I think we can agree that crispy, smoky bacon is one of life’s greatest pleasures. However, standing over a hot stove dodging sputtering bacon grease is not. Here is how we can have the best of both worlds: a hands-free, hassle-free method for cooking perfect bacon, all in the oven.
I’ve cooked my bacon this way for several years. It’s easy and simple. I like simple breakfasts.
I like thick cut bacon but my family (except for my vegetarian wife) prefers the thinner slices. The bacon expert in the house, my daughter Kiran, says the thin slices cook more crisp. I’m still practicing and developing my technique for cooking super crispy bacon while preventing burning. But I think she’s correct; the thicker cuts will produce chewier bacon while the thinner cuts will produce crisper bacon. When I choose bacon, I look for a nice blend of meat and fat, with a little more meat than fat.
Every year we take part in my wife’s family’s version of the white elephant game. My wife doesn’t believing in wasting money so we always try to buy something that still has practical use. Better yet, something we would use ourselves. My wife and I are good bargain shoppers on Amazon.com and find it easy to find something within the defined dollar limit. One year we found two items we liked, an electric breakfast sandwich maker and an electric waffle maker. Both met the dollar limit. We bought both. We kept the waffle maker and won back the sandwich maker.
One Thomas’ English Muffin fits perfectly within the sandwich maker. I learned how to make egg, cheese and sausage sandwiches in three minutes with minimal clean up. Just separate the English muffin layers and layer on the fixings: egg, cheese, sausage. At first, I put the whole egg directy into the top layer. But in the last few months I’ve experimented with whisking a a tablespoon of heavy cream into the egg. It produces a light fluffy (and less chewy) egg layer for the sandwich.
Oven Baked Bacon
A hands-free, easy method for cooking perfect bacon in the oven.
- Nutrition facts: 390 calories, 29g carbohydrates, 19g protein, 19g
- Credit: Khürt Williams
Ingredients
- 2 slices Trader Joe’s Uncured Apple Smoked Bacon
- 1 Thomas’ Cinnamon Raison English Muffin
- 1 Wegmans Organic Large Brown Egg
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 400ºF (~ 204ºC).
- While the oven is heating up, arrange bacon slices side by side on an oven baking rack and place in baking pan.
- Put pan in oven when oven temperature reaches 400ºF. Cook in oven for 20 minutes.
- Pre-heat electric sandwich maker.
- While the sandwich maker is heating up, whisk the egg and heavy cream for 15 seconds.
- Pour egg into top half of sandwich maker. Cook for 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
- Separate halves of English muffin and toast.
- Remove cooked egg from sandwich maker and place atop English muffin.
- Remove cooked bacon from oven and set to cool.
- Make coffee.
