The Waffle Maker Hack For Crispy Bacon Without A Greasy Mess

Most people love crispy bacon, but it's not always worth the greasy mess it leaves behind when cooking. That is, unless you try using a waffle maker for a neater way to cook your favorite breakfast food that will still deliver amazing results, but with less mess. Cooking bacon in a waffle maker might seem odd initially, but it's a quick and convenient method that eliminates the need to clean up grease splashed all over your kitchen.

To try this hack, simply preheat your waffle iron, cut the bacon to fit, if necessary (some waffle irons might be too small for a whole strip of bacon), lay the meat on the waffle maker, and close the lid. Cook the bacon until crisp, then use tongs to remove it and let it cool before eating. As an optional step, halfway through cooking, you may want to shift or turn the bacon so that it cooks evenly throughout.

Once it's done cooking, you'll be left with all the bacon grease in one spot and not all over your stovetop and kitchen walls. The best part is you can leave some or all of the bacon grease in the waffle maker and cook extra tasty waffles in it. Or, dump the grease into a pan on the stove and make hashbrowns or eggs with it.

If your waffle iron sits in the back of a cabinet somewhere only to be brought out on special occasions like holidays or brunch get-togethers, it might get more usage when you know you may be able to get more use out of it besides just cooking waffles — or bacon. There are plenty of other fun ideas for making food in this portable kitchen appliance. A waffle maker or iron, after all, is just a hot griddle with square indentations, so you can cook a variety of foods using it, they'll just come out with a unique pattern. 

For example, try using your waffle iron to make a checker-patterned quesadilla. Or, create zucchini fritters for something healthy and savory. You can even make a yummy dessert like brownies or cookies using your waffle maker. Or, as mentioned above, hashbrowns are a great option to fire up in the iron, right after you make your bacon to take advantage of the leftover grease. 

If you don't have a waffle maker, there are other ways to cook bacon besides on the stove. When you have lots of mouths to feed, try cooking your bacon in the oven. Doing it this way is simple, requires little effort, and is a great way to cook lots of strips at once. The downside is that it takes a bit longer than other methods, especially if you prefer your bacon extra crispy. 

If you just need a couple of slices, using the microwave is another great way to cook bacon without much of a mess. It takes about 30 seconds to 1 minute per slice so it's not the best method for cooking more than a handful of slices. Another great method is to use an outdoor grill like a flattop. Cooking bacon on a flattop grill or outdoor griddle keeps the grease splatter out of the kitchen too and can deliver super crispy bacon. You can cook up a whole heap of bacon on a grill and it takes only about 15 minutes. The drawback is that if you live in colder climates, this is more of a seasonal option.