How to Make the Perfect Oven Baked Potato

When our family goes out to dinner, we go out to our local pub (when I say local, I mean it’s the only restaurant within 20km of our farm), I always get a baked potato with my meal. And it’s not because it’s healthier than the fries. It’s because I flippin’ love them. This tiny pub in the middle of rural nowhere serves up the best baked potatoes. Giant golden spuds with scrubbed, crispy skin and a seriously fluffy potato inside. Not too dry, never glassy. Just perfect. Every single time.

For a long time I just couldn’t get right at home. I thought they has some special chef trick that I still hadn’t mastered.

Well, as it turns out there is a little trick and I had missed the memo.

There is an art to getting your baked potato perfect every time. It’s not the hit and miss kinda thing I thought it was. Well it used to be, for me anyway. I would go through the steps of cooking my spuds and sometimes my potatoes turned out OK, and sometimes not. The sometimes not was the problem. It’s extremely disappointing to open up your potato to find it glassy and hard with a sweaty, leathery skin. No thank you.

So What’s the Secret?

OK. So the secret to making the perfect baked potato is to not try too hard. Yup. Forget about carefully wrapping that little spud in foil. Nope.

You need to treat it rough. Just pop it bare on your oven grill. Like you just don’t care.

That’s it. That’s how they get it so crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle.

Put all your Tools on the Table

Prepping your station for baked potatoes is easy. You only need a couple essential items:

Good baking potatoes around 300g each (I recommend russets but King Edward, Desiree, Maris Piper, Wilja, Golden Wonder and Cara are all good varieties here).
Olive oil,
Sea salt,
Aluminium Foil (not for the reason you think)
A regular ol’ fork

How to Make the Perfect Oven Baked Potato

1. Scrub your potatoes with a hard vegetable brush. These are one of those kitchen essentials that every home cook needs but doesn’t know it till they try it. It becomes a regular cooking tool real quick. A good kitchen brush is great for prepping carrots, potatoes and all other root vegetables. If you grow your own vegetables and want to get your potatoes looking all clean and new like the ones in the store (btw nobody likes a mouthful of dirt when biting into their meal), then you need one of these in your kitchen.
2. Pat your potatoes dry with a paper towel or dish cloth.
3. Line a oven tray with foil and place your potatoes on top. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt. Use your hands to rub the salt and oil all over your potatoes. Get them nicely covered. I use around 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon oil per potato.
4. Prick each potato 6 – 8 times with a fork. This allows air to escape while cooking.
5. Then … (and this is where the magic happens) … Place your potatoes directly on the middle rack of your oven. not wrapped in foil. Not even on a baking tray. This helps them crisp all round.
6. Pop that foil lined tray under on the bottom rack to catch any liquid escape from the baking potatoes.
7. Bake for around 1 hour.

To test whether the potato is done press it; it should feel soft under the skin and ‘give’ a little. You can put a fine skewer right through to the center if you want to be sure. But once you’ve made these a couple of times, you will be able to give the potato a little squeeze and you’ll know whether it’s done. It will feel a little like a crispy stress ball.

To serve (like they do at restaurants) make a cross cut in the top with a sharp knife and firmly squeeze your potato so it opens at all four points. Season with salt and pepper and put a knob of cold butter or sour cream in the middle.

Enjoy!!

The secret to the perfect baked potato

Author: Carey
Prep Time: 5 Min
Cook Time: 1 Hour
Total Time: 1 Hr 5 min
Yield: 4 - 6
Method: Oven Baked
Cuisine: Main Meal

Print Recipe

Description

The Perfect Baked Potato is all about the texture. Crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. Top it with your favorite topping and voila! An easy and healthy weeknight dinner everyone will love.

Ingredients

Good baking potatoes around 300g each (I recommend russets but King Edward, Desiree, Maris Piper, Wilja, Golden Wonder and Cara are all good varieties here).
Olive oil,
Sea salt,
Aluminium Foil (not for the reason you think)
A regular ol’ fork

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F / 180C
Scrub your potatoes with a hard vegetable brush. These are one of those kitchen essentials that every home cook needs but doesn’t know it till they try it. It becomes a regular cooking tool real quick. A good kitchen brush is great for prepping carrots, potatoes and all other root vegetables. If you grow your own vegetables and want to get your potatoes looking all clean and new like the ones in the store (btw nobody likes a mouthful of dirt when biting into their meal), then you need one of these in your kitchen.
Pat your potatoes dry with a paper towel or dish cloth.
Line a oven tray with foil and place your potatoes on top. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt. Use your hands to rub the salt and oil all over your potatoes. Get them nicely covered. I use around 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon oil per potato.
Prick each potato 6 – 8 times with a fork. This allows air to escape while cooking.
Then … (and this is where the magic happens) … Place your potatoes directly on the middle rack of your oven. not wrapped in foil. Not even on a baking tray. This helps them crisp all round.
Pop that foil lined tray under on the bottom rack to catch any liquid escape from the baking potatoes.
Bake for around 1 hour (see notes below).