Here’s a method for cooking thick‑sliced bacon in the oven without preheating — it gives nicely rendered, evenly crisp bacon with minimal mess. You may need to tweak a bit depending on how thick your slices are and how crisp you like them.

No‑Preheat Oven Method for Thick‑Sliced Bacon

Equipment & prep:

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Thick‑sliced bacon (approx ⅛‑inch or more)

Rimmed baking sheet

Aluminum foil + optional parchment paper (easy cleanup)

(Optional) Oven‑safe wire rack if you want the bacon lifted off the pan so fat drips away

Tongs & paper towels for draining

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Steps:

1. Line your baking sheet. Use foil (and/or parchment) so cleanup is easier. If using a wire rack, set it on top of the sheet.

2. Arrange the bacon cold. Lay out the thick bacon slices in a single layer, not overlapping. They can touch a bit but give them space to shrink as they heat.

3. Start with a cold oven. Put the sheet in before turning on the oven. Then set the temperature. For thick bacon, about 375°F (190‑200°C) is a good target.

4. Bake, and monitor.

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Once the oven is up to temperature, check the bacon. Thick slices often need a few extra minutes after the oven reaches the set temperature to fully render fat and crisp up.

It helps to flip each slice after the oven has preheated, especially for thicker bacon, to get even browning.

Optionally rotate the pan 180° halfway through to deal with hot spots.

It will cook slowly while the oven heats up. Once at 375°F, maybe 18‑25 minutes (total time will depend on how thick and how crisp you like it)

You could start checking around 15‑18 minutes after full temperature, especially if your oven heats quickly.

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If you like, I can give you a custom time/temp chart for different bacon thicknesses & crisp levels, so you can find your sweet spot quicker. Do you want that?