My Go-to Weeknight Meal Takes 10 Minutes to Prep and Requires Barely Any Cooking

My go-to weeknight meal after I don’t really feel like cooking is one which entails barely any dishes and requires simply 10 minutes of energetic prep time: baked candy potatoes. Loaded up with melted cheddar, crispy bacon, minced chives, and bitter cream, baked potatoes—whether or not you select to make use of starchy russets or candy garnets—are a easy and filling dinner. Past its ease, the great thing about the baked potato is you could fill and prime it nonetheless you’d like, they usually’re an awesome vessel for utilizing up leftovers like chili, shepherd’s pie filling, or Bolognese. 

Although baking candy potatoes isn’t troublesome, it’s nonetheless value taking the time to go the additional mile to ensure every spud is really scrumptious and doesn’t style like an afterthought. (They could be virtually easy, however they don’t should style easy!) Under, you’ll discover a number of key strategies—a few of which Severe Eats editorial director Daniel has already touched on in his final baked potato recipe—that can show you how to make the easiest loaded candy potatoes.

Methods to Make Outrageously Scrumptious Loaded Baked Candy Potatoes

Select the appropriate dimension candy potato. Candy potatoes can considerably differ in dimension, with some as small as a finger and others weighing greater than a pound. Although you’re greater than welcome to make use of no matter dimension of candy potato you could have, remember that the baking time will fluctuate relying on how giant or small your candy potatoes are. In my recipe beneath, I like to recommend utilizing medium candy potatoes, which take about an hour and fifteen minutes to bake. Medium or giant candy potatoes are additionally simpler to load the toppings onto than small ones. 

Puncture your candy potatoes. Each Daniel and former Severe Eats editor Kenji suggest puncturing potatoes with a paring knife to forestall steam from increase and inflicting the spud to blow up, which may trigger an amazing mess in your oven and, extra importantly, could cause burns if a potato explodes if you find yourself checking it within the oven or dealing with it. So: Puncture these taters and deal with them with care.

Oil the candy potatoes, then go away them unwrapped. For candy potato skins that bake up barely crisp, give them a light-weight coating of oil and skip wrapping them in foil. Whereas many baked potato recipes name for wrapping the spuds in foil, this  doesn’t exponentially velocity up their cooking, nor does it produce a extra scrumptious potato. As Daniel present in his testing, wrapping potatoes in foil solely achieves one factor: soggy skins. By leaving the candy potatoes unwrapped and rubbing them in oil, we get crispy but tender potato skins that you simply truly wish to eat.

Bake them on a wire rack. As tempting as it could be to simply chuck the candy potatoes on a sheet pan, putting the spuds straight onto the baking sheet can lead to burned bottoms. I like to recommend baking the candy potatoes on a wire rack set right into a rimmed baking sheet—this enables sizzling air to flow into round every potato so that they cook dinner extra evenly. No wire rack? Bake the candy potatoes straight in your oven rack—simply be sure you preserve a sheet pan or sheet of foil on the rack beneath to catch any drips.

Mash the candy potatoes with butter, then use the combination to stuff the skins. Go the additional mile by scooping out the cooked candy potato flesh, mashing it with butter, then utilizing that combination to fill the skins. In the event you’re baking 4 potatoes, you possibly can refill every pores and skin to make 4 reasonably stuffed candy potatoes, or fill half of the skins for 2 huge, overstuffed candy potatoes. 

Get inventive with the toppings. You possibly can’t go unsuitable with basic loaded baked potato toppings, however there are many different enjoyable garnishes to contemplate. I like to prime my candy potatoes with a big swoop of labne and tahini, a hearty bean chili, or corn salad. Observe your coronary heart—or your abdomen. It received’t lead you astray.

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