Many of us just don’t have the time in our busy day to day lives to cook, so one handy invention of the past 30 years has been the microwave. Sure, the microwave is there to help us cook quick meals and take the time out of having to oven cook many things, but the truth is cooking in a microwave isn’t the same as cooking in the oven.
A lot of you will already know that baked potatoes have different tastes and textures when cooked in the oven, and if you haven’t tried to do this yet then let me tell you that you are missing out immensely.
First things first, we need to have a reasonably sized baking potato at hand. You want to wash the skin under some cool running water and use a vegetable brush to try and get the excess dirt of the skin. The skin is one of the most nutritious parts of a potato and when seasoned and cooked it can be a tasty additional to the internal soft and fluffy potato.
Once you have managed to get rid of all the dirt on the outside of the potato, pat the skin dry with a paper towel to soak up that excess moisture.
Place the potatoes to the side for a brief moment and turn up the oven so you have it preheated nicely when it comes to introducing the potato to it. For this you want to knock the oven up to about 450F and then we can get back to preparing the potato.
Seasoning is an important part to giving the skin that crunch and mouth-watering taste. Grab a fork first and make some prod marks deep into the potato, going around it circumference as you do it. This will help the potato cook nicely internally but also unlock all the flavours.
Now get some extra virgin olive oil and coat the outer skin of the potato in this, before then applying a few pinches of salt and pepper.
Your potato is now ready to go into the oven but first it’s advisable to place some foil around it so that the steam and flavours are locked in. This also helps the potato cook better. Put the potato in a baking tray and then cook for 45 minutes to one hour on a high heat (usually around 300/350F).
Now, there are many things you can have with a jacket potato, some people prefer it has it is with a knob of butter to make the inside more of a creamy mash. Some other people enjoy bacon and mushrooms, whilst other may prefer baked beans and cheese, or coleslaw and cheese. Whatever toppings you are going to introduce to your potato once cooked is your choice and this is the cherry on top if you like to the perfect baked potato.
If you are wanting topping it’s advisable that you get these cooked either when the jacket potato is cooling down on the side for the 5-10 minutes before you serve it to your guests, or during the last 5-10 minutes of baking the potato. That way, none of your ingredients will get cold and when you come to taking the potato to your guests they will have the best experience possible.
Take the potato out of the oven and pull back the foil, but be careful as the steam will be incredibly hot and you don’t want to end up burning your hands. Let the potato cool down and then make two cuts across the top of the potato. Once cut lengthways and the other width ways. Use your hands on the side of the potato towards the bottom to then push inwards and loosen the potato up inside.
To make the potato really fluffy at this stage all you need to do it use a fork to mash and fluff the potato up, before you apply that knob of butter which will then melt across and down into the potato, giving it a sweet and succulent taste.
As we know, anything straight out of the oven can be very hot so let the butter melt, and the cheese if you are using that on your potato. After 5 minutes take it into your guests and then serve the jacket potato with a fresh salad. This again can be served in a sharing bowl or individually placed onto peoples dining plates (we recommend the personal touch here rather than the sharing option as it goes well for presentation purposes as well).
We can assure you that this will be one of the best potatoes you have baked, and it will taste on a different level compared to microwaved baked potatoes.
Our final tip is also to take a taste of that crispy skin, you won’t be disappointed!