Loaded Baked Potato Rounds Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why should you poke holes in a potato before baking it? ›

Poke the potatoes with a fork just enough to pierce the skin so the potato won't burst when baking, especially in the microwave. Four or five times should be plenty. A potato is composed mainly of water, so poking them helps release steam as it cooks.

A loaded baked potato is typically topped with a variety of ingredients such as cheese, sour cream, and bacon, whereas a regular baked potato is often served with just butter and perhaps some salt and pepper.

"I see a lot of people using foil to wrap their potatoes in but this is a big no-no and causes soggy skins!" he says. Foil holds in moisture and steams the potatoes, resulting in a "boiled" taste and texture. Plus, without the use of foil, the skin will get extra crispy and flavorful.

Wrapping potatoes in foil does not hasten baking. On the contrary, since the foil itself has to be heated before the potato begins to bake, cooking times increase slightly. Not only do you get better baked potatoes when you bake them unwrapped, you also save money.

A: I would just skip poking the potato all together. It is very rare that a baked potato will burst if the steam can't escape.

Some say wrapping baked potatoes in aluminum foil helps them cook faster (aluminum conducts heat, then traps it), and it does keep them hot for longer once they come out of the oven, which is why we think restaurants use this method. Wrapping potatoes will also give you a softer, steamed skin, if that's what you like.

The olive oil helps the seasonings adhere to the surface of the potato. To save time, restaurants often apply the oil with a spray bottle. Thanks to their naturally high starch content, which creates a plush texture under heat, Russet potatoes make a good fit for baking.

You don't need to, but if you like really crispy potatoes, there's a method that requires a few minutes of pre-cooking. Basically, you put the potatoes into already boiling water for a few minutes to soften up the outside. Then drain, add some fat and flavourings, and with the lid on briefly shake and rotate the pot.

We recommend baking potatoes at 400 degrees F for about an hour. Smaller spuds might take a little less time, while larger baking potatoes over 1 pound might take a little more. For a fully baked Idaho Russet Burbank, the internal temperature should be right at 210 degrees F.

Visual signs: The potato skin will start to wrinkle when over cooked. The potato, when wrapped in foil or placed on the bottom of a pan will have a dark brown spot on the bottom, a sure sign of over cooking. Foil traps the moisture in the potato causing the skin to be wet and the inside flavorless or gummy.

Why is my baked potato hard? ›

Potatoes need to cook all the way through, and the best way for that to happen is to make sure the hot air can get to the potato from all sides. If a potato bakes with one side touching a sheet pan, you'll get a hard spot and possibly uneven cooking. Place a thin wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet.

Q: Why is it common to salt the exterior of a baked potato? A: Chefs started doing this years ago to allow the salt to absorb or draw out the moisture of the potato while baking, which results in a dry, fluffy potato.

Some chefs will soak their potatoes in salt water for an hour or so before baking them. Guy Fieri soaks his for an impressive six hours. Fieri sometimes goes a step further by rolling and encrusting his wet, brined potatoes in even more salt and seasonings.

It seems like, at worst, the skin might tear to release some of the steam, but a large explosion is definitely unlikely. That said, it's true that potatoes do release a lot of water as they cook, and releasing that steam is important to creating that fluffy, creamy inside that marks a good baked potato.

For this experiment, we washed two potatoes and poked holes with a fork in one of them, leaving the other unpoked. The potatoes were then placed in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and they each took one hour to fully bake. Overall, we did not detect any difference between the poked and unpoked potatoes.

It's important to note that not every baked potato will bust open if it is not pierced beforehand, but since you (and we) are unable to predict if a potato is liable to explode, it's a good idea to pierce the surface as a precaution. Extra Tip: we do not recommend wrapping a potato in aluminum foil when you bake it.

When preparing potatoes for baking, the common advice is to poke holes in them with a fork in order to prevent the potatoes from exploding.

2. **Faster Cooking:** By releasing steam, you're effectively allowing heat to penetrate the potato more efficiently. This speeds up the cooking process because the heat can reach the center of the potato more quickly.