Yummiest Oven Bacon Ever!featured

So one of my family’s absolute favorite things about the weekend is Saturday morning breakfasts. Typically we don’t have anywhere to be and can linger in our pajamas over a full breakfast. There is something about the symphony of sizzling bacon, kids cartoons and the shuffling of newspapers that brings joy to my heart. I know that these days won’t last for too much longer…as the kids get older they will have sports and friends and all sorts of fun that doesn’t involve me, so for now I am happy to get splattered with searing hot bacon grease to keep them close.

If it was up to me, our breakfasts would include homemade breakfast sausage but the rest of my family prefers bacon, so that is what I usually make. I have no idea how many hundreds of pounds of bacon I have cooked over my lifetime so far….I may even hit the million pound mark before I leave this earth. I feel as if I have cooked every kind of bacon in any kind of way imaginable. After all that practice I feel like I have perfected a really tasty way to make bacon. It’s what my family asks for and what friends request whenever they come for a sleepover. I think that most of the recipe is fairly basic and not hard to do…but it’s the secret ingredient that takes it over the top. It’s what everyone will be asking you about!

First thing…throw out those frying pans, griddles, hot pans or whatever else you’ve been using to make your bacon. The only thing you need is a sheet of parchment paper, a good sturdy half sheet pan and your oven. The first time I made bacon in the oven was like a revelation…the bacon stayed flat, there was no mess, I didn’t burn myself. The list of positives was endless! It’s also great because the top of the stove is completely open for making eggs, pancakes, French toast, or whatever else is on the menu that day.

Lay the bacon slices down so that they are snug but not overlapping. The meat will shrink as it cooks so there will be lots of room for it to crisp up, but you don’t want the pieces to actually fuse together while cooking. (Although it would be fun watching the kids fight over the biggest piece of bacon they’ve ever seen!) I always use thick sliced bacon because I love the chew and the texture of the meat, but you can use this process with any type of bacon (except for turkey bacon cause that’s not really bacon anyways). You will need to adjust your cooking time by about half if you are using regular sliced bacon. And of course it also depends on how you like your bacon…I’ve made bacon all the way from barely warmed up to almost completely dehydrated. It all depends on what the person who’s eating it likes…they’re always the boss in my kitchen.

I like to use a double sheet of parchment and just stagger the two sheets slightly so that clean up is a snap. None of the bacon grease gets through to the pan which means there are less pans soaking in my sink all of Saturday afternoon.

So before you slide those sheets of porky deliciousness into the oven, there’s one more quick thing you need to do. It’s time to season the meat. Now we all know that there is no need to put salt on bacon, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t further enhance the flavor of the bacon. My secret ingredient for amazing bacon is powdered rosemary. I love the combination of pork and rosemary…it’s a classic for a reason – it tastes amazing. So I always wondered whether that combination would also work for bacon. At first I tried it with regular dried rosemary….although the flavor was great, I didn’t get that earthiness in every bite and I had to contend with those awful hard little twigs. Powdered rosemary was perfect because I was able to get a more even distribution of flavor and there was nothing stuck in my gums after eating. Now if you don’t like rosemary, make it your own. I have tried chipotle pepper, Northwoods seasoning, Szechuan peppercorns, miso paste, gochugang paste, any many more. The possibilities are literally endless. Think of anything that goes well with pork and try it out!

It’s important to switch and rotate the trays throughout the cooking process. I usually work with two 10 minute intervals to start with, then move down to 5 minute intervals, and then make a judgment call after that. I also flip each slice of bacon over after the first 20 minutes.

Sometimes if I feel like having an extra decadent treat, I will baste the slices of bacon with pure maple syrup when there is about 5 minutes left in the cooking time. The maple syrup caramelizes into a thick glaze and creates the perfect balance of sweet, salty and earthy delights! It’s a sticky, gooey mess but worth every minute of it.