One of my top three favorite foods is the humble potato! I love them every possible way: baked, twice baked, boiled, fried, chips, au gratin, scalloped, mashed, Hasselback, and in soups, stews, and salads and more. My college days were filled with baked potatoes for dinner. That was it – just a plain baked potato with salt and pepper! And while I love potatoes in any form or configuration, the simple, Perfect Baked Potato is a classic with crispy, salty skin, fluffy interior and ready in 1 hour.
Potatoes were always a staple in my childhood. Mom fixed them a variety of ways, but I loved the speedy way she threw together baked potatoes the most. She worked quickly to get them in the oven and made one for each of the eight of us in our family. As a child, it seemed rather sophisticated to use a knife at dinner. We’d crack the skin of the crispy potato with our knives to release the steam and reveal a fluffy interior ready for toppings. Way too hot to eat just yet, we’d wait our turn at the margarine tub so we could load up on the good stuff. Being the youngest, I was usually last to get it. That seemed to work out fine since the steamy potato was too hot for me to handle anyway. Sometimes we’d also have sour cream or bacon bits. We always had salt and pepper – essential to the perfect baked potato.
Mom prepared our baked potatoes very simply: wash, pierce, slather with shortening, sprinkle with salt, and bake right on the oven rack. Mom was definitely on to something in the way she made them. Today, I’ve updated Mom’s version by staying away from the hydrogenated shortening and keeping my oven rack cleaner to create the Perfect Baked Potatoes. I also make sure I buy large baking potatoes, the biggest size I can find. I like to make them a meal. Sometimes if I’m serving additional items, then I will bake smaller potatoes, but usually I stick with the biggest ones. Once baked, they can always be halved for sharing. Plus these large Perfect Baked Potatoes are great for creating the beloved twice baked potato.
Instead of shortening, I brush my potatoes with olive oil. Olive oil is a healthier fat and can be infused with other flavors like garlic and herbs, if you want to get fancier, or just used as is. I also use a sheet tray instead of baking them right on the rack. The idea behind placing them directly on the rack is to surround the potato with heat from all sides so the result is a crispy skin. Sheet trays are great at retaining heat, so they serve a similar purpose while keeping the oven rack mess free. In addition, sheet trays are great for so many other uses, so much so that that’s another blog post. And if you have a convection feature with your oven, like most new models do nowadays, then the air is constantly circulated around your food. I highly recommend this setting for the Perfect Baked Potatoes, but you get get perfect results without it, too.
One more thing, when you are making Perfect Baked Potatoes, toss in at least two more than you need. Take advantage of the situation and make more for another use. I use the leftover baked potatoes to make fried potatoes for breakfast or dinner, or to simply reheat with toppings as originally served. You can also slice them into rounds or wedges, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake on a sheet tray until crispy. Hollow them out to make potato skins that you fry or bake and use the insides to make potato pancakes. Our favorite is to cube them in 1 inch cubes and fry in a little olive oil and butter with onions for perfect breakfast potatoes. Another favorite is twice baked potatoes. Hollow them out, season with salt and pepper, add butter, sour cream, green onion, crispy, crumbled bacon, and shredded cheddar cheese. Fill the potato shells with the mixture and bake until heated through. There are so many great ways to use the extra Perfect Baked Potatoes.
To serve Perfect Baked Potatoes, I like to offer a variety of options. The classics are salt, pepper, butter, (which I prefer to margarine – sorry, Mom), sour cream, shredded cheese, bacon, and steamed broccoli. But have you ever tried salsa on a baked potato? Oh my! It’s amazing! Recently I created a new Turkey Chili recipe for topping baked potatoes. It is excellent and I highly recommend giving it a try.
Perfect Baked Potatoes
Equipment
- 1 Half Sheet sized sheet tray (or sturdy cookie sheet)
Ingredients
- 5 large baking potatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- coarse Kosher salt
Baked Potato Toppings
- Salt
- Pepper
- Butter
- Sour Cream
- Bacon, cooked crisp
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Steamed Broccoli
- Salsa
- Turkey Chili
- Whatever you like!
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. (Convection oven can also be set to 400 degrees.)
- Wash and scrub with water, one potato per person. Pat dry with paper towel. Set evenly spaced on sheet tray.
- I ALWAYS add two extra potatoes to the mix. Use the leftover baked potatoes reheated the next day. Or chop them into one inch cubes and fry as breakfast potatoes, as part of a hash, or for dinner – see recipe in notes below.
- Use a fork to pierce potato skins a few times each potato.
- Brush each pierced potato with olive oil.
- Sprinkle each potato with coarse Kosher salt.
- Bake in 400 degree oven for 1 hour. Check thickest potato for doneness with a fork. Fork should easily pierce potato.
- To serve, split potato down the center and push ends toward the center.
- Serve with toppings of your choice. Enjoy!
Fried Breakfast Potatoes
- Use leftover Perfect Baked Potatoes to make crispy breakfast potatoes.
- Cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Heat olive oil and butter in large skillet. Add chopped onion, if desired. Add potatoes and cook until golden and crispy. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
Make them today and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
