Crispy Air Fryer Bacon
Ok, we’ll make this short and quick: Cooking bacon in the air fryer is amazing! Making Crispy Air Fried Bacon in the air fryer is a game changer for so many reasons. We talked about it all in our guide and tutorial below.
Best Air Fryer Bacon Recipe
First of all, the bacon comes out crispy and fantastic! You can customize the texture if your bacon by lowering the temperature. So there’s something for everyone when it comes to personalizing bacon crispness. Second of all, clean up is WAY easier than cooking it on the stove top. All splatters are perfectly contained in the air fryer basket. No messy cooktop!
Video on Air Fryer Bacon and Air Fryer Baked Eggs:
How to Cook Bacon in the Air Fryer?
Add a bacon slices in single layer. Add as much as your air fryer allows, but don’t let the bacon touch. All the details are in the recipe box below.
Before and After! Don’t crowd the basket with bacon or you will have excess oil burning. Thus, smoking.
What temperature to cook bacon?
There’s several schools of thought for cooking bacon and every air fryer guide or manufacturer has their own recommended temperature. We have some quick and easy temperature guidelines to follow for general results for bacon crispness. All details are in the recipe box below. Remember: test 1 piece of bacon first and see what your preferred temperature and time is. After that, you’re an expert and can customize the timing to your favorite crispness.
Problems with cooking bacon in the air fryer?
The only problem we can think of is that if you cook too much bacon at once at a higher temp, you might get some smoking. Make sure to have the air fryer in a well ventilated kitchen or under the vent hood. It is more contained then when you pan fry the bacon, but the air fryer will still emit bacon steam. And only other issue is that if you walk away or don’t flip the bacon, you might get burned bacon.
How to Prevent Excess Smoking?
- We have not had bacon smoking issues. But we think that if you cook too much bacon at once, all the oil will cause splattering, thus smoking. Try not to cook more than 4-6 pieces at a time for a large air fryer. And for smaller air fryer, try cooking 2-3 pieces at a time. The logic is simple, the more bacon you cook, the more oil that will splatter on the heating elements. The results are burning bacon grease and lots of smoking.
- Is your air fryer basket or trays/racks clean? If you have leftover oil, tidbits, residue from dinner three days ago then it’s very likely that will cause some smoking. Keep your air fryer cleaned and maintained for optimal cooking for the next dish.
- There’s different methods that people have suggested. One of the most popular bits of advice is to add a little water at the bottom of the basket. If you’ve tried adding water at the bottom and it works, let us know!
- GOOD VENTILATION: Make sure to cook the bacon in a well ventilated area. Turn on your kitchen exhaust fans and open up a few windows. You will get some smoking because that’s the nature of grease cooking at hot temperatures like air fryer bacon.
Air Fryer Bacon Recipe
Ingredients
- 2-4 slices bacon depending on your air fryer basket size
Optional Additional Seasonings
- salt, fresh cracked black pepper, steak seasoning, brown sugar, hot sauce, etc , optional
Equipment
Instructions
- Lay bacon in single layer in your air fryer basket or tray. Don’t let the bacon touch each other.
For Crispy Bacon
- Air Fry at 380°F/193°C for 8-12 minutes, checking on and flipping the bacon after 6 minutes. If needed, continue to air fry for a little more to get your desired texture.If you like the timing and temp for the way the bacon turned out, write it down and save it! If not, make adjustments on your next batch.
For a less Crispy, Soft Bodied Bacon
- Air Fry at 340°F/170°C for 8-12 minutes, checking on and flipping the bacon after 6 minutes. If needed, continue to air fry for a little more to get your desired texture.If you like the timing and temp for the way the bacon turned out, write it down and save it! If not, make adjustments on your next batch.
Optional Additional Flavor
- If desired, toss or sprinkle with an optional seasoning for extra flavor.
Notes
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
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FRUSTRATED WITH STUCK FOOD? USE NON-STICK SILICONE LINERS
What are the Best Air Fryers?
Here’s our extensive write up on Air Fryer World’s Best Air Fryer Guide. There’s so many on the market now. You just need to research and find the ones that fits your needs, capacity and style. We group the basket style air fryers into 2 main size groups: 3-4 qt. range & the 5-6 qt. range. There’s oven style and basket style. With so many to choose from, we highlight the ones that are most popular for small to medium sized families. Here’s our favorites:
Good Mid-Sized Air Fryers
“That’s a stylish Air Fryer” was said as we unboxed the Cosori. Beyond being stylish, it has cooked great. The basket is not as tall and wider than most in its size group, which is perfect. You’ll have a lot better results in an air fryer with single layered, spread out foods, then with ones piled high and thick.
The non-stick basket style (non-wire base) & smoothness of the basket tray is also great for clean up.
Has a great ceramic coated basket, one of the longest lasting we’ve used. Super powerful fan that will often cook recipes even faster than other air fryers. We initially returned our first one because we thought we wouldn’t like the basket style. After reconsidering, we bought another and are super glad we did. We love it’s basket and just a platform insert. One less bulky thing to wash. This is a great air fryer.
Simple functional panel. Solid basket design that is less likely to come unscrewed or break like other designs frequently do after a few months of repeated use. Great price for the size. They have several color options for the design-minded user.
Good Larger Air Fryers
This is quickly becoming one of our favorite larger basket style air fryers. Great basket size, good controls, cooks nice. Clean up is great. It has become one of our kitchen favorites.
Most of us are familiar with the Instant Pot Brand of pressure cookers. They now make air fryers and it has become a regular in our kitchen. The Vortex plus 9-in-1 is beyond the conventional air fryer. The “plus” boasts features beyond the hot circulating air: Broil, Bake, Dehydrate, Rotisserie, Roast and Re-heat.
12 Cooking modes. Connects to your smartphone & has Alexa or Google Assistant integration for voice control. 32 quarts. Large enough it actually has a rotisserie too.
This air fried bacon recipe was originally published in 2018 and re-published in 2021 with updated info.
13 Comments on “Crispy Air Fryer Bacon”
I really love how easy this was to make the bacon as crispy and I liked. Really great recipe.
I love letting the air fryer do all the work. This was perfect for breakfast.
I have borrowed a friend’s air fryer to see if I like it. I LOVE IT. But I have a few questions before I go purchase my own. I like the square basket look of the one pictured in your bacon cooking photos and wonder if you can tell me which one it is. Also, I like to save my bacon grease for future cooking. My friend’s air fryer, which is the only one I have any experience with, has slits cut in it and the grease pours out haphazardly, making itt difficult to salvage the grease. Are all air fryers like this with slits? Does anyone else have suggestions of how to save the grease or which air fryer is easiest to use for bacon grease saving! LOL! Silly I know. I want a square basket, easy clean up and bacon fat saving friendly. Thanks!
I was reluctant to use the air fryer for cooking bacon due to several sites saying it produced lots of smoke and a fire hazard. Adding a couple slices of wheat bread in the collection pan did the trick. NO smoke, grease in the collection pan. House doesn’t smell too much like bacon, less stove greasy mess and fire detectors did not go off. Just delicious bacon!
It’s definitely a game changer! We’re obsessed with air fried bacon.
I nailed it with the venison bacon I made at 380degrees for 10 mins it was perfect
That’s awesome Matthew! thanks for sharing.
We have a rack style and I just did a rack bacon cut in half at 390degrees for eight minutes middle rack did not turn had no smoking and the grease collected in the drip pan nicely. Came out deliciously chewy I think next time I’ll try 10 minutes for crispier end result.
I am totally enjoying cooking bacon with the air fryer. Not as messy as with a pan.
My air fryer has shelves no basket. Do I just lay bacon on? Won’t I have grease everywhere? Most recipes I see are for baskets. Are the ones with shelves not as good?
Tower or rack style air fryers will definitely get oil splattered everywhere. We’ve seen some folks put foil underneath the bacon to reduce oil splatter and they said this method was helpful. Perforated parchment paper sold as air fryer accessories can be helpful as well. Also, try cooking the bacon on the middle or lower rack, not the top rack. For some rack models, the top rack is very close to the heating element and that can cause smoking quickly.
Do you always use air fryer mode for bacon? I have the InstaPot Vortex Plus.
Hi Susan, some of our air fryers don’t have a bacon mode, so we just cook it by temperature and time range. It’s pretty consistent across all air fryers. But if you have a bacon mode on your air fryer, definitely use it!