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Crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside, the best baked potato is delicious on its own or provides a perfect base for toppings. They’re also simple to make, requiring only a few ingredients and no special techniques. But we have a few recommendations to help you take your baked potato from good to great!
Making the best baked potato takes time: typically, 45-60 minutes in the oven to achieve that perfectly crispy outside and fluffy inside. However, the potato’s size, the oven’s temperature, and other factors can influence the baking time. You can better gauge if your potato is done by checking the internal temperature. Make sure they reach 205 °F. A meat thermometer or probe thermometer works great.
We recommend baking your potatoes in an oven—as opposed to a microwave—because heat is conducted through the spud gradually and uniformly, creating the necessary reaction between the water and starch in the potato to give you a delicious, fluffy interior.
A large russet potato will bake for 45-55 minutes at 450 °F or until the internal temperature of the potato has reached 205 °F.
Russet potatoes are ideal for baking. They have lower water content and higher amounts of starch than other potato types, so the flesh becomes light and fluffy when baked. Russets also have skin that’s neither too thin nor thick, so it gets nice and crispy.
Choose a medium-large potato, between 5 oz (about the size of a deck of cards) and 8 oz (about the size of a soft drink can). Remember that the larger your potato is, the longer it will take to cook.
The salty crunch of the skin on a perfectly baked potato is something you don’t want to miss—and potato skins contain about half of potatoes’ fiber—so make sure you give your potatoes a wash first. You don’t need to soak them or use soap to clean them; just rinse them in water and scrub if needed.
Next, you should always pierce your potatoes after washing (not before). Using a paring knife or a fork, give the potato several shallow pokes all over. As the potatoes cook, the water they contain turns to steam, which needs an avenue to escape.
Finally, to achieve maximum crispiness and deliciousness, you can salt the skin of your potatoes. Dissolve two tablespoons of kosher (not iodized) salt in half a cup of warm water and dunk each potato in the solution. Give them a rub to make sure the salt is distributed all over the potato.
A note about oil: We do not recommend oiling your potatoes at this point. Adding oil too early can make the skin tough; however, adding it a few minutes from the end of cooking will help the skin crisp up.
Don’t wrap your baked potatoes in foil. Rather than speeding up the cooking time, the foil impedes the oven’s heat from penetrating the potato, so it can’t cook evenly. Additionally, foil will trap in steam, which leads to tough skin.
Instead, place your potatoes directly on the oven rack so that air can circulate all around them. If you prefer to use a pan, you can set a wire rack on top of the pan to ensure even cooking, or you can rotate the potatoes while they bake so they don’t get over cooked when they touch the pan.
Finally, if you’re baking your potatoes in a convection oven, you’ll get better results by turning off the fan or reducing the temperature by 25°. Convection tends to cook the outside of the potato faster than the inside.
4 Russet Potatoes, Large (about 8 ounces each)
As needed - Kosher Salt or Large Grain Sea Salt
1-1/2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
Baking Sheet/Cookie Sheet
Pastry Brush
Paring Knife
Wire Rack (that fits on the baking sheet)
Adjust your oven rack to the center and preheat it to 450 °F. As the oven preheats, rinse your medium-large russet potatoes under cold water to clean as needed. Then, pierce them lightly 6-8 times with a paring knife.
Next, dissolve 2 tbsp of salt in 1/2 cup of warm water. Place the potatoes into the salt water and rub them to help evenly coat the potatoes. Shake off or towel dry any excess water.
Put the potatoes directly on the oven rack or a wire rack on a baking sheet. Bake them for 45-55min, or until the largest potato reaches an internal temp of 205 °F. You can check this with a thermometer for best results or by inserting the tip of a knife. If there’s little resistance, the potatoes are nearly done.
Remove the potatoes from the oven and brush with a neutral oil, such as vegetable oil. Return the potatoes to the oven and bake for an additional two to three minutes. This will ensure that the skin gets as crispy as possible.
Remove potatoes from the oven and let them rest for about three minutes. Cutting them open right away will release too much steam and cause them to dry out; letting them rest too long will make their texture dense.
Slice the potato lengthwise with a paring knife without cutting through it. Use a towel to gently squeeze the sides inward to fluff or use a fork. Then, season with any toppings you choose.
One of the reasons why we love baked potatoes so much is that they’re incredibly versatile! They’re a blank canvas for so many delicious toppings, and they work as a main entrée or a side. Here are a few ideas for serving them:
If you want to make a full meal out of your baked potato, these recipes won’t leave you hungry!
Chili Mac Stuffed Baked Potato
Chicken Broccoli Casserole Baked Potato
Marinated Greek Chicken Baked Potato
Did you know that potatoes are a nutrient-dense vegetable with the energy, potassium, and vitamin C you need to fuel your day? Baked potatoes make a great base for more veggies and protein to help fuel your active lifestyle. Here are three recipes that are packed with vegetables:
Power Performance Baked Potato
Green Veggie Twice Baked Potatoes
Draw inspiration from international dishes for your baked potato toppings. For example, substitute tortillas and pizza crust with a baked potato for a gluten-free alternative.
Baked Potato with Beef and Broccoli
This is a great option for families with different preferences; it’s also a crowd-pleaser for parties! Set out a variety of toppings and let people add what they want. Go-to toppings include butter, shredded cheese, sour cream, bacon, and green onions. You can also top your taters with steamed broccoli or cooked spinach and use Greek yogurt or cottage cheese instead of sour cream.
Your grill can bake a potato just as well as the oven, but because grills run hotter and have more intense heat from the open flames, this is the one place where we recommend using foil. Wrapping your potatoes in foil before baking them on the grill will help defuse the high heat better, keeping them from overcooking.
A jacket potato is the English version of a baked potato. They are prepared the same way, but jacket potatoes get a shallow X-shaped cut across the top before cooking. This allows more steam out during the baking process.
Twice-baked potatoes combine two delicious potato preparations: baked and mashed potatoes.
First, bake your potatoes according to these directions. Remove the cooked potatoes from the oven, cut the top quarter of the potato off, and scoop out the potato flesh. Combine this with milk, butter, cheese, and seasonings to create mashed potatoes.
Put the mashed potato mixture back into the hollowed-out shells and return the potatoes to the oven to bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Hasselback potatoes are the crispy cousin of baked potatoes. Before you bake them, you create thin cuts that don’t go all the way through the potato. The notches in the potato allow you to add extra seasonings to enhance the flavor, and the increased surface area makes the potatoes extra crispy.
A tip for making the cuts is to set chopsticks or two wooden spoon handles on either side of the potato to prevent your knife from slicing too far.
These get baked in a 400-degree oven for 90 minutes.
Get the recipe for Hasselback Potatoes
Microwaves cook differently than ovens. So, while you can cook a whole potato in a microwave, it won’t have the qualities of an oven-baked potato.
Ari Fryers work like convection ovens, where hot air circulates around the food, cooking it from the outside in. Because air fryers are similar to convection ovens they make for a wonderful baked potato. See our Air Fryer Baked Potato recipe.
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