step, I sometimes line it with parchment paper to so I do not even have to scrub the pan down after cooking.

How to make bacon in the air fryer

Making bacon in the air fryer is extremely easy and doesn’t take much time or focus you can whip up bacon while you work on other parts of your meal.

Start by placing your bacon in your air fryer or the pan that you are lining it with. If you are only dooking a small amount you can place it in a single layer. If you are doing a lot of bacon like I was with this 24 oz pack of bacon you can simply separate and pile in.

Start your bacon in your air fryer at 350 degrees. Unlike other times when you want the perfect crisp in the air fryer, you do not have to preheat your air fryer for this.

Set for 10 minutes for thin-cut bacon 15 minutes for thick-cut bacon.

Stir your bacon with a fork or tongs every few minutes. This can be done when you have a moment while working on other tasks and simply helps to get an even crisp.

If you like very crispy bacon and an extra minute or two. If you like it soft you can always pull it a bit sooner when you see the bacon has reached the texture you want.

How to cook turkey bacon in the air fryer

Turkey bacon is just as easy to make in the air fryer as regular bacon though you will find that it it thinner and will cook up much faster than regular bacon. Cut your cooking time down to 6 to 8 minutes for turkey bacon and follow the above instructions.

The best bacon to cook in an air fryer

Before you get started you may want to consider the bacon you are cooking in your air fryer. the air fryer gets hot very fast which like using an already hot pan may cause some shrinkage of your bacon.

For this reason, I am not a fan of thick bacon in the air fryer though I do prefer thin-cut in my cast iron skillet over cooking thick-cut bacon.

I find that thick-cut bacon is the best bacon for cooking in the air fryer because it can get the perfectly crisp edges I love without overcooking the center and the shrinkage of thick-cut bacon is minimal in the air fryer.