How To Make The Best Baked Potato With Yummy Toppings And Fillings!

Baked potatoes can be cooked in a convection oven, a microwave, on a grill, or on/in an open fire. In my experience the best baked potatoes are cooked in the oven, they have a nice, crunchy, crispy skin and be hot, soft and fluffy inside.

I really don't believe that there is a hard and fast recipe to follow when cooking jacket potatoes, some of the time it comes down to luck rather than judgement, just put the potatoes on the middle shelf of the oven and leave them for anything up to two hours while you go and do other things. When you come back, your baked potato is ready, piping hot ready for you to add your perfect filling.

OK, I guess there are more factors to it than that so let me elaborate:

For the perfect baked potato look for a white 'floury' variety of potato such as:

• King Edward


• Maris Piper


• Russet


• Golden Wonder


• Wilja


• Desirée


• Ailsa

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Obviously smaller baked potatoes will be ready sooner but they lack the appeal of a larger potato. Potatoes which are between 350 and 400g in weight will take about an hour to cook in the oven and are large enough to work with and satisfy your hunger. If you are going to stuff your potatoes, then deep round ones are better than those that are flat as it is easier to work with them.

Unless you buy pre washed potatoes you will need to scrub your baking potatoes thoroughly to get rid of any dirt then dry them well with a cloth, leave them aside to dry as much as possible.

Now, prick the potato skins a few times with a fork and rub few drops of olive oil all over the skin of each potato.

After that, rub in some crushed sea salt to make the potato skins more crispy when cooked.

Put the potatoes straight on to the middle shelf of the oven, pre heated to about 200°C and let them bake for 11/2 -2 hours depending on the size of the potatoes, or until the skins are really very crisp.

If you want the yummy taste of nice slowly baked potato, but don't have the time to wait for it to bake in an oven, the microwave may well be for you!

How long it takes to microwave baked potatoes also depends on their size but as a guide I would say around 10 minutes.

Just scrub the potato, and prick it all over several times. Place the potato on a plate. Cook on full power in the microwave for 5 minutes then turn the potato over, and continue to cook for 5 more minutes. 10 minutes should be enough depending on the size of the potato but if it is large then it may need a minute or two more. When the potato is soft, remove from the microwave, cut in half lengthwise and top with your favorite topping.

My thoughts are that a filling is placed inside the potato before it is served. For instance if I made cheese stuffed potatoes - The cooked potato would be removed from the skin and mixed with the cheese before returning it to the oven until the cheese is melted throughout.

A topping is usually served on the side, or simply placed on top of a cooked potato, for example in the case of cheese it would be served at the side of the potato or grated on top.

The possibilities for fillings and toppings for baked potatoes are almost endless, here I hope to give you some great ideas to transform your simple oven baked potatoes into a wonderfully tasty meal. Try using the ideas and recipes on this page for jacket potato toppings or experiment, be creative with different fillings to make the best baked potato you will ever have.

If you have your own favorite baked potato topping or filling please let us know about it.

Salsa - delicious salsas provide a great topping for your jacket potato, I could give you a recipe for the salsa but beeobrien does it much better on her lens Fresh Homemade Mexican Salsa: Traditional and Unusual Recipes and Ingredients. Any of her recipes for salsa would go great at the side or on top of your baked potato.




Garlic Mushrooms

15g (1/2oz) butter
2 Cloves, crushed garlic
175g (6oz) sliced mushrooms
2 x 15ml spn (2 tblspn) cream cheese
2 x 15ml spn (2 tblspn) freshly chopped herbs (rosemary, parsley & thyme)
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the garlic and mushrooms and cook gently for 5 - 10 minutes.
Stir in the cream cheese and continue cooking for 1 minute. Add the herbs and season to taste.

Cheese And Leek

1 tbsp olive oil
200g leeks, sliced
2 tbsp mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
Dash Worcestershire sauce
50g cheddar cheese, grated

Directions
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the leeks for 3-4 minutes.
Cut the cooked baked potatoes in half lengthways, scoop out most of the flesh and mix with the leeks, mayonnaise, seasoning and Worcestershire sauce. Place back in the potato jackets.
Top with cheese and place under a preheated grill for 3-4 minutes or back in the oven for a further 5 minutes, until melted and lightly golden.

Baked Beans

What could be easier than heating up a tin of baked beans and pouring them over a hot buttered baked potato?

This simplest of meals is actually one of my favorites for lunch or a lighter meal!

All I do is heat the beans, cut open the potato, put a little butter on and then drizzle the hot beans over the top seasoning with a little ground sea salt.

Try something differnte though, Janiece has a great lens featuring different Cinnamon Apple Baked Beans and other bean recipes which would be great as a topping for your baked potato.




Chili

Who doesn't have a favorite chili recipe! Chili goes just as well with a baked potato as it does with rice or bread.

Some people like it ho and others a bit milder, there is no set way you should make your chili, its just how you like it!

jfield has a great lens on Intuitive Chili check out some of her ideas on there and make some for a wonderful topping for your jacke potato.




Curry

Like Chili curry goes well with baked potato.

When I make curry, if there is any left, I might have it for lunch the next day with a small hot baked potato.

Curry does freeze well though so if you have any left just let it cool then put it in the freezer ready for when you need it!

My group, The Cooks Cafe has a few good curry recipes you can try out in Curry Corner. If you have a good curry recipe lens yourself why not pop along and add it to the mix.

Cheese

What would a baked potato be without cheese!

I think that cheese was probably the first ever thing I had with a baked potato. Those days it was probably just a bit of mild cheddar grated on the top for me, but it is so much easier to get lots of different cheeses nowadays and most of them will go great with a baked potato either grated over the top or mixed with the soft, fluffy potato middle then put back in the oven until it is bubbling and beginning to brown on top.

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