The Best Baked Potato
Potatoes baked in the oven taste much better than potatoes baked in the microwave. From the oven they develop a sort of crispy skin with a really fluffy center.
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Total Time:
Ingredients:
| 4 | russet potatoes |
| 4 teaspoons | olive oil |
| sea salt, optional | |
| freshly ground pepper, optional |
Directions:
1. The oven needs to be really hot, 400 degrees hot, when you stick the potatoes in it. So before we go any further, go turn the oven on to 400 degrees to preheat.
2. Wash potatoes with a vegetable scrub brush, or just use your hands.
3. With a small sharp knife or a fork, puncture about 4 or 5 holes in the potato. If you don’t the potato may explode from the steam developing inside the potato!
4. Rub about 1 teaspoon of olive oil all over the potato.
5. If desired, sprinkle salt and pepper on the outside of the potato.
5. You may be tempted to wrap a potato in tin foil. DON’T! You’ll end up with the potato getting steamed in the foil instead of just baked. You may as well just cook it in the microwave.
6. Place the potato directly on the oven rack. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the size of the potato.
7. Potatoes are as hard as a brick when they are raw. By the time it’s cooked you’ll be able to squeeze it. Test it to see if it is tender by inserting a knife into the potato. The knife should slide in easily.
8. Remove the potato from the oven with an oven mitt.
