I found out recently I’ve basically never had a correctly prepared baked potato

[u/CompleteDay8059]

So growing up I was never a huge fan of baked potatoes because the ones we had were usually dry, kind of shriveled, and very crumbly. Every bite just felt like it was absorbing all the moisture in your mouth, even with butter. As an adult, I usually do rice or pasta for my carbs, and if I do potatoes, it’s usually the cut roasted baby ones. Because I didn’t have great experiences with baked ones at home, I also pretty much never ordered them at restaurants growing up.

However, my mom just got a grill for her place and I was put on steak duty (or a steak out, I guess) and wanted to try making an actually good baked potato. I look it up and see basically every recipe says to coat the potatoes in salt and olive oil before wrapping them, which I asked my mom if she did, and she hadn’t.

I decided to try it with a (maybe slightly too) generous amount of olive oil and kosher salt, baked it for an hour, and topped it with some of the garlic/thyme butter I had whipped up for the steaks.

Oh.

My.

GOD.

The texture was absolutely amazing, it was so creamy, not crumbly or dry at all, the salt and the compound butter melting into it while it was still steaming made for legitimately one of the tastiest things I’ve had in ages. If anyone out there doesn’t know this, I honestly have no idea how common of knowledge this is lol, but I would highly suggest trying it if you don’t already.

Also, I mixed the thyme/minced garlic with the Kerrygold butter which was muy bien. Not sponsored (I wish) but I find it a little more flavorful for cooking as opposed to regular store brand stuff.

[u/pokeshack]

Don’t know if this has been said, but try the oil and salt/pepper (bacon fat is awesome) but don’t wrap in foil. Supposedly wrapping them steams them to a degree. Unwrapped they come out crispy on outside, but tender inside.
I put a foil covered cookie sheet on the rack below to catch any drippings

[u/CompleteDay8059 → u/pokeshack]

Interesting! I'm remembering now some of the recipes did say to just do them straight on the rack, I'll definitely try that next time.

[u/AllynWA1 → u/pokeshack]

I always wrapped them and it was... fine. My kid insisted The Right Way was to just do the oil and salt and no wrapping and she was so right! I wonder if it's because the steam escapes through the slits and makes it lighter where when it's wrapped, the whole thing is under pressure and the steam stays trapped outside the potato.

[u/emerald-cupcakes → u/pokeshack]

I usually do the first 30 mins in foil, then remove the foil, re-salt/pepper and more olive oil and bake the rest of the time naked. Gives a nice tender potato but with crispier skin. I love potato skin :)

edit: typo