Air-Fryer Bacon

The argument for cooking bacon in an air fryer is not that it produces better bacon than a skillet (it produces equally good bacon), but that it produces bacon while you cook something else. The skillet method requires undivided attention — bacon left unattended either burns or flops back into the rendered fat and overshoots crisp. The air fryer does the same job hands-off: lay the slices in the basket, set the timer, walk away to scramble eggs, come back when the timer beeps.

The photo shows the natural end use: laid on a toasted slice of bread with mayonnaise, lettuce, and a thick slice of tomato — the classic BLT, made at home in less time than ordering one. But this recipe is really an enabling technique, not a destination dish. Once you have a tray of crisp bacon, the dishes available to you multiply: chopped over a baked potato, crumbled into pasta carbonara, wrapped around dates, draped over a burger, eaten standing at the counter while you wait for the coffee to finish.

The technique is unfussy: lay the slices flat in the basket, don't crowd, and accept that you'll need two batches for a pound. The basket catches the rendered fat, which you can pour into a jar to save for cooking eggs, frying onions, or basically anything that benefits from "tastes faintly of bacon."