Jacket or Baked Potato, Traditional Oven Method
Jacket or Baked Potato, Traditional Oven Method
Mamta Gupta
Jacket potato simply means a potato cooked in its skin or jacket. It is a popular quick and easy meal, very, very popular in UK. You will find it on the menu of every pub, with a selection of Toppings.
There are many ways of cooking it, directly on charcoal, in an oven or in a slow cooker to name a few. I mostly make them in an oven or in a Slow Cooker (Crock Pot). Served with a good topping and a good Mixed Salad, it makes a lovely lunch. Most commonly used potatoes in UK for this purpose are Maris Piper, Desiree and King Edward. Other varieties like Vivaldi and Melody are also worth looking out for.
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 large, even sized potatoes with clean skin.
A little olive oil to oil the surface of each potato
Salt to sprinkle on potatoes
Butter/other toppings to serve
Instructions
Put your oven on at 200C/400F.
Wash potatoes well.
Prick all over its surface using an eating fork.
Oil the surface of each potato with your fingers and then sprinkle some salt on each.
Place it on a baking tray in a preheated oven. Bake for an hour or and hour 15 minutes.
The standard method is 200C for 1 hour-1 hour 20mins. If you like a really crisp skin, cook at slightly lower temperature, say 180C, for a bit longer, say 2 1/2 hours.
I sometimes cook mine in a microwave oven first, at full power, for 7-8 minutes and then put them in the oven for 30 minutes.
And that is it, they are ready for whatever filling you want, starting with ?just butter? or look here Jacket potato filling ideas for alternatives.
