A convenient and hearty choice at any time of the day, baked potatoes serve as an incredibly versatile base ideal for all your favorite toppings. Perhaps your go-to is a swipe of butter and scattering of shredded cheese, or a generous dollop of sour cream and some crispy bacon bits, but something that's often overlooked when crafting the perfect spud is the world of canned foods.
The mere mention of baked potatoes conjures up comfort and warmth. They're starchy, savory, and earthy, and a hearty vehicle for your favorite creamy toppings or spicy seasonings. They're also good for you, with plenty of fiber, vitamin C, and a smaller but high-quality amount of protein. Baking potatoes actually preserves more of the root vegetable's nutrients than frying or boiling them, too.
If you were to consider baked potatoes' finest qualities, luxury would not usually be one of them. This dish has always been pure comfort, encapsulated in steaming smoke and golden starch. It asks for nothing much, only butter, chives, and maybe sour cream. It's not too often that you'd find gourmet things like crème fraîche and caviar piled atop. And yet, these ingredients still fit right into the humble baked potatoes, even going so far as elevating them to restaurant-worthy status.
Store-bought chicken pot pie soup is a great canned ingredient to use when you want to stretch a basic baked potato into a more robust offering. This trick is simple and effective, much like beefing up your baked potatoes with canned chili and other protein-packed ingredients. Using canned chicken pot pie-style soup also gives your baked potato a sort of upside-down pot pie or cottage pie spin, as mashed potatoes are often used as a topping for similar meat and poultry pies.
It may seem like the logical choice to place your spuds on a sheet pan because it catches drips, makes it easy to move in and out of the oven, and offers a nice flat surface. But it doesn't provide airflow. Unlike root vegetables, which benefit from direct heat contact, whole potatoes need air circulation. Without it, the hot tray will either turn the underside soggy as it steams or make it tough if the oven temperature is too high.
Baked potatoes can be a lot of fun once you branch beyond the usual sour cream and chopped chives additions. The moment you start experimenting with other unexpected baked potato toppings, you will discover all the different facets that this seemingly ordinary side dish has been hiding all along. It can be bold. It can be exciting. It can have an acidic edge that feels utterly thrilling on the taste buds, which is only achieved when you bring pickled red onions into the picture.
Forget chives and butter. What your baked potatoes really need is a Philly cheesesteak twist. Born on a street corner in Philadelphia, the next-level sandwich has long encapsulated the city's vivacious essence with its bold, intense flavors. Now, just imagine that same greatness crowning steaming hot, fresh-off-the-oven potatoes. No longer is the starchy base just predictably creamy and boring. The dish's overflow of cheese-smothered meat and veggies ensures that it arrives at your table dressed in the finest flavors.
When it comes to making the best baked potato, which of the latter two appliances is better? Tasting Table asked Chef Kieron Hales, Managing Partner & Head Chef at Zingerman's Cornman Farms. "If you're short on time, both the air fryer and microwave can absolutely step in for the oven," Hales said. "It just depends on what you value more: texture or speed."
Fluffy, delicious, and making plenty of room to add your choice of wholesome toppings, baked potatoes are an excellent side dish that can be prepared a number of different ways. Between the oven, microwave, air fryer, and more, there are many ways to bake a potato - and even more ways to spruce them up with your favorite ingredients. Chili is a winter staple that's sure to provide even more delicious and nutritious value to bulk up your baked potatoes in the cooler months.
If I'm going to the effort of making jacket potatoes (and by effort I mean putting them in the oven for an hour), I will almost always pop in a few extra spuds to make gnocchi for a later meal. The difference between shop-bought and homemade gnocchi is vast, especially the vac-packed, long-life kind, which are dense and can be heavy. Freshly made gnocchi, with fluffy baked potatoes, however, are light as air, pillowy and silky. If that sounds intimidating, let me reassure you that this recipe is really forgiving, and much easier than making fresh sheet pasta. I love them served simply, as here, with a slightly nutty sage butter and lots of parmesan. The simple sauce lets those gnocchi sing.
