Perfect Baked Potato

Recently, we discussed the baked potato bar and how it provides a great side dish to a meal.  Everyone can pick their own toppings and you can get creative with those as well!  In the comments, Monica asked me if I would explain how to make a baked potato.

I love questions from readers and will do my best to address any questions or concerns that you might have. So of course I can talk about how to make a baked potato! This method works for me every time and always presents a potato baked to perfection.

Andrea’s Perfectly Baked Potatoes

This is a method more than it is an exact recipe, keep that in mind as you follow along.

Preheat your oven to 400 or 425 degrees.  HOT! This works for one potato or several potatoes, the amount doesn’t affect the outcome nor the cooking time.

Scrub your potatoes so that the skins are clean and most of the dirt is gone.  You will need a sheet of foil large enough to wrap the potato in.  With a knife, poke holes in the potato. You will want a few good holes around the potato.  The reason for this is because potatoes have a huge water content and by poking holes in them, that allows steam to escape the potato as it cooks.  If you don’t do this, you risk the potato exploding on you.

This is not the desired result we are looking for.

Once you have holes poked in the potato, rub it down with a little bit of olive oil.  Then sprinkle it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  If you’re feeling funky, toss some grill seasoning on there as well.

Wrap the potato up in the foil and then place the potato right on the cooking rack in the oven.  The rack should be in the middle of the oven and the potato should be in the middle of the rack.

Bake for about one hour. If the potatoes are really large, it might take slightly longer than that.  To test doneness, remove from oven, unroll the foil and poke with a knife.  The knife should go in cleanly with no resistance.

When they are done, remove from oven, unwrap and place on plates.  Eat and enjoy!

Top baked potato with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

By wrapping the potato and rubbing it down with some oil, that helps the potato steam cook. This provides a really fluffy and creamy inside texture.  Because the oven is so hot, this helps crisp up the skin and speed along the cooking process.

Seasoning the skin creates a lovely smell as it bakes and gives the skin a little umph when you eat it.  Feel free to play with the seasonings and use what flavors you like.

Have fun guys, and remember, always play with your food!  Enjoy!

5 thoughts on “Perfect Baked Potato

    • MJM, If you don’t like garlic powder you certainly do not have to use it. The beauty of cooking for yourself means you can season your baked potato however you want! :)

  1. MJM says:

    I want to discourage others to even have garlic powder in the house… it encourages laziness, as someone might be cooking in your home and see both the fresh garlic and the garlic powder. Then they think to themselves, “my… if I use the fresh garlic I’ll have to peel, chop, mince, etc.. and my hands will smell like garlic for several minutes,” and then possibly opt to use the garlic powder.

    If you just eliminate garlic powder from the house, nobody will ever have to have that thought.

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