Are you team streaky or team back bacon? Whichever you prefer, the air fryer is an ideal way to cook bacon that’s just perfect for a bacon butty, or to add to a full English breakfast. Cooking times vary a lot, depending on the thickness of the bacon, how crowded the basket is and how efficiently the fryer functions, so check the bacon often towards the end of cooking, so you catch it at its moment of crispy perfection.
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Yields:
1 serving(s)
Prep Time:
4 mins
Cook Time:
12 mins
Total Time:
12 mins
Ingredients
2
rashers back bacon, smoked or unsmoked
OR
4
rashers streaky bacon, smoked or unsmoked
Directions
Step 1Preheat air fryer to 160°C. Put the bacon in the air fryer (in the crisper basket or on a rack, if your model has one), in a single layer.
Step 2For back bacon, cook for 9-12min, turning halfway through. For streaky bacon, cook for 7-9min. In both cases, cook until golden brown at the edges but still pliable. If you like your bacon even crispier, cook for longer, checking every 2min.
Step 3To serve, layer the bacon between 2 slices of lightly buttered bread, drizzle with your chosen sauce and tuck in.
HOW DO I COOK BIGGER BATCHES?
You can scale this up to cook as many servings as your air fryer will hold, but be careful not to overcrowd the bacon, as this can cause uneven and longer cooking. If your air fryer doesn’t have a crisper basket or rack, when cooking larger batches, you may wish to drain off some fat halfway through cooking – save the fat for making the most delicious egg fried rice!
WHAT IF I WANT IT ULTRA CRISPY?
While we think 160°C is the perfect air fryer temp for caramelised bacon, that’s still tender when you bite into it. If you want the kind of bacon that just crumbles into crispy shards (to use in something like a delicious potato salad, for instance) cook streaky bacon at 180°C instead, and check regularly (it can go from perfectly crisp to charred quite suddenly).
Air fryer accessories
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Emma is Cookery Editor for Good Housekeeping and loves nothing more than sharing her bottomless enthusiasm for all things food and drink with anyone who wants to learn (and even those who don’t!). From super simple one pan suppers to showstopping wedding cakes and everything in between, there’s very little that doesn’t come out of her kitchen. When not developing recipes, writing features or styling food for photography she can be found hiding behind the mountain of cookery books that’s slowly overtaking her house, or exploring restaurants, food shops and festivals in search of the next big thing to share with readers. On the rare days when she’s not thinking about food, you’ll find her in a cosy pub at the end of a long walk with her dog and expert food taster, Angua.
