I love bacon, plain and simple. It just makes everything—from tacos and galettes to rice cereal treats and doughnuts—better. What I don’t love? Actually cooking it.
ATK Kids
Microwave Your Way to Crispy (Not Flabby!) Bacon
It’s quicker, easier, cleaner, and more hands-off than any other method.
By Published Feb. 17, 2022.
With the stovetop method, you end up with grease splatter everywhere. With the oven method, you have to wait for the oven to preheat and then wait another 15 minutes for it to cook through (or more, if you like it supercrispy like me). But with the microwave method, you can get crispy, splatter-free bacon in 5 minutes flat. The key: paper towels.
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Sandwiching the bacon between two layers of paper towels allows the towels to absorb fat as the bacon cooks, preventing grease from splattering all over your microwave. That means cleanup is as easy as sticking a single plate in the dishwasher.
It’s a technique that we love at America’s Test Kitchen Kids, and one that we turned to frequently when developing our brand-new cookbook for teens, The Complete Cookbook for Teen Chefs. There, we call on microwave-fried bacon in recipes for Breakfast Sandwiches, BLATs, savory buttermilk waffles, and more.
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Microwave-Fried Bacon
Place up to 6 slices of bacon between 2 layers of paper towels on microwave-safe plate.
Microwave until bacon is crispy and golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes (cooking time will vary depending on your microwave).
