The air fryer is great for cooking smaller portions of food you would usually grill, and bacon is no exception and works well in the air fryer.
Quick
The advantage of cooking in the air fryer, particularly cooking bacon, is the lower energy costs due to the quicker cooking times. The air fryer heats up more quickly than an electric grill, and being smaller; it needs less energy to stay at that temperature. This can help you use less energy and therefore less cost to cook your bacon.
Small
The disadvantage of the smaller cooking area is that you can’t cook much food in one go. This is compounded with bacon that can only be partially overlapped by the amount it shrinks. You can’t effectively layer the bacon to fit more in; the lower bacon doesn’t cook properly.
For a 6L air fryer, you can get two decent portions of bacon out of it in one go. If cooking bacon for more people, you must do the air frying in multiple stages or dig out the large grill pan and use the oven.
Crispy
The air fryer is excellent at making crispy food. The hot and dry air crispens the food well, and bacon responds well to this cooking technique.
Cooking Time
The cooking times for bacon are a guideline only. There are so many variables to cooking bacon, from the thickness of the bacon to how crispy or uncrispy you want it cooked.
The outstanding feature of the air fryer is that you can quickly check on the done-ness of your bacon by pulling out the basket and looking. You can even flip the bacon over with some tongs if it looks good on one side.
A good start is five minutes for thin bacon done lightly; double that to 10 minutes for more crispy bacon bits. Add more time to make it more crispy. An extra 5 minutes will make a difference.
Cooking Temperature
A good start is 180°C for thin streaky bacon; you can even bring it up to 190°C if you want it more crispy with more fat rendered out.
For back bacon, with its lower fat content, keep to 180°C and check and possibly flip the bacon over at 5 minutes if it’s looking good on one side to bring the total time to 10 minutes at 180°C.
Two different portions
Cooking for two, and each wants a different style of cooking the bacon. A crispy and well done on one plate to only slightly cooked on the other.
Start one portion off first; let that cook well. Then add the next batch next to (not over) the already mostly cooked bacon. Cook the bacon until the just-done bacon is proper. You will have two portions of differing taste bacon finish simultaneously.
Checking
It can take a bit of checking and adding time, time, and temperature to get the bacon precisely as you want. Checking in on the bacon as it cooks and stopping sooner is easier than undoing any burntness or going back in time.
