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.

Left – 3.7qt. Right – 5.8qt.

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?

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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!
4. 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

Yield: 4 Servings

Total Time: 10 mins

Test 1 piece of bacon first so you can see what your preferred timing and crispness is based on your air fryer mode. Everyone has a personal preference for bacon crispness. If you find that your Air Fryer can cook it better when it's hotter, then go for it. Timing varies with different size air fryer styles and models. Here's our general guidelines: For crispy bacon - 380-400°F for about 8-10 minutes, flip halfway.  For a less crispy soft bodied bacon - 340-360°F, 10-12 minutes, flip halfway. Set your timer and don't forget to flip! 

5 from 4 votes

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

PRINT RECIPE Review Save to Pinterest

Ingredients

• 2-4 slices bacon depending on your air fryer basket size

Equipment

• Air Fryer

Instructions 

• Lay bacon in single layer in your air fryer basket or tray. Don't let the bacon touch each other.
• Air fry the bacon to your desired crispiness - Here's our general guidelines:

  For crispy bacon - 380-400°F for about 8-10 minutes, flip,  For a less crispy soft bodied bacon - 340-360°F, 10-12 minutes, flip halfway, if needed.

  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.

Notes

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. Please Read the full recipe write up about excess smoking and best practices for cooking air fryer bacon. 

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 91kcal, Protein: 2g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 14mg, Sodium: 145mg, Potassium: 43mg, Iron: 0.1mg

Course: Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: Air Fryer

Calories: 91

BUY OUR AIR FRYER ECOOKBOOKS HERE FOR EASY MEALS AND LOW CARB RECIPES! Cook the Recipes, Eat the Delicious Recipes and Live the Life Changing Way to Cook.

You’ll Love these Air Fryer Recipes & Articles

• Air Fryer Steak Bites (or Steak Tips) with Potatoes
• Air Fryer Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs
• Why Is Smoke Coming Out of the Air Fryer? Tips and Help
• CLICK HERE FOR ALL OUR–> AMAZING AIR FRYER RECIPES 

What are the Best Air Fryers?

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.  Here’s our favorites:

Cosori 3.7 qt. Digital Air Fryer – “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.

Ninja 4 qt. Digital Air Fryer – 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.

Good Larger Air Fryers

Tiluxury 5.8 qt. Digital Air Fryer – It’s a good larger air fryer capable of cooking for larger families, especially when you need to cook more food. It’s great for cooking bigger batches (ie 4 salmon fillets instead of 2 or 2 lbs of fries instead of 1).
We like that this Tiluxury 5.8 qt has the non-stick basket (non-wire base). Makes for less sticking for delicate meals (ie baked fish fillets).  And we like the digital interface (easier cleaning).

Gourmia 6 qt. Digital Air Fryer – 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. We’ll often find it as Costco at a great price too!

Try these awesome air fryer garlic mushrooms and steak bites in air fryer recipe with mushrooms.

This air fried bacon recipe was originally published in 2018 and re-published in 2021 with updated info.