Now you can cook curly bacon in the oven and get the fun look of pan-fried wavy bacon with this simple trick! It’s super easy, the bacon cooks evenly, and you’ll get curly bacon that looks great on the plate!
One of our favorite ways to cook bacon is baking it in the oven. The only downside is that baked bacon tends to stay very flat. Flat bacon is perfect if you’re making a sandwich, but sometimes you want curly, twisted bacon to pile on a tray for a party or a brunch buffet.
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Equipment Needed
- Baking Sheet
- An oven-safe baking rack
- Aluminum foil
Step by Step Directions for Oven-Cooked Wavy Bacon
Here’s how to make groovy, squiggly bacon that looks great and tastes even better.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C) and line a baking pan with foil. Tear off a sheet of foil about 3 inches longer than the long edge of the baking sheet and cut it in 3 long strips. Use your hands to gently crush and shape the strips to make three long snakes, like this:
Now lay the bacon on the pan, shaping the bacon gently around the foil pieces. It’s easiest if you use one bacon slice on each end to anchor the foil.
Now you can arrange the rest of the bacon slices on the pan.
Pop the pan in the preheated oven and bake it. Your baking time will depend on the thickness of your bacon. Regular sliced bacon should be done in 15 to 20 minutes.
Here in the BENSA test kitchen, we used Wright’s thick-sliced hickory smoked bacon.
Our baking time was about 28 minutes. Here’s how it looked in the pan:
Peek on the bacon about halfway through cooking. If the ends of your bacon strips are starting to overcook, just cover them with a strip of foil to prevent over-browning. Your bacon will be perfect!
For more fun things to do with bacon, be sure to check out our recipes for Bacon Lardons and Bacon Swizzle Sticks!
Let’s get cooking! Here’s the recipe for Curly Bacon:
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Curly Bacon
Equipment
- 1 baking sheet
- 1 oven baking rack
- aluminum foil
Ingredients
- aluminum foil
- 8 strips thick sliced bacon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil. Top with an oven-safe baking rack.
- Tear off 3 sheets of aluminum foil 2 inches longer than the baking sheet. Use your hands to form each piece into a "snake' that is the length of the baking sheet and about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
- Lay the foil snakes on the baking rack, about 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Arrange one piece of bacon on the foil snakes, using your fingers to shape it so it lays over the foil in waves.
- Arrange another piece of bacon on the opposite end of the foil snakes, repeating the process so it lays over the foil in a wavy design.
- Arrange the remaining bacon strips on the foil.
- Bake until bacon is golden brown, about 20-30 minutes. (The exact time will vary depending on the thickness of your bacon.)
- Drain on paper towels and serve.
Notes
ADD YOUR OWN PRIVATE NOTES
Whenever you come back to this recipe, you’ll be able to see your notes!
Nutrition
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We love seeing your bacon culinary creations! If you prepare this recipe and post a photo, tag us on Instagram at @bensabaconlovers or use the #BensaBaconLovers hashtag.
If you prepare Wavy Bacon, we’d love to hear what you think in the comments section of this post!
Enjoy,
Your friends at BENSA
they all looks so yummy I tried the cracker and bacon it was sooo good.
Thanks
Jenette, thank you so much for writing to let us know you like the Bacon Crackers recipe! Your kind words mean so much!
Well if this wasnt the best trick and tip ever we love this and it even cooked faster on the foil! brilliant!
This is brilliant! It was fun to make these and serve them at brunch, everyone loved these!
Good tips. Instagram ready food!
I love this trick! It’s a great way to cook a big batch of bacon in the oven. No sticking, no sputtering of oil, and the bacon was perfectly crispy.
I love how simple and mess-free this was to make in the oven! Turned out perfectly curly too :)
Perfect
Luv the wavy way of cooking bacon! I’m gonna try it with home made potato chips baked in butter . . . .
Wayne, could there BE any better combo than curly bacon and your homemade butter-cooked potato chips? Sounds divine!
Genius idea! I love cooking bacon in the oven, but never thought about how to make it curly!