The oven is the best way to cook bacon, followed by a greased pan. However, it’s possible to cook bacon by heating it up through its own juices, which a microwave oven is specifically designed for. What’s more, you can get less fatty and leaner cooked bacon using a microwave bacon cooker.
The main appeal of the microwave bacon cooker, like the microwave egg cooker, is cooking efficiency. Just place the bacon on the accessory, put it inside the microwave, cook for the right amount of time, and you’re good to go.
What is the best bacon cooker for a microwave? Keep on reading to find out.
Contents
- 1 What to Look for in Bacon Cookers
- 2 How We Tested the Products
- 3 How Each Bacon Cooker Went About Cooking Bacon
- 4 How to Get Crispy Microwaved Bacon
- 5 Reviews for the 6 Best Bacon Cookers for Microwaves
- 5.1 1. Tray-Style Bacon Maker/Cooker Made Completely of BPA-Free Plastic
- 5.2 2. The Difference for This Tray-Style Bacon Cooker Is Its Slotted Ridges and Higher Capacity
- 5.3 3. Grill-Shaped Tray-Style Bacon Cooker with Extra Space to Accommodate Bigger Slices
- 5.4 4. An Alternative Rack-Style Hanger-Type of Bacon Cooker But with T-Shaped Racks
- 5.5 5. Cook Bacon in a Jiffy like Magic with Presto and Its Removable Racks
- 5.6 6. One of the Most Efficient Rack-Style Bacon Cookers for Microwaves We Could Find
- 6 Don’t Forget to Keep This in Mind
A bacon cooker for microwaves is ostensibly a microwave-safe cooking accessory you can place in your microwave as a special cooking dish for your strips of bacon. In any case, there are several features about the design of a bacon cooker or crisper you need to consider before buying them.
What to Look for in Bacon Cookers
Here we answer the following questions. How big is the cooker? What is it made of? How does it go about cooking the bacon? How does it drain the fat of the bacon as it’s cooked with short-frequency radiowaves? How is its gutter designed? And so forth.
Dimension
Check the dimensions of the microwave bacon cooker by measuring it manually or checking its dimensions on its Amazon page or official website page. The specs are usually provided to you from the start.
You should specifically measure the inner dimensions manually because that info is typically not provided with the rest of the specs. Make sure it’s not too long or else it might not turn properly on your microwave turntable.
BPA-Free Plastic
If you’re buying a microwaveable bacon cooker, it’s likely to be made of BPA-free plastic. BPA is a type of plasticizer that can leach off from a non-microwavable plastic container to your food, thus contaminating it.
This chemical can affect your hormones when exposed to your system in large quantities. FDA-approved microwaveable plastic should be free of BPA and won’t easily melt from high-temperature food.
Build Quality
Tray-style cookers can be either rectangle or square. This depends on the length. Racks-style cookers, meanwhile, are compact enough to fit even the smallest of microwaves (around 0.6 cubic feet or less).
The stability of the plastic item is affected by regular microwaving. Therefore, make sure that your bacon cooker is made of sturdy plastic with the right amount of thickness. After much reheating, the thinnest plastics tend to become as fragile as fish crackers.
Ease of Storage
A bacon cooker with racks is easiest to store because the racks can be removed from the tray or gutter. You can assemble the racks afterwards with the tray when you need to use it again.
Most tray-styled cookers should fit any cabinet that’s about as big as or bigger than your typical microwave interior with a turntable. The tray should determine the amount of space occupied by the product.
Capacity
Some rack-style cookers can fit p to 12 slices of bacon for crisping or cooking. However, to prevent overcrowding of the bacon slices, it’s best to only put in 9 slices at a time instead. It also ensures even cooking by the bacon.
The number of bacon slices you can fit into the tray cookers depends on the size of the trays and the size of the bacon. Typically 3 to 6 slices. Ideally, you should place the bacon slices crisscrossed with the tray’s multiple slots to raise it above the fat drainage or gutter.
Gutter Design
The purpose of a bacon cooker isn’t just to cook the bacon using its own juices. It’s also designed to drain off as much fat as possible a la the George Foreman Grill. Their design typically involves elevating the bacon to keep it away from the captured fat.
We favor the rack-style bacon cooker because it keeps the bacon hanging like clothes on a clothesline while the fat drips on the gutter below. Some use kickstands to raise the tray for fat drainage into the gutter.
How We Tested the Products
We tested the bacon cookers by using Kirkland Bacon for each and every one of them. They have wider slices compared to other bacon brands. The slices can also vary from package to package since the cuts of meat aren’t necessarily uniform.
Tray-style bacon cookers with ridges were quite commonplace. The best way to use them is horizontally laying out the bacon across the ridges to keep the bacon slices elevated. Ridged-tray cookers can only hold from 3 up to 6 slices at a time.
We also followed the instructions for each bacon cooker, programming the microwave for the recommended cooking times for them. Take note, they’re typically estimated for 700-watt mini microwaves.
How Each Bacon Cooker Went About Cooking Bacon
Funnily enough, the recommended time for most of these cookers were too long on a medium-duty 1.7-kilowatt microwave. They’re better suited for 700 watts to 1-kilowatt microwaves. When using commercial microwaves, decrease the power level and cooking time to prevent overcooking.
We had to make a consistent setting for all cookers across the board on the second round of tests. As for the third round of tests, we limited cooking to three slices for both rack-style and tray-style cookers. It’s to see if the bacon crisped differently compared to full-capacity loading.
We also tried out turkey bacon on the fourth round versus the pork bacon we’ve been using all this time. Finally, we tested whether or not the cooker was dishwasher safe by washing them in the dishwashing machine.
How to Get Crispy Microwaved Bacon
You need trial and error in order to get a crispy result for your bacon cooking. All of the cookers we tested should produce crispy bacon.
To get crispy microwaved bacon, undercook the slices first. Program them for about 3 minutes for 4 bacon slices. From there, flip the bacon over then cook them in 30-second increments.
Continually check the state of the bacon after every increment. You can even do 1-minute increments but 30-second increments give you more control when it comes to gradually crisp the bacon to perfection.
Don’t forget that if the fatty sections of the bacon turn golden brown, it should crisp on its own as it cools down. An undercooked 3-minute slice of bacon is prepped for gradual crisping at half-minute healing times compared to the longer method of heating and checking every minute.
Reviews for the 6 Best Bacon Cookers for Microwaves
Here are the 6 best flatbed microwaves out there. Let’s talk about them and why they’re the best on the market to date.
1. Tray-Style Bacon Maker/Cooker Made Completely of BPA-Free Plastic
| Cooking Time | Less than 3 minutes and 30-second increments until crispy |
| Capacity | 6 slices |
| Size | 11.02 x 9.8 x 2.3 inches |
| Weight | 9.4 ounces |
| Material | All parts are made of BPA-free dishwasher-safe plastic |
| Style | Tray-style bacon cooker |
| Gutter Design | Ridged tray catches the grease |
The Lekue Microwave Bacon Maker/Cooker is a much bigger bacon cooker than the ZFJ one. The tray itself catches the grease while the bacon is elevated by ridges. It’s among the cleanest and quickest ways to microwave bacon.
For something that costs more than ZFJ, it can only hold 6 slices of bacon. It’s also for this reason that you have to cook it under 3 minutes to get it to crisp. Do the 30-second increments of cooking to ensure crispiness without turning the bacon rubbery though.
It’s designed with ridges or deep grooves that catch the grease. The tray-style design and the lack of cumbersome racks to remove or deal with also make it easy to drain the bacon grease through a drain spout. It’s also dishwasher-safe because it comes in one piece.
It costs about $20 and is easy to clean. However, its lid has issues closing properly. This results in the grease splattering all over the microwave more often than not.
2. The Difference for This Tray-Style Bacon Cooker Is Its Slotted Ridges and Higher Capacity
| Cooking Time | 3-14 minutes and 30-second increments until crispy |
| Capacity | 14 slices |
| Size | 10.2 x 9.4 x 2.8 inches |
| Weight | 15 ounces |
| Material | BPA-free plastic |
| Style | Tray-style bacon cooker |
| Gutter Design | Slotted ridges allow for larger bacon capacity |
The Emson Bacon Wave Microwave Cooker is bigger than ZFJ but smaller than Lekue (give or take an inch or so). It’s another healthy-eating, dishwasher-safe tray-style bacon cooker with a twist. The bacon strips are this time placed above the tray in slots rather than flat on its back.
This way, instead of laying them face-down, you can hang them like with rack-style cookers care of the extra-high ridges and slots. Instead of being limited to 6 to 7 slices of bacon, you can cook up to 14 slices of bacon.
Thanks to its hanging ridge design where you won’t have to fold up or cut the bacon apart, the bacon strips are cooked much more evenly. It has all the features it shares with the other bacon cookers, like cooking bacon evenly and separating the bacon from the fat (about 35 percent).
You’re recommended to cook the bacon strips at 1 minute per strip but at a minimum of 3 minutes. From there, use 30-second increments to cook the bacon until it reaches the desired crispiness.
3. Grill-Shaped Tray-Style Bacon Cooker with Extra Space to Accommodate Bigger Slices
| Cooking Time | 3 minutes and 30-second increments until crispy |
| Capacity | 4-6 slices |
| Size | 12 x 10 x 2.25 inches |
| Weight | 1.03 pounds |
| Material | BPA-free plastic |
| Style | Tray-style bacon cooker |
| Gutter Design | Slotted ridges with grease-catching tray |
The Prep Solutions by Progressive Microwavable Bacon Grill won Amazon’s Choice for “microwave bacon cooker” for good reason. It has a grill design for its tray and the whole product is much bigger than Lekue. It comes with slotted ridges and a lid or cover that guards against grease splatter.
No, it’s not as space-saving or high-capacity as Emson Bacon Wave. Therefore, it can only cook up to 4-6 slices of bacon on its white tray-style grill. If you squeeze the bacon strips enough, you might fit in an extra strip of bacon for a 7-slice capacity.
Its size means you need a minimum turntable diameter of 12.5 inches. 10-inch turntables of mini microwaves couldn’t handle this cooker. You can also go with a flatbed instead to ensure fitment. It’s designed to cut the grease out and leave it in the tray after cooking.
Its design is reminiscent of the George Foreman Grill in terms of its slotted tray and gutter. It has unique design decisions though like a vented cover and a recessed handle for easy removal from the microwave after cooking is done.
4. An Alternative Rack-Style Hanger-Type of Bacon Cooker But with T-Shaped Racks
| Cooking Time | 3-12 minutes and 30-second increments until crispy |
| Capacity | 12 slices |
| Size | 9.2 x 8.8 x 1.6 inches |
| Weight | 0.48 ounces |
| Material | BPA-free plastic |
| Style | Rack-style bacon cooker |
| Gutter Design | Track catches grease from t-shaped hangers |
MAKIN BACON Microwave Bacon Cooker is another rack-style bacon cooker like ZFJ but its style of racking is easier to deal with and put bacon on compared to the circular racks of ZFJ. It’s made of high-quality white BPA-free plastic and costs about $14.
The MAKIN BACON cooker should be able to cook the bacon evenly for a healthy bacon breakfast with 35 percent less fat on it. Like with the ZFJ Bacon Cooker or the Emson Bacon Wave, it’s recommended to increase the cooking time with every additional bacons strip.
Afterwards, cook until crispy in 30-second increments. You’re assured of high-quality durability and performance because it’s made in the USA and ships from Wisconsin. The racks assure the bacon cooks in the air away from the dripping fat.
The product is also dishwasher-safe and won’t crumble or break under the pressure. It can handle high temperatures from the microwave too so it won’t crack due to thermal shock as well.
5. Cook Bacon in a Jiffy like Magic with Presto and Its Removable Racks
| Cooking Time | 3-9 minutes and 30-second increments until crispy |
| Capacity | 9 slices |
| Size | 8.94 x 8.25 x 5.44 inches |
| Weight | 10.9 ounces |
| Material | BPA-free plastic |
| Style | Rack-style bacon cooker |
| Gutter Design | Tray catches grease from removable racks |
Presto 05101 Microwave Bacon Cooker or the Presto PowerCrisp is a high-quality rack-style bacon cooker that’s easier to store away compared to the other rack-style bacon cookers on this list because the wafer-like plastic racks are easily removable.
Presto is definitely about the third-best bacon cooker on this list next to Prep Solutions and MAKIN BACON exactly because of its highly rated removable rack system. It also gets Amazon’s Choice for “Presto Bacon Cooker for Microwave Oven”.
In other words, it’s the best Presto bacon cooker. It has all the requisite qualities of a cream-of-the-crop bacon cooker, such as a petite size, dishwasher-safe features, removable racks to ensure easy storage at even the most limited of drawer spaces, and an aesthetically pleasing black tray color.
No area on this bacon cooker is hard to clean, whether being hand-washed manually or washed via the dishwasher machine. It’s simple to store, clean, load, and serve (not necessarily in that order) when all is said and done.
6. One of the Most Efficient Rack-Style Bacon Cookers for Microwaves We Could Find
| Cooking Time | 3-12 minutes and 30-second increments until crispy |
| Capacity | 12 slices |
| Size | 9.88 x 6.38 x 2.99 inches |
| Weight | 8.2 ounces |
| Material | BPA-free heat-resistant PP material plastic |
| Style | Rack-style bacon cooker |
| Gutter Design | Tray catches the grease |
The ZFJ Microwave Bacon Cooker is an efficient bacon cooker for microwaves that can reduce fat from your bacon for up to 35 percent (according to the manufacturer’s claim). We can confirm the rack-style hanging bacon does drain down the fat efficiently on its gutter.
It looks like a lamp with a neck or stem, but the light bulb part is now occupied by a circular rack or hanger where you’re supposed to hang the bacon strips like towels. As the bacon is cooked, the fatty grease drips down to the tray below, away from the crispy bacon.
Its plastic is nice, thick, and BPA-free. The PP plastic material is quite high quality and won’t degrade easily with regular usage. The multi-function rack can cook up to 12 slices of bacon.
Weirdly enough, Amazon lists different dimensions of the item for the description (10.5 x 6.3 x 5.7 inches) and the specs table (9.88 x 6.38 x 2.99 inches), which might be a mix-up with models at best or false advertising at worst.
Don’t Forget to Keep This in Mind
A microwave bacon cooker makes cooking bacon as fast and easy as the microwave will allow. They’re designed to make your bacon less fatty and greasy to boot. If you think placing the bacon in a covered Tupperware or ceramic dish is enough, you have another “think” coming.
At any rate, our top pick for the best cooker is Prep Solutions Microwavable Bacon Grill. This is followed by MAKIN BACON Microwave Bacon Cooker. In third place is Presto 05101 Microwave Bacon Cooker.
The best bacon cookers we’ve found over the course of our research will make your life much easier and give you healthier cooked bacon when push comes to shove.
