Best baked potatoes ever

D

DeadHeadHorn

500+ Posts
I'm a big fan of a good baked potato and the best way to cook them, IMO, is on the grill, and it's unbelievably easy.

Use a fork and poke holes all over the potatoes. Generously slather butter on all sides of the potatoes, then cover in a thick coat of sea salt and freshly-ground pepper.

Wrap in a couple layers of tightly-wound foil and place directly into the coals of a medium-hot grill. Cover grill and let them sit for 45 minutes to an hour, turning once.

When the potatoes are done (squeeze to get a good idea of if they're ready), take 'em off and throw a few more coals on the fire, for the rest of whatever you're going to grill.

Remove from foil right as you're about to serve the meal.
You want to put a nice thick coating of spices on the skin b/c the result will be a crispy texture, almost like a potato chip.

Last night I made a chimichurri sauce for our steaks (US and Argentina were playing soccer in the Copa America...if we can't beat the Argentines at least we can enjoy their cuisine, right?) and had some leftover roasted habanero from the sauce. I minced the habanero up and folded it into the butter, then coated the potatoes. I threw a little garlic powder on the outside as well and they were delicious.

Not exactly a groundbreaking recipe, but once you've had them on the grill, you might not bake a potato any other way.
 
We do this pretty much every time we go camping, and they're excellent. I like the idea of the habanero, I'll try that next time.
 
I've actually become a fan of the "slather in oil, wrap in wax paper, put in microwave and press the 'potato' button" method. The best part is, it only takes like 3 minutes, so I don't have to plan ahead 2 hours to cook a potato.
 
How do you serve them? Do you just put the potato on a plate and start cutting at it with a fork and knife? I would think you could cut them into medallions (end to end) and that would plate pretty nicely.
 
As a change of pace every so often, I brush the (pricked) potato with garlic olive oil and sprinkle generously with kosher salt and bake it naked in the oven. Skin comes out nicely crusted and very tasty.
 
My favorite baked potato is basically a potato salad, but baked.

I like red potatoes, they get that bit of sweetness, especially when you grill them. The OP mentioned grilling, although the potatoes were wrapped in foil, so they don't actually absorb any smokiness. But if you grill them with no foil, the skin dries out and becomes a thick, inedible rind which is bad for the baked potato salad/casserole.

So, I grill them for fifteen minutes or so, then wrap them up for the rest of the time. Once they've cooled a little, I unwrap them and coarsely chop them up into a bowl. Then I add everybody's favorite baked potato go-withs, usually butter, kosher salt and ground pepper, some extra sharp cheddar, maybe green onion and some roasted garlic. However you like it. Problem is, people like different things on their potatoes, but they can ******* deal with it.

I don't know why, it just ends up tasting better than a normal baked potato to me.
 
You can get the crispy effect by rubbing the potatoes w/ olive oil and sea salt...be generous.

Then, just pop them, uncovered, in the oven. They come out golden/crispy on the outside and mouthwatering on the inside.

When potatoes are covered w/ foil, you're steaming them more than baking them.
 
Nobody will ever top the rosin baked potatoes from the Bavarian Steakhouse on Central Expressway @ Southwestern, NOBODY!
 
Another way to make them crispy is wet them before putting them in the over.

I poke holes in the potato, microwave it for 5 min, run it under the faucet, put some olive oil and salt on them, then bake them usually in the toaster bc it is quicker.

Always turn out crisp on the outside and creamy inside
 
Not so much a baked potato, but a grilled potato...the prep that I grew up with that is always a hit is to get idaho potatoes and clean em.

Tear out a ~1ft x 1ft of aluminum foil.
put the potatoe on it. dash some olive oil on it.
sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
put some butter on it
then put a slice of onion (I use white/spanish but red is fine too), and then wrap up.

Put on the grill medium or so, turn a couple times over the course of 45minutes-1hour. Stick a fork in them around 45 to see how done it is.

I serve with butter, sour cream and grated sharp cheddar.
 
Agree with above posters....

All you need to do is wash and pat dry the spud...
Rub it all over with softened butter.
Sprinkle it all over with kosher salt.

Put them on a sheet pan and bake about 45 minutes to an hour at about 400 degrees.

Do not poke them with holes.
Totally unneeded.
Besides what did that potato ever do to you.

I like it all in mine...

Butter, cheese, bacon, chives and sour cream.
A meal in itself.
 
I always poke a hole in them. Once in college I forgot and the potato exploded when I was picking it out of the oven. Makes a real mess..
 
I called my wife from work one day to have her start the baked potatoes. She didn't poke holes in them. It sounded like a grenade went off in the oven when one of them exploded and we had to split one potato between us.

So feel free to continue to play Russian roulette with your potatoes, I'm poking holes in mine.
 
I have probably baked over 5,000 potatoes in my life (I worked in a restaurant at one time) and I have never had one explode in the oven.

And I have never poked holes in them either.

Not sure what you are doing wrong.
 
BTW, there is a slight salmonella threat if wrapping potatoes in foil to cook. I was telling Mrs. Macanudo about this thread over dinner, yes it was baked potatoes. She mentioned that wrapping potatoes in foil can cause food poisoning.
 
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