My Life Just Got Easier :)

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that I do not like to handle raw meat.  When you think about it, it's amusing the officer is such a meat and potatoes kind of guy.  My dislike of handling raw meat and my dislike of 2nd degree grease burns meant I had never cooked bacon until 4 years after I was married.  I hate getting splattered with grease.  It never seems to bother the officer.  However,  I am always sure I am going to get splattered in the eyeball, which would lead me to have to deal with my eyeball which is a whole other story/fear/issue of mine.  

Enter Pinterest.

I saw a pin the other day about cooking bacon in the oven.  Apparently, people have been doing this for years.  It is revolutionizing the way I cook bacon.  I am making crock pot potato soup and needed some bacon for a topping.   I thought this was the perfect time to try cooking the bacon in the oven.  No one was starving and waiting for breakfast.  If it didn't turn out, I would have ample time to cook the other half the regular way in a skillet.  

Here is what you do:

1.  Line you lipped cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  Wrap it around the edges.  This will keep the grease from leaking and smoking up your kitchen.

2.  Put the back on the foil.  My friend, Kristi, told me to put a cookie rack on top of the cookie sheet and put the bacon on it.  Then the grease drips off onto the cookie sheet and your bacon is not sitting in the grease.  I will most likely purchase a cookie rack.

3.  Put it in the oven.  Turn oven on 375 and cook for 20 minutes.  You do not turn the oven on before you put the bacon in.

4.  Remove bacon from cookie sheet or rack immediately.  Leaving it the sheet or rack may cause it to stick.

I had a picture of my bacon but it looks burned.  Horrible picture because the bacon turned out great.  Nice and crispy.  It was so easy!  I didn't have to worry about getting splattered with grease.  Clean up was easy because I just threw away the foil.  I didn't have to go back and forth to the skillet turning it.  I checked the oven and I don't have grease splattered all inside of it. 

I would imagine with thicker cut bacon you would have to bake it longer and with thinner bacon a little less time.  I used the regular bacon from Braums.  Worked like a charm.