Baked Potato

Name: Baked Potato
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 2 unit potato (russet or other floury, similar sizes); 2 tsp vegetable oil; 1 tsp salt (coarse); 2 tbsp butter (to serve)

Vegetables & Salads · American

4 ingredients · 70 minutes · 2 servings

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Variations

Loaded Baked PotatoSour cream, chives, cheddar and cooked bacon on the reference oven-baked potato.View recipe →
Sour Cream & Chive Baked PotatoThe sour-cream-and-chive finish without the loaded potato toppings.View recipe →

306kcal4.4g protein16.3g fat37.3g carbs~$0.65/ serving*

Contains dairy

Restrictions

ContainsdairyIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.

Diets

Vegetarian · without onePescatarian · without oneNo pork · without oneNo alcohol

Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.

Ingredients

Servings:

2 unit	potato (russet or other floury, similar sizes)
2 tsp	vegetable oil
1 tsp	salt (coarse)
2 tbsp	butter (to serve)

Optional

Not counted above. The dish works without them.

⅓ cup	cream (sour)
2 tbsp	chives (chopped)
½ cup	cheese (cheddar, grated)
2 slice	bacon (cooked and crumbled)
¼ tsp	black pepper (ground)

Steps

Peel5 min
scrubbed under cold water, then dried completely
- potato
potatoes scrubbed and dried thoroughly — skin on. Dry matters as much here as on a steak: a wet skin holds at 100°C until the water has gone, and that is time not spent crisping
Score2 min
pricked 6-8 times with a fork, all over
the skin pierced several times. Steam builds inside a sealed potato as its water turns to vapour, and while a burst potato is rare it is spectacular and entirely avoidable
Season2 min
oil rubbed over the whole skin, then coarse salt
+ oil + salt rubbed in. Oil is a heat-transfer medium and helps the skin reach crisping temperature; the coarse salt also draws a little surface moisture out, which is working in the same direction
Bake55 min
220°C, directly on the oven rack, NOT wrapped, until 96-99°C internal
until a skewer meets no resistance at the centre and the skin is dry and papery. Straight on the rack so hot air circulates all round — a potato sitting on a tray has one soft face. Never foil: it traps steam against the skin and produces a boiled potato in a bag
Rest4 min
cut open immediately, squeezed from the ends, then left a moment
split lengthways the moment it comes out and pressed from both ends so the interior opens and steams. Letting that steam escape is what makes the inside fluffy rather than dense — a potato left whole reabsorbs its own moisture within minutes (+ butter, + sour cream, + cheese, + chives, + bacon, + pepper)