Best Way to Make Baked Potatoes

This is the best way to make baked potatoes so they’re tender and fluffy on the inside with crispy flavorful potato skins! Used as a side dish or dinner stuffed with chili or cheese they’re delicious and cheap to make. If you’re looking for an easy baked potato recipe I’ve got it here.

Best Baked Potato Recipe

• Personally we make these filled with our popular 5 ingredient crockpot chili recipe topped with cheese several times a week.

You could fill them with just about anything though. For a flavorful potato skin with tender insides this is the trick to the perfect taters. That is the goal right??

You want a crispy skin that is so flavorful you don’t just want to eat the insides right? If your kids (or you) aren’t fans of eating the whole thing, I bet you will when you try this method they will!

First you have to start with some baked potatoes right? We live in Idaho so we are set in that department. 😉 Grab a bag of russets, medium size, and I prefer sea salt myself because I think the taste and texture is better…especially for this side dish.

Best way to make baked potatoes

There really isn’t a huge difference between sweet and russet. I do have a specific post on how long to bake a sweet potato at 400 F here though too. Of course timing will slightly vary depending on the size you choose, I would stick to medium all the way around.

1. Russet potatoes – medium size, large is fine it just will take a bit longer in the oven
   • or you can make baked red potatoes if you would prefer
2. Kosher salt – larger pieces are much better than table salt for this
3. Olive oil
4. Fork – for piercing
5. Baking sheet – I line it with foil just for easier cleanup

The key is to make the perfect baked potato skin a bit crunchy and super flavorful, you do this with olive oil and sea salt. BUT you want the inside to be as fluffy as possible which works best in your oven at a steady temperature for just under an hour (medium size, larger potatoes may take longer).

• I poke potatoes with a fork 4-5 times on the top and the bottom to get a consistent texture inside.

Then serve as is or I have a few yummy suggestions below on how to stuff it and make it a great dinner.

Perfect Baked Potato

I do have a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post to refer to and keep on hand if you would like. This is if you want crispy skins. To keep everything just tender this is how long to bake potatoes at 375 in foil instead. Here is a brief rundown to start with though.

• Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Scrub your potatoes well to remove debris and pat dry with paper towels.
• Use a fork to pierce each potato 4-5 times on the top and the bottom.
• Use your hands to rub olive oil on each one and put on a baking sheet (I line my sheet with tinfoil first).
• Sprinkle sea salt on the top of each potato on your baking sheet, then flip each one over and sprinkle the same amount on that side. Make sure oven rack is in the middle.
• Put baked potatoes into your oven for 50 minutes or until knife slides in easily. Remove with oven mitt.
• Slice right down the middle of each one and gently squeeze the sides to plump the inside of the potato out a bit and serve or fill with toppings and enjoy!

Like I said we like twice stuffed potatoes as well with crispy skin and fluffy insides AND all the things inside. I like to use my pressure cooker a lot, but not for baked potatoes. That is not the best way to make them because you won’t get the perfect outer texture like when they’re baked in the oven.

How do you keep potatoes warm?

1. Remove from the oven and set them on a dish or rack.
   1. Be sure not to cut open or pierce any part of the potato yet.
   2. Tightly wrap potatoes in foil individually so that there are no uncovered or loose sections.

The foil will keep any steam from escaping, keeping the potato warmer longer.

What goes good with a baked potato?

I mean you can go boring with just butter and sour cream but you can literally make them into a complete meal if you want. We do this often because everyone can stuff their own and it’s a super cheap meal for everyone.

1. 5 ingredient Instant Pot chili is a yummy filler topped with cheese
2. Here’s a recipe for some killer pulled pork baked potatoes you will love.

You can just melt some Velveeta cheese sauce, OR to make your own cheesy sauce you just warm and whisk together the following ingredients:

1. 1 can cheddar cheese soup
   1. 3/4 c. heavy cream, or milk if you like a thinner cheese sauce
   2. whisk together over stovetop until warm, or microwave for 1 min. & stir until warm
   3. add broccoli florets with cheese too!

Make a quick broccoli cheese soup and top with that. Looking for more potato recipes?

Ways of cooking baked potatoes

• Crockpot baked potatoes
• Smoked baked potatoes
• Our Pressure cooker baked potatoes are great – the quickest way to get them cooked
• Pressure cooker mashed potatoes are great too

Wondering how to make air fryer baked potatoes? We have that info as well as making air fryer potato skins once they are tender. We have information on that too!

• Try sweet potatoes in the air fryer first.

Best Baked Potatoes