How to Cook Bacon For a Crowd

How to Cook Bacon For a Crowd is a great trick to know; but, this method of cooking it in the oven is great or even for a small crowd.

While cooking breakfast for six people at a time at my inn plus a family of bacon snatchers, I was forced to figure out a way to cook bacon for up to a dozen people at a time. My answer to this very serious problem was to bake bacon in the oven.

Line a half sheet pan that has sides. Line it with foil for easy clean-up.

Line thick-cut bacon in a row. If you choose regular-cut bacon, you’ll just want to watch your cook time closely because it will take less time to cook. A half sheet pan will fit about a dozen slices at a time.

Have you ever had a grease fire? I don’t mean to brag, but I have. If you throw water on a grease fire, it will multiply your fire. Never do this. A bunch of salt can help put a grease fire out. I always keep a large container of sea salt handy for cooking… or small grease fires. Once I had my self-cleaning setting on my oven and a fire broke out inside. Always learn how to stop clean-mode on your oven so you have the knowledge inside of you when you need it. I hadn’t. But, I did think to push the door closed as tight as I could and suffocated the oven fire. Take that, oven fire. I’m sure well-seasoned cooks know this stuff but figured I would take one for the team and share this info for new cooks.

You can bake a few pans at a time but will need to carefully rotate the pan locations so they bake evenly. I recommend using tongs to flip the bacon over halfway through the baking time.

Turn the oven onto 350F when you put the bacon in. This is one of those rare occasions you don’t want to preheat the oven.  Baking thick bacon usually takes about 30 minutes in total. If you like it more well done, you can add about 5 more minutes. Again, cooking time varies depending on how thick your bacon is.

If you are using one pan over and over again, be sure to pour the excess bacon grease into a container and set it aside. Bacon grease is wonderful when kept in a mason jar in the refrigerator. Try stir-fried rice or green beans or beef pieces fried in it. You’re welcome.

To be sure your bacon is done cooking, pull out a meat thermometer and make sure the temperature of the bacon reaches at least 145F.

Place all bacon upon a few paper towels to drain excess grease. You could place it on a pretty platter, but let’s be honest. It’s never gonna make it there once the crowd smells the sizzling, bacony goodness.