How To Sous Vide Bacon Overnight [+VIDEO]

New to sous vide techniques? Learn why is sous vide so popular.

Wake up to the delicious smell of overnight sous vide bacon. It’s heaven! Learn how to cook bacon sous vide style with Sip Bite Go’s tried and true recipe. Get the best sous vide time and temperature for bacon. Plus, find out how to arrange the bacon in the vacuum sealed bag to cook properly. It’s easy and you’ll love it for breakfast. Let’s plug in the sous vide and make it!

This sous vide meat dish is ready in about 8 hours, which is why it gets the nickname “overnight sous vide bacon recipe”. This one ingredient sous vide recipe may just possibly change your mornings forever. Are you ready?

What is sous vide bacon like? Why is it better?

This bacon is not like any stove top or oven cooked bacon you’ve ever had.

Sous vide bacon is very, very meaty. It is tender, not chewy.

After cooking in it’s own juices for 8 hours this bacon is juicy and more flavorful than any previous bacon experience a person has ever had. It is remarkably good.

New to sous vide techniques? Learn why is sous vide so popular.

The short version of how to sous vide bacon

Set up your sous vide cooker before you go to sleep, and wake in the morning to all your favorite breakfast aromas. All you need is a quick, 1 minute sear when the sous vide bacon comes out of the vacuum seal bag, and then breakfast is ready. Crisp, tender, and full of juicy sous vide flavor.

Scroll on to answer all your questions about sous vide bacon…

• How to meal prep bacon with the sous vide machine
• Ingredients
• Bacon time and temperature for sous vide
• Recipe for sous vide bacon (and step by step video)

Ingredients

All you need for this recipe is a pound of bacon. I also added some smoked salt, but that’s optional and some might say controversial to add salt to bacon. 

So cook the bacon in a bag without anything, or add a pinch of a seasoning you like or a salt like this smoked one I love.

Sometimes I add a sprinkle of brown sugar, too.

How much bacon can you sous vide at once?

You can cook multiple bags of bacon in their own vacuum sealed bags if you want to meal prep. In my house, we’ve never had “too much” leftover bacon.

Bacon just doesn’t go bad around here.  

How to sous vide bacon

Preheat sous vide machine to 142ºF. Transfer bacon from packaging to a sous vide bag so it doesn’t cook with the cardboard label that comes with most bacon packages.

How to arrange bacon for sous vide cooking

The bacon can be arranged overlapping just like it is in the package. Unlike many sous vide recipes, there is no need to spread out the bacon in flat layers to sous vide it.

Why not sous vide bacon in the original packaging?

It’s a good idea to transfer store bought bacon to a bag so it doesn’t cook with the cardboard label that comes with most bacon packages. The bacon can be overlapping, just like it is in the package. Unlike most sous vide recipes, there is no need to spread it in a flat layer to cook bacon sous vide style.

Vacuum-seal bacon and drop the bag in the sous vide bath.

Learn more about vacuum sealing meat for sous vide.

Time and Temperature

Cook bacon with the sous vide machine at 142ºF for 8 hours. You can also cook it longer, between 12 to 24 hours if you want to experiment with various textures at different cook times. 

I’m really happy with the 8 hour cook time.

How to protect your countertops with long cooks.

I put a cutting board between my sous vide bath and natural countertops. When the sous vide bath is directly on particular countertop materials, it could cause your surface to crack– not a good thing. 

Finish in a Cast Iron Skillet

When cook time on the bacon is done, remove it the bag from the hot water bath. Remove bacon from the bag with tongs and pat dry. Finish immediately or refrigerate until ready to finish and eat.

Heat a cast iron pan to medium-high heat and add bacon. Sear each side of bacon for 30-60 seconds, until bacon gets crispy as desired.

Once done, transfer bacon a paper towel lined plate or cutting board.

How to know is sous vide cooked bacon is done right

Some like their bacon cooked completely crisp. Finish bacon in a cast iron pan according to your own preference, it is officially cooked after the sous vide process. I prefer my bacon cooked with just a bit of crunch. 

What if my sous vide bacon isn’t crispy enough?

Remember: This bacon is not crispy right out of the sous vide bath. To trap all the extra sous vide flavor and tenderness, sear your bacon for a minute or two before serving. This will also give it the desired crispy texture.

Bacon cooked this way is more meaty because it’s not cooked to death. It is tender, yet also crunchy and crispy on the exterior. It’s like “fall apart bacon” – it melts in your mouth. This is how I prefer my bacon cooked.

Eggs are another great ingredient to sous vide. See my top picks for  sous vide egg recipes.

Meal Prep 

It’s easy enough to sous vide a package of bacon every day, but you don’t need to. 

Instead, meal prep breakfast with a large batch of bacon cooked with a sous vide machine for the week. When you’re ready to assemble a quick breakfast, take out one piece of bacon and sear it in a cast iron pan.  

What to do with extra bacon

Do you really need help figuring out what to do with bacon? Well, if so…

• Add to Sous Vide Egg Bites
• Crumble bacon on green salads with blue cheese
• Use as a topping for baked potatoes or breakfast tacos 
• Mix bacon chunks with mayo for a tasty sandwich spread
• Add it to garlic avocado toast with sous vide egg
• Dice it for blackened chicken salad sandwiches
• Make bagel sandwiches
• Wrap peppers with bacon in this recipe for jalapeño poppers with goat cheese

Last thoughts on sous vide bacon vs pan fried / oven baked

Right when I was first gifted my sous vide machine, I made sous vide pork shoulder. But, I held off on bacon for a while – because how could bacon get any better? Fast forward to when we started meal prepping and cooking sous vide every night in our Portland home. After dabbling on all sorts of recipes from sous vide wings, to sous vide beets, to sous vide turkey breast for Thanksgiving.

Once I was a really excited sous vide enthusiast, I just couldn’t stop dreaming about how good it might be. I had to know: can you sous vide bacon??

It sounds like a crazy idea – who would have thought there would be a reason to make an 8 hour package of bacon sous vide style when pan fried bacon is so good? And when I’m killing it with my oven baked bacon method?

But actually, the sous vide cooking method for cooking bacon took my bacon experience to all new levels. Cooked sous vide, bacon has a tender quality I’ve never had with other bacons. It literately pulls apart. It’s not really chewy because it’s so tender.

It melts in your mouth.

Meal prepping sous vide bacon is a really easy way to cook bacon in a batch. So that’s one thing to consider about sous vide bacon vs pan fried. I think sous vide lasts longer in the fridge. You can even cook one slice of bacon sous vide from frozen.

Is it going to get you back 3 hours a week? Probably not, but meal prepping bacon with sous vide cooking can shave a few minutes off each morning.

Here’s how I see using it in every day life… I’m a fan of cooking this super slow cooked bacon for a crowd. It’s one of my go-to sous vide brunch party ideas because bacon cooked this way is so different.

Add bacon to a sous vide burger buffet at a cookout with sauteed mushrooms with thyme and red wine and red wine caramelized red onions. When we have the time, we love to make them ourselves with this simple burger patty recipe.

For overnight guests, this is an easy sous vide breakfast dish to share this style of cooking with friends and family.

Hope you enjoy it!

Love bacon? Check out these recipe for air fryer bacon wrapped hot dogs, and smoker recipes like these bacon wrapped onion rings and smoked jalapeno poppers.

Tasty Tips

• Protect your countertops. I put a cutting board between my sous vide bath and natural countertops. This is a long cook, and if the sous vide bath is directly on the countertops it could cause your surface to crack– not a good thing. 
• Remember to keep the water bath level high. Use a sous vide lid to help keep heat in.
• How do you store bacon cooked sous vide style? You don’t need a separate storage container to refrigerate the sous vide meat. It can stay in the sous vide bag until you’re ready for it.
• Can you sous vide bacon in bulk? Yes – There’s almost no easier way to prep bacon for breakfast. I like to cook a pound  at a time, and then take out a few pieces every day for breakfast. The final searing heats them beautifully, and they’ll be ready for your breakfast plate in as little as fifty seconds. 
• How can you reheat frozen bacon already cooked with the sous vide machine? If you’ve sous vide your bacon, you can add frozen slices of bacon to a frying pan for 1-2 minutes to sear it. Or cook it in the microwave for 30 seconds.
• Any tips for how to serve bacon? I love bacon with many different dishes. If you’re serving it with soup or salad, break it in small pieces and sprinkle it on top. When accompanying a plated dish, you can leave bacon in longer strips.

The Perfect Sous Vide Setup

Everyday I’m asked, “what do you need to sous vide food?”. Here’s my answer.

1. A sous vide machine.
   Option 1: “stick” models like the Joule, Anova, or Instant Pot Slim.
   Option 2: “multipot” models like the SousPreme or InstantPot Duo Evo Plus.
2. Sous vide container.
   If using a sous vide “stick” model, you need something to hold the water the food cooks in, like a bucket or stockpot.
3. Bags to cook sous vide food.
   Keep it simple and sous vide in ziplock gallon bags, or get fancy like me with a vacuum sealer setup.
4. Nice-to-have accessories for sous vide cooking.
   – Sous vide weights to hold down food that floats.
   – Mini mason jars for desserts and sous vide egg bites.
   – Cast iron skillet to sear sous vide steaks to finish them.
5. My sous vide cookbook with 100+ recipes.

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• Tips For Sous Vide Egg Bites

Share your sous vide bacon. Add #sipbitego and tag @sipbitego on Instagram – I’d love to see your pic. Check out my sous vide cookbook on Amazon: The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook. And for updates, add yourself to get news from Sip Bite Go.