Air-Fryer Bacon Recipe

For as long as I can remember, my husband and I have started most Sundays with a pile of French toast or fluffy pancakes, big cups of coffee, a leisurely Scrabble game, and—when we really feel like treating ourselves—a plate of crispy, savory bacon. When bacon is on our Sunday morning menu, we almost always make it in our small but mighty air fryer. The handy appliance is the reason my family and I eat a proper meal most days; I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve chucked a handful of vegetables or some kind of protein into the air fryer when I need to get dinner on the table quickly. Though the air fryer isn’t the best appliance for everything—I certainly wouldn’t rely on it to bake a birthday cake—it is, hands down, my favorite way to quickly prepare bacon that’s both crispy and mess free. 

Like convection ovens, air fryers work by circulating hot air for efficient heating and cooking—and because they’re much smaller than standard ovens, air fryers require much less time to heat up. The excellent circulation means air fryers cook food incredibly quickly and does a stellar job of browning and crisping, making it ideal for many of our favorite dishes, like chicken wings, Brussels sprouts, and bacon.

There are plenty of other good ways to cook bacon, including on the stove, in the oven, and even sous vide. But as Daniel once wrote, the “best” method really depends on how many people you’re feeding, how you like your bacon, and whether you plan on incorporating it into another recipe, like a quiche or salad. If you’re cooking for a large crowd, it may make sense to do several trays of bacon in your oven. But if you’re only cooking for one or two people, the air fryer is a quick and easy way to make ultra-crisp bacon without creating a giant mess of greasy splatters: All the fat collects in the bottom of the basket, making it easy for you to scrape into the trash or into a jar to repurpose. (Bacon fat bread crumbs, anyone?)

The Best Temperature for Air Fryer Bacon

Both Kenji and Daniel have found 375º to 425ºF (190º to 220ºC) to be a good temperature range for cooking bacon in the oven. But because the air fryer is so much more efficient at generating and circulating heat than a conventional oven, you don’t need as high of a temperature to get crisp bacon. Our testing found that 350ºF (175ºC) was the ideal temperature for cooking bacon in an air fryer, producing tender-crisp bacon at 10 minutes and crunchier, more brittle bacon at the 13 minute mark. The lower temperature helps to effectively render the pork’s fat, making it less greasy.

Cooking at a lower temperature also reduces the risk of your air fryer smoking, as the bacon is less likely to burn. Even so, we still recommend removing any excess fat and wiping out the air fryer basket between batches to prevent smoking. (I’ll take this opportunity to add that the best way to prevent the appliance from smoking up is to clean it thoroughly after each use. Food that gets stuck on the heating element can burn, creating an unpleasant aroma and flavor that can permeate whatever you’re cooking.)

Does Preheating Your Air Fryer Make a Difference?

You’ll notice that we’ve called for preheating the air fryer here. In the past, we’ve found several advantages to starting bacon in a cold oven or pan, including the fact that it's efficient, allowing the fat to begin to render as the bacon heats up with the oven. But because the air fryer is so good at heating up quickly and so efficient at cooking and crisping, whether you start with a cold or preheated air fryer makes very little difference in the time it takes your bacon to cook. With that in mind, we’ve recommended preheating as it removes the question of how quickly different air fryer models heat up and whether that has an impact on timings. By starting everyone on equal footing, the recipe should work consistently for everyone.

With an air fryer, bacon is a speedy, zero-fuss affair that takes about 10 minutes to cook. And once you try it for the first time, I suspect you may not want to make bacon any other way.