Baked potatoes are one of those recipes that are super simple, yet you sometimes wonder if you’re doing it right. The problem is, every recipe you find online claims it’s the “best" way. How do they know? Most of them are just home cooks like me. So I finally did what should have been done a long time ago: I pooled the internet for the most popular methods of preparing baked potatoes and figured out which was the best.

The test was informal and pretty simple, but still informative. I took eight russet potatoes and prepared them eight different ways. Should I wrap it in foil? Is it better oiled before or after cooking? How much EXACTLY should I stab the thing before throwing it in the oven? You get the point.

Good news: baked potatoes aren’t hard. Other good news, even if you bake them wrong, it’s usually nothing a little sour cream can’t fix.

Now, a lot of cooking decisions are up to the chef—a matter of preference or palate. However, in ALL cooking, some methods are just wrong and some are more right than others. I’ve divided this article into two sections: one section for things that you absolutely must do every time you bake a potato, and one section for things to consider, but ultimately they’re up to you. Let’s dive in.

The Things You Must ALWAYS Do To Baked Potatoes

Let’s start with the stuff you should always do, no matter what.

Clean and DRY your potatoes. You already know to clean the potatoes (I hope), especially if they’re from a fifty-pound bag of russet potatoes. Those things are covered in dirt and germs. However, you also want to dry off your potatoes. A major part of getting a proper cook is getting a crispy skin, and throwing a soggy potato in the oven can ruin this. Just let your potatoes set on the counter for fifteen minutes—flip them once—and you should be good to go.

Stab them with a fork. We’ve all heard we should poke our potatoes a few times. This lets steam escape the potato, which is one step in getting it nice and fluffy, and yes, if you don’t stab the potato, it could explode! But how much should you stab it? One of my tests was to figure out exactly this, and for consistent results and a good internal texture, my new go-to is to just prick a line across the top of the potato with a fork.

Bake and cool on a rack, not a sheet. Have you ever had a potato that was brown and dry on the bottom? That was probably because it sat in the oven on a baking sheet or was cooled down on a baking sheet. Those sheets conduct plenty of heat. You want to cook your potatoes evenly, so just place them directly on the rack in the oven. If you’re worried about drippage, put a baking sheet on the rack below them.

Use a thermometer. The perfect temperature for your baked potatoes is between 205℉ and 212℉. Colder than that, and they’ll still be hard and seem raw. Hotter than that, and they’ll lose too much moisture and become dry and chalky. While you can estimate doneness with a timer and check if they’re “finished" by stabbing them with a knife, there is no replacement for a good thermometer. I described good cooking thermometers here.

Cut into them immediately. As soon as your potatoes come out, slit them in half. This will let latent steam escape directly from the flesh instead of leaking through the fork holes and causing the skins to become soggy. And before you ask, yes, they still store just fine after they’re cut in half.

Low and slow is best. You want a light and fluffy center and a crispy skin, and you DON’T want to have to drink a bottle of water between every bite! A lot of baked potatoes get incredibly dry. I used to think that was just a feature of the potato, and the solution was more butter. But while I love lots of butter as much as the next guy, it turns out I like a perfectly baked potato, too. For best results, bake your potato at 300℉ until it reaches an internal temperature of 205℉. This takes about 90 minutes of hands-off cooking, which is no effort at all on those days when you’re at home anyway.

Chef’s Choice Options

Some potato choices are all a matter of preference. Once your potatoes are honed in, you can fine tune these next details to your liking until you’re making the best potatoes you’ve ever had.

When to apply salt and oil. Every good recipe will have salt and some sort of fat. The question with potatoes is… when do you apply it? Several sites I’ve seen swear by cooking your potatoes bone dry, then rubbing them in oil when they’re out of the oven. Personally, I find oil gives me a better crust, and if I oil and salt my potatoes ahead of time, I just adore the way the salt forms a sort of crust around the skin. But that’s just my preference. Salt it before, salt it after. I don’t care, just salt it.

Type of potato. I’ll be honest… I really don’t like baked russet potatoes (aka Idaho potatoes). I find them far too starchy, which makes them just a little astringent, and they seem a little dry, even when properly cooked. My absolute favorite baked potato is the golden potato, which is small, round, and yellow, and is known to be much more waxy. It makes a totally luscious baked potato that almost doesn’t need butter. But again, it’s all preference. You do you.

Toppings. Of course toppings are a huge deal on your baked potato. When I ran my tests with my wife, I ate my potatoes with caramelized onions, cajun mirepoix and sausage , fermented hot sauce, and butter. My wife had cheese and sour cream. Both potatoes were delicious. Here’s the secret: add something acidic. My wife’s sour cream and my fermented hot sauce hit the spot just right. Just don’t ignore the quality of your actual potato because you get too focused on the toppings. The basics matter much more than the frills.

Should I use tinfoil? My personal opinion… no. Of all the baking methodsI tried, the baked potato actually did stay strangely firmer and had a different consistency. Plus, there’s no way a tin foil potato will have good skin. However, it doesn’t make an insanely noticeable difference, and they’re convenient to throw in a lunch box and reheat in the breakroom.



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