Dying to know the secret to great bacon in an air fryer? Discover our answer to the question “How long to cook bacon in an air fryer? (All You Need to Know)”
At 390 degrees Fahrenheit, it takes about 15 minutes for bacon to cook in an air fryer. This is thanks to the fast circulation of hot air in an air fryer.
In this article, we’ll go over a guide on how to cook bacon in an air fryer, as well as covering everything you need to know in some frequently asked questions.
How Long to Cook Bacon in an Air Fryer
Even though nobody likes rubbery bacon, burnt bacon is certainly not the most delicious thing to eat either! In order to avoid either of these problems, the timing for cooking bacon is very important.
An air fryer is able to get hotter faster than a traditional oven, and so when you place the bacon in the air fryer basket it is important to know how hot it needs to be to avoid overcooking the meat.
If you preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, it will take as long as 18 minutes to finish. However, if you pick the temperature we recommend, 390 degrees, it will only take around 15 minutes to finish your delicious meal!
Read also >> How to Cook Bacon in Air Fryer? (9 Easy Steps)
How long to cook bacon in an air fryer at 400?
Maybe you’ve decided to try and speed up the cooking process by raising the heat level in your air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
While we cannot recommend this because it increases the chance of the bacon’s grease burning, it is possible to do! You’ll want to cook the bacon at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
Make sure you spray the inside of the air fryer with a non-stick agent like olive oil. Make sure there is something in the pan at the bottom of the fryer, such as a slice of bread or enough water to cover the bottom, to protect from grease.
After five minutes, it will be a good idea to check on the bacon and flip each slice with tongs, being careful not to burn yourself with any grease!
What to Serve With Bacon Cooked in an Air Fryer
Bacon has been celebrated for going well with pretty much everything! Most often, it’s paired with traditional breakfast favorites like eggs or toast, or even some pan-fried breakfast potatoes!
All of these make a particularly good choice for bacon cooked in an air fryer since you’ll have the stovetop and traditional oven free to prepare these sides.
However, bacon doesn’t just work for breakfast foods, as delicious as that traditional option may be! Bacon is also excellent as a topping for healthy options, such as a salad of romaine or spinach lettuce.
Finally, some of our favorite accompaniments to bacon are sandwiches. The classic BLT is excellent, but don’t forget to try a strip of bacon or two on a burger, as well! If you’re feeling adventurous, you might try sprinkling it on a hot iced donut for a treat, too!
The salty-sweet flavor will go very well with the sweet taste of the donut, as odd as it may sound.
How to Store Leftovers
Now that you’ve made your top-of-the-line bacon and figured out all the amazing uses for it in other dishes ranging from breakfast to dinner, it would be a shame to have it go to waste. In order to prevent that, storing your leftover bacon is essential!
The best way to do this is by finding any container that is completely airtight. Using glass, Tupper ware, or even bags with a seal can do the trick! As long as oxygen is not allowed to get to the cooked bacon and it is kept in the refrigerator when not in use, it should last at least 5 days.
If you’d like to keep your bacon for even longer than five days, use a similarly sealed container to avoid freezer burn and freeze the bacon rather than simply refrigerating it.
Once the bacon is carefully frozen, it can last for several months before going bad!
Ingredients
The only ingredient necessary when cooking bacon in an air fryer is truly the bacon itself. However, if you’d like to be extra sure that your air fryer is not messy from bacon grease, other ingredients you might need are water, a slice of bread, and olive oil spray.
After you’re done, we recommend adding bacon as an ingredient, in and of itself, to other items, like the above-mentioned eggs or sandwiches. However, some seasoning ingredients that might taste fantastic on your bacon include:
- Pepper
- Brown Sugar
- Maple Syrup
- Chili
- Honey
- Sesame Seeds
Nutrition Facts Per Serving
Nutrition is an important aspect of any meal, even and especially when it comes to bacon! Check out the list of nutrition facts in the table below for one serving of our recommended method of making bacon in an air fryer!
| Ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Saturated Fat | 2 Grams |
| Total Fat | 5 Grams |
| Sodium | 285 Milligrams |
| Cholesterol | 14 Milligrams |
| Total Carbohydrates | 0 Grams |
| Calcium | 1 Milligram |
| Protein | 5 Grams |
| Potassium | 70 Milligrams |
| Iron | 0 Milligrams |
Bacon is certainly nutritious when eaten in the proper amounts. According to Healthline.com, bacon contains Vitamins B1 all the way through B6, in addition to Vitamin B12! Not only that, but bacon contains minerals like potassium to benefit the health of your body.
Some of the micronutrients found in bacon can lead to better health of the heart, better bone health, and even lowers the risk of high blood pressure and related diseases!
It is recommended that one human being not eat more than 90 grams of processed red meats, which is what bacon is.
In fact, if you eat 90 grams of red meat already in one day, it is a good idea to start limiting yourself to just 70 grams a day to avoid health consequences.
Crispy Air Fryer Bacon FAQs
If you still have a few questions about bacon that is cooked in an air fryer, don’t worry; we have you covered with these answers to frequently asked questions:
How much time does it take to cook bacon in an air fryer?
How long it takes to cook bacon in an air fryer depends entirely on how hot the air fryer is. For example, if you decide to cook at a very high temperature like 400 degrees, it will only take around ten minutes to finish your bacon.
However, if you pick a slightly lighter temperature, such as 350, it should only take 18 minutes to finish!
Can you put raw bacon in an air fryer?
Yes, technically you can put raw bacon in an air fryer to cook it thoroughly. The process is a little bit more involved; you must maintain a temperature of 350 in the air fryer.
The reason for this is that the bacon’s grease is more plentiful while it is raw and may begin smoking excessively if it gets too hot too quickly.
How do you cook bacon in an air fryer without making a mess?
The thing that can cause the greatest amount of mess in the cooking of the bacon in an air fryer is the grease that drips off of the meat as it heats up.
This grease can not only stick and make cleaning difficult, but it can also cause a great deal of smoke as it hits hot metal and burns.
The secret to making sure that this does not happen is to keep careful control of the grease content since there’s no way to cook bacon without it! We recommend putting the bacon in just one layer so that it cooks evenly with minimal accumulation of grease.
Then, at the bottom of the air fryer, you’ll find the pan designed to catch drippings. The bottom of this pan should be protected from the grease; one way to do this is to add enough water to cover the surface of the pan.
Another is to use a slice of bread, which will act as a sponge and keep the grease from smoking up and sticking.
The BEST Air Fryer Bacon 🥓 (No Splatter, So Easy!) >> Check out the video below:
In Conclusion
To sum everything we’ve learned up, it takes bacon about 15 minutes to cook in an air fryer that is set to 390 degrees.
However, if you decide to cook the bacon at 400 degrees, this amount of time can be cut down to ten minutes.
Remember to protect the air fryer from bacon grease and a mess by putting water or bread at the bottom of the pan and enjoy!