Why You Need To Avoid Frying Bacon For BLTs

Ah, the BLT. This classic sandwich is a mouthwatering combination of bacon, lettuce, and tomato. The salty and crispy bacon contrasts beautifully with the tender, sweet, and crunchy lettuce along with the tart and juicy tomato. What's not to love?

The preparation. 

There are lots of mistakes anyone can make when cooking bacon. The whole process is messy and frustrating, and when you fry bacon in a pan, the grease splatters all over the place. The bacon curls as it cooks, and it's so easy to undercook or burn the bacon. Finally, the smoke alarm goes off all too often. You can buy bacon that cooks in the microwave oven, but it seems like those slices just don't have the same flavor as bacon that is cooked from "scratch."

Curled bacon offers an imperfect BLT experience as each bite should be the perfect combination of sweet, salty, crunchy, crisp, and smooth. With that in mind, is there anything you can do to get nice straight strips of bacon that are perfectly browned and crisp?

The answer? Bake your bacon! Just line up those strips in a pan, throw the pan in the oven, and wait. In about 20 minutes you'll have perfectly cooked, crisp, and browned bacon for your perfect BLT. As a result, there's no smoke, no splattering, and no mess to clean up. And you don't have to stand there, turning the slices, being splattered by grease, and watching anxiously as it cooks. Plus, every bite of your sandwich will be the best ever.

There are a few ways to bake bacon in the oven. The most common way is to use a wire rack in order to let the grease drain off as the bacon cooks. You can use this method, but it's easier to just plop the bacon right in the pan, according to the Food Network. You can start the bacon in a preheated oven, or in a cold oven, per the Food Network, though if you choose to preheat or not, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Regardless, be sure to check on the bacon a few minutes before the timer goes off so you can monitor its progress.

When the bacon is brown, crispy and nice and flat, take it out of the oven and put the slices on paper towels to help drain off any excess grease. Then it's time to assemble your sandwich.

And which sandwich will you make? There are endless variations on the BLT. You can add anything you'd like to your sammie, including avocado, a fried egg, chicken, or even lobster. You can even change up the bread. Feel free to use the traditional slices of toasted bread, or use a ciabatta bun, french roll, or try a croissant. For the adventurous, there are even BLT wrap sandwiches.

For some added BLT inspiration, you can make the indulgent Tommy Bahama's lobster roll BLT, whip up a salmon BLT that also uses avocado on ciabatta rolls, or dive into a southern fried chicken BLT. Finally, you can add a bit of kick to the mayo with this recipe for a BLT with balsamic mayo, or go southern and make a fried green tomato BLT.