The Perfect Baked Potato

I'm going to get right down to it. Are you ready? Okay, here's how you make the perfect baked potato.

You get some nice fat russet potatoes or whatever.  Only the good ones - no green spots or sprouts or anything like that. Now, scrub them well in COLD water, and pat them dry, dry with a dish cloth. Look all around the potato for spots and eyes and whatnot, and snip those bits out with a knife. Help the potato be its best.

Line a baking sheet with foil (or don't; I just always do), and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. HOT. Lay the clean and dry potatoes on the baking sheet, and drizzle them with olive oil. Roll them around in the oil and cover the whole potato evenly. It puts the lotion on its skin.

STAB THEM WITH A FORK. Three or four times on each side. Then sprinkle sea salt aaaalll over them. Roll the potatoes around in the salt to get even coverage.


When the oven is hot, stick 'em in. It depends on the size of your potatoes how long you leave them in there. Start with 30 minutes, then check them. Bigger potatoes may go 45 minutes, or even an hour.

Take the potatoes out ONLY when you can spear a fork all the way through the middle and it feels soft and fluffy inside all the way through. You will learn to understand this part.

Basically, you have just roasted a potato instead of steaming it in foil or another type of wrapping. And it is perfect. The skin is crisp and golden with just the right saltiness, and the inside is waiting for butter. The butter will melt into the potato and you will eat the potato.

My favorite thing to do with baked potatoes is to make a POTATO BAR. Like a salad bar or a taco bar, but with potato toppings. Duh. I like to put chili and cheese on one side of my potato, and sour cream, green onion, and bacon bits on the other side.

Do you like baked potatoes? How. Discuss your answer in the space provided below.

PS. THIS TAG