Homemade Staples: Baked Potato

The baked potato.  One of the greatest blank canvases found in the culinary world.  The topping options seem to be endless.

But before you can top to your hearts content, you have to prep and cook the potato.  After washing and scrubbing the potato skins, I call on Alton Brown and a technique that he used in one of his Good Eats episodes.  I, of course, poke the potatoes with a fork several times so that there is a way for steam to escape.  And then I coat with kosher salt.  Alton Brown first coats his with canola oil before the salt, and puts down a sheet of aluminum foil in the oven to catch the drippings.  However,  I’ve found with just adding the salt after scrubbing the potato (you need to make sure it is still wet so that the salt sticks) does the trick with less clean up mess.

I then put them direct onto the oven rack and bake at 425 for 30 minutes.  At that time I flip the potatoes and bake for another 30 minutes.  The salt on the skins give a wonderful flavor and crispness to the potato!  Every oven is different so adjust temperature and cook time accordingly.  You want your bakers to be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. 🙂

And then comes the fun part.  Toppings!  What’s great about a baked potato is that you can make it super hearty, meaty, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, light, etc.  The sky’s the limit.   In the first photo, I just have it with butter, sour cream, and cracked pepper –which is what went best with our meal last night.  However other options could include:

• cheese
• salsa
• bacon
• cottage cheese
• guacamole
• cheese sauce
• broccoli
• corn
• pico de gallo
• black beans

So how do you like YOUR baked potato??