Baked Potato

At a glance

What stands out: This straightforward baked potato recipe will show you how to make baked potatoes with a crispy brown exterior and fluffy white interior. Enjoy evenly baked potatoes as a filling main dish or versatile side dish.

How long it takes: just over an hour
Equipment you’ll need: oven
Servings: make as many as you want!

Crispy Outside, Fluffy Inside

Growing up, we’d have baked potato night at church with all the toppings: chili, ham, broccoli, cheese, sour cream, and many more. It was such a fun and rich night!

There’s something satisfying about a good baked potato.

Not a sad, wrinkly one. Not one with a weird gummy middle. We're talking crispy skin, fluffy inside, the kind you split open and immediately know it’s going to be good.

What makes ours special:

• A straightforward how-to guide. We will teach you how to make evenly brown and crispy baked potatoes with a fluffy white interior. We have lots of tips and information below to help you out.
• Hands-off cooking. While baked potatoes aren’t a speedy dinner idea, they are very straightforward to make and once they’re in the oven, it’s totally hands off time. Spend 5 minutes getting the potatoes ready, and pop them in the oven for awhile. Bonus: There won’t be any pans to wash.
• Versatile. Fluffy baked potatoes can be served as a side dish or main dish. While the potatoes are in the oven, you’ll have time to get the rest of dinner ready whether you’re making maple glazed baked salmon or breaded pork chops, or serving the baked potatoes with a selection of toppings and a salad.
• Toppings! Perfectly baked potatoes don’t need much beyond melted butter and freshly cracked black pepper but they do adapt well to lots of different toppings, too. Keep reading for inspiration.

Looking for a quicker method?

If you need a faster baked potato recipe, try baking them in your air fryer if you have one. They turn out pretty much the same as oven baked potatoes but in only 40 minutes. You can also use a pressure cooker to “bake” potatoes. Try straightforward Instant Pot baked potatoes (especially if you prefer softer skins). Straightforward potato skins are another good option. They are actually thick slices of potato, loaded with all sorts of goodies, and cook more quickly than a whole baked potato.

How it comes together

Wash, trim, and dry. Use a small scrub brush to thoroughly clean the potatoes. With a sharp paring knife, trim off any green spots, eyes, sprouts, or damaged skin. Dry each potato thoroughly with a paper towel or clean dish towel. A dry potato equals a crispy potato skin.

Poke the potatoes. Puncture the skin of the potato with a fork or the tip of your paring knife. There’s no need to go deeply, just puncture the skin in a few places so the steam can release. (Hint: Do the poking right before baking. If you do this step too far ahead of time, oxidization will occur and the flesh of the potato will turn an unappetizing gray where the skin is punctured.)

Cover the potatoes with a thin coat of oil and season. We like olive oil but another kind of oil is fine. (Don’t want to get your hands dirty? Spray the potatoes with olive oil spray.) Sprinkle the potatoes liberally with coarse salt and pepper.

Bake the potatoes. Arrange the potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet, sides not touching. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes. The baking time will depend on the size of the potatoes. The potatoes are done when you can easily pierce them with a fork.

Serve your evenly beautiful baked potatoes. Immediately make a slice in the top with a sharp knife. Squeeze the bottom (wear an oven mitt!) to open the top of the baked potato up a bit, or use a fork to spread it open.

Top with your favorite toppings! Keep reading for lots of great suggestions.

Helpful Tips

Choose the right potato. Any potato can be used for this baked potato recipe; however, russet potatoes are definitely the king of baking potatoes. Russet potatoes have thicker skins which turn into a nice crispy exterior, and starchy flesh, which yields a fluffy white interior.

Using foil. Should you wrap the potatoes or not? It depends on how you like the skin. We love the salty crispy brown skin of a potato baked without foil. Potatoes wrapped in foil will have soft skins because they steam as they bake and some folks prefer them that way.

Baking potatoes at a different oven temperature. This baked potato recipe is pretty flexible. You can usually bake potatoes at the same temperature as whatever else you have in the oven. The oven temperature can range anywhere between 300°F to 450°F, however, the optimal range is 375°F-425°F. Just remember that lower temperatures will increase baking time; higher temperatures will decrease baking time.

Not quite ready to serve the potatoes? If dinner’s not quite ready yet, don’t worry, baked potatoes will be fine if they spend extra time in the oven. Some people say the longer the better, up to two hours. You be the judge. Turn the oven temperature down a little if you’re worried they’re getting too done.

Serving Ideas

Dress baked potatoes up! Now that you know how to make baked potatoes, it’s time to dress them up. While baked potatoes are totally rich with just a pat of butter melted inside, they are a blank slate. Take a look at the toppings below for ideas.

Meatless main dish. Make baked potatoes the star of the meal, reliable for meatless Mondays, by adding substantial toppings, like vegetarian chili, shredded cheese, or beans.

Baked potato bar. Baked potatoes are a great idea if you’re serving a crowd, too. Simply bake a bunch of potatoes and set up a do-it-yourself baked potato bar with lots of toppings that guests can add as they like. Call it “Spud Night”!

Baked Potato Toppings

• Butter. Use a good quality butter or try from-scratch garlic butter, with fresh garlic and chopped parsley.
• Sour cream. This is another classic topping. Take it out of the refrigerator ahead of time so it can warm up to room temperature. You can use unflavored Greek yogurt, too.
• Mushrooms. Try these reliable sautéed mushrooms or take it up a notch with sautéed mushrooms with Marsala.
• Bacon. We always have cooked bacon in the freezer. We cook a whole package of bacon in the oven (see our baked bacon). Air fryer bacon is reliable for cooking small batches of bacon. Diced ham is another good option.
• Chili. Use your favorite chili recipe (perhaps you have some in your freezer!) or try our beef chili with beans. Queso chili would be pretty memorable, too!
• Pulled pork or chicken. Pulled pork piled on a baked potato is so good, and so is crockpot BBQ chicken! For a faster option, load garlic Parmesan chicken bites into your baked potato.
• Cheese. Use your favorite shredded cheese or make cheese sauce (or do both!). From-scratch beer cheese is wonderful, too.
• Onions. Anything in the onion family goes, like chopped sweet onions, green onions, chives, pickled red onions, or caramelized onions.
• Avocado. Like bacon and caramelized onions, diced avocado makes everything better (or even better, guacamole!).
• Broccoli. Steamed broccoli is a reliable match with creamy cheese sauce.
• Salsa. We like to do a southwestern baked potato with taco meat, pinto beans, salsa, cheese, avocado, and heaps of chopped cilantro.

Leftover Baked Potatoes

Refrigerate: If you have extra baked potatoes, they will keep well in your refrigerator for 4 to 5 days. Wrap them in plastic wrap or put them in a covered bowl. You can freeze baked potatoes, too, but the texture will change slightly.

Reheat. Baked potatoes can be microwaved to reheat but the skins won’t retain the crispness of a freshly baked potato. A standby way is to reheat them in the oven or toaster oven (350°F for 15 minutes) or an air fryer (375°F for 5 to 7 minutes).

Free Meal Plan

Interested in a weekly meal plan that includes this recipe? Take a look at our Meal Plan #1 or Meal Plan #18. You’ll find a wholesome recipe for each weekday plus a categorized grocery list. Let us do the planning for you this week!

Browse Meal Plans

• Yield: 4
• Prep: 5 minutes
• Cook: 1 hour
• Total: 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 russet potatoes (about 8 ounces each)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• coarse ground black pepper (to taste)

Method

1. Place oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper for easy clean up.
2. Thoroughly scrub each potato; dry with a paper towel or clean dish towel. Pare off any eyes, sprouts, or bruises. Poke potatoes a few times lightly with a fork or the tip of a paring knife.
3. Rub each potato with oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Place on the prepared baking sheet, sides not touching each other.
4. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until fork tender. (When you poke the fork in, it should go in easily without a lot of resistance.) The baking time can vary, depending on the size and shape of your potatoes.
5. Remove the baked potatoes from the oven. Using a sharp knife, immediately make a deep cut in the top of the potatoes. Using an oven mitt, gently squeeze the bottoms of the potatoes to open up the tops, or spread them apart with a couple of forks.
6. Serve with desired toppings.

Notes

Potatoes: You can use different varieties of potatoes but russet potatoes have the classic fluffy interiors. Look for potatoes that are uniformly sized so they bake evenly. Small potatoes will get done more quickly than large potatoes.

Increase yield. Make as many potatoes as you like; just don’t overcrowd the baking sheet.

Oven temperature: Potatoes can be baked at higher or lower oven temperatures, keeping in mind that cooking time will vary. This is helpful if you are baking other food in the oven. The length of baking time is flexible, too. It usually is okay if the potatoes bake a little longer.

Storage/reheating: Leftover baked potatoes, wrapped well or covered, can be refrigerated for 4 to 5 days. You can freeze baked potatoes but the texture will change slightly. A standby way to reheat baked potatoes is in the oven or toaster oven (350°F for 15 minutes) or an air fryer (375°F for 5 to 7 minutes). They can be microwaved but the skins won’t retain the crispness of a freshly baked potato.

Toppings: Refer to the post above for lots of topping ideas!