A little while back, I set about writing a recipe for jacket potatoes (aka baked potatoes), and as a result, my family ate a lot of them. After all, I had to figure out what potato variety, cooking technique, timing, and temperature yielded our favorite spuds. We found that, above all, we all love a potato with a thick, crispy, crackly skin and fluffy insides, served straight out of the oven while it still has the best texture.
To achieve those results, I always use russets (they yield the crispiest skins and the fluffiest interiors). After rubbing them with oil, salt, and pepper, I bake them in a hot oven for a long time to allow the crispiness to really develop. The potatoes are technically cooked all the way through after an hour or so, but to end up with that thick, kettle chip-like crisp on the outside, they need at least another half hour.
The Best Oven Temperature for Baked Potatoes
As for the baking temperature, 400ºF is just right. It’s the sweet spot for getting the potatoes baked in a reasonable amount of time without them ending up charred on the outside. For your typically-sized grocery store potatoes, around 10 to 14 ounces each, bake them for 1 1/2 hours in a 400ºF oven.
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If you’ve read this far and are thinking that’s way, way too long to wait for a baked potato, you can shorten the cooking time to an hour by using an air fryer instead. Use the same 400ºF temperature but just an hour of cooking time, which is convenient since air fryers often have a max cooking time of one hour anyway. The skins come out a little less crispy and a bit more papery than when they’re baked in the oven, but it’s a pretty good compromise.
How To Serve Your Perfectly Baked Potatoes
Baked potatoes are often served as a side dish, but when they’re made this deliciously they deserve to be the star of the show. My favorite way to have them is as a decadent dinner, split open and fluffed up with a generous amount of butter, then topped with lots of cheese, green onions, and a big dollop of sour cream.
Check out my article on jacket potatoes for some other British-inspired potato toppings, or get creative and add whatever you like! Allow plenty of time in a hot oven, and your patience will be rewarded.
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