The Best Bacon Cookers (For Fast, Easy Bacon)

The best bacon cookers--whether for microwave, oven, or countertop--can make frying bacon an easier process. If you love bacon but hate frying it, a dedicated bacon cooker may be in your future.

But do these units work? Do they make good bacon? And if so, what's the best one to get? 

Whether you want an easy way to cook small batches of bacon or want to avoid stovetop frying permanently, we'll show you the best bacon cookers for these tasks.

You may not get quite the perfection of the stovetop, but you can come close, and the ease of cooking might be a tradeoff that's worth it. 

Best Microwave Bacon Cookers at a Glance

Here's a quick look at our favorite microwave bacon cookers. 

How we chose: There are dozens of microwave bacon cookers on Amazon, so first we narrowed down the options by ratings and reviews. We weeded out bacon cookers with 4- and 5-star ratings less than 80%, and/or more than 10% 1-star ratings. Then we read reviews to see if there were any disqualifying features.

If the cookers passed these screening tests, we cooked bacon in them, rating them on overall quality, quality of bacon they made, size, ease of use and cleaning, and ease of storage. 

And of course, all of the microwave bacon cookers we tested are BPA-free and use food-grade construction materials.

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Other Bacon Cooker Options at a Glance

Besides the microwave, you can get a dedicated countertop bacon cooker, or you can use your oven. We'll look at both of these options here.

Countertop

You can buy a dedicated countertop appliance to cook bacon like the Smart Planet Bacon Master or the HomeCraft Nostalgia Bacon Press and Griddle , or use one of those indoor smokeless grills.

There are a number of problems with these types of cookers, though. The problems vary with the type of cooker you have, but in general, the problems are:

• Poor controls/can't adjust heat
• Cooks unevenly
• Too small to cook for more than 1-2 people at a time
• Splatters grease 
• Tough to clean
• Nonstick surface will wear out, stop being nonstick, and eventually become unsafe to use
• Take up counter space
• Are poorly designed and cheaply made
• Won't last

Also, some of the marketing is deceptive. From looking at the photo above, most people would assume that you can cook an entire breakfast at once, but you can't: you have to close the sides to cook the bacon, then cook everything else after the bacon is done. 

Probably the best option for a small appliance bacon cooker is a smokeless grill. These tend to be higher quality than other small appliances, and will last longer--but most of these have nonstick coated grill plates, which will wear out and may become unsafe to use. (If you're read any of our cookware reviews, you know we're not fans of nonstick cookware.) They are also smallish, so if you're cooking for more than two people, you're probably better off using your stovetop.

Oven

If you love bacon but really hate frying it, you may already have discovered the oven for easier, less messy bacon cooking. 

You can buy pans specially designed for cooking bacon in the oven like the Gotham Steel Bacon Bonanza Bacon Tray, pictured above.

Some people really love how these pans work, but many don't. In our testing, we found these racks frustrating for these reasons:

• Hard to fit bacon into the slots
• Bacon took a long time to cook and in many cases did not cook evenly, getting done on the top but not the bottom (the fuller the rack, the more unevenly it cooked)
• Kind of a pain to remove when done
• The grease tray is shallower than it looks and gets completely full if you fill the racks.

Also, these products are for the most part poor quality. There are probably some higher end ones available, but the ones we tested were cheap and flimsy. 

Probably the easiest way to cook bacon in the oven is with a baking sheet and a cooking/cooling rack, like this:

If you want it to be even easier, line the baking sheet with aluminum foil first. A couple of layers works best here because the cooking rack can tear the foil.

Cooking racks can be tricky to clean, so if you want it to be really easy, skip the cooking rack altogether and line the baking with parchment paper to soak up the grease. Your bacon may get a little greasy if you don't use a cooking rack, but if it's going in a salad or sandwich, it's barely noticeable.

Oven bacon is a game changer for a lot of people who hate frying bacon. It's easy, not too messy, and you can cook a lot at one time (you can fit a whole pound of bacon on a half baking sheet--18x13"--if you scrunch it together). 

But there are some problems with making bacon in the oven, too, including:

• You have to plan ahead because it takes awhile to preheat the oven
• The texture is not going to be quite like pan-fried bacon, especially if you don't use a rack
• You have to keep an eye on the bacon, possibly turning the pan and/or removing finished pieces because it may not cook evenly, depending on your oven and how much bacon you're cooking
• Cleaning the cooking rack can be a pain (they rarely get clean in a dishwasher)
• It is a lot of hassle if you just want a few pieces of bacon for a salad or sandwich.

Even with all those drawbacks, oven bacon is probably the best option for those who hate frying it. But even if this is your preferred method, if you need a few pieces of bacon in a hurry, it's hard to beat a microwave bacon cooker. 

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How to Cook Bacon in the Oven

You don't need a recipe to cook bacon. You just have to put a tray in a hot oven and keep an eye on it. 

But if you're new to oven-cooked bacon, here are some instructions.

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Line a baking sheet or other pan with aluminum foil. If you have a cooking rack, place it on the baking sheet.
3. Place strips of bacon on sheet or cooking rack. 
4. When oven is hot, put the bacon in it.
5. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Check for doneness (it will probably need a little more time). If the bacon is cooking unevenly, turn the tray around.
6. Set the timer for more time. Depending on how done the bacon was at 15 minutes, give it 5-15 more minutes.
7. When the bacon is done to your liking, remove it from the oven. Drain on paper towels if you didn't use a cooking rack.

If you want to save the bacon fat, pour warm fat into a jar, straining out the particles (a paper coffee filter works well here). 

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Do I Really Need a Bacon Cooker?

We're not crazy about the small appliance bacon cookers and breakfast makers; these are "uni-taskers" (in the words of Alton Brown) and tend to be poor quality, short-lived, and frustrating to use (and anything with a nonstick coating is likely to wear out sooner rather than later).

And, we really prefer pan-fried bacon and oven-cooked bacon to microwave bacon (in that order). Neither of these requires any special equipment other than a skillet or a baking sheet.

But if you're having a bacon emergency--a last minute request for bacon cheeseburgers, want to add a little crunch to your salad, or are just having a strong craving--a microwave bacon cooker is a lifesaver. 

It's even an option on lazy weekend mornings when you want a full breakfast, but don't feel like standing over a stove.

Microwave bacon cookers probably won't make the best bacon you've ever had, but they're hard to beat if you need some bacon in a hurry.

Sure, you can use a plate and paper towels too to cook bacon quickly in the microwave. But if you're going to use your microwave for bacon, having a tray that keeps the bacon out of the grease is a small investment with a huge payoff: actually crisp bacon that doesn't sit in its own grease while cooking.

So if you want to be prepared for a bacon emergency, the only question is which microwave bacon cooker to buy.

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Pros and Cons of Microwave Bacon Cookers