Can You Cook Frozen Bacon Without Thawing?

Bacon and eggs, BLTs, bacon and lentil soup: If you want to make sure you always have the base for a good meal, keep bacon in your freezer. But when it comes time to cook it, do you have to go to the trouble of thawing it — or can you just cook it from frozen? The short answer is yes, you can cook frozen bacon. As long as you can manage to pry apart the slices, you can cook it almost exactly like you normally would. Fry it, air-fry it, or bake it — it will just take slightly longer than usual.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, frozen meat takes about one and a half times as long to cook as refrigerated meat. The difference is less pronounced in bacon because it's so thin. We're not talking turkey, here: You're not going to end up with a tough, overcooked outside and a raw inside. You're going to end up with the crispy bacon you know and love.

To cook frozen bacon, start by (shocker) taking the package of bacon out of the freezer. If you're in the United States, chances are, you're looking at a vacuum-sealed plastic bag of bacon slices. Try to separate the slices — do they come apart easily? Great! Go ahead and grab what you need. You're ready to cook.

If it's a struggle to separate one slice of bacon from another, don't bother trying. That's a recipe for cold fingers and bacon shrapnel. Instead, pick your favorite food-safe method to thaw your bacon. The refrigerator is safest, but if you're in a hurry, run the package under cool water. You don't have to thaw the bacon completely. Instead, once the slices are easy to pry apart, you can take what you need and cook it.

How? That's up to you. Pick your favorite method. Make air fryer bacon, oven-baked bacon, or good old-fashioned stove-top bacon.

If you've ever struggled to pry apart slices of rock-solid bacon, fresh out of the freezer, you'll be pleased to know there's a better way. A few better ways, actually.

The goal is to freeze your bacon so you can take out the amount you need — and only the amount you need — later. To do this, lay out slices of bacon on parchment paper, so they're not touching. Then fold the paper and place it in a freezer bag. TikToker Ceddie's Kitchen shows off the parchment paper hack for bacon storage beautifully.

You can also roll each individual slice into a spiral, put them on a baking sheet (making sure they're not touching), and freeze them. Once they're solid, transfer them to a freezer bag. Voilà: Another convenient hack for freezing bacon.

Once you've frozen your bacon, don't forget to actually use it. According to FoodSafety.gov, bacon lasts for one month in the freezer before it starts to decline in quality — it will still be safe to eat after longer periods — just less appetizing. There's your excuse to eat more bacon — you're welcome.