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 lively 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 fantastic thing about the baked potato is that you could fill and high it nevertheless you’d like, and so they’re a terrific 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 methods—a few of which Severe Eats editorial director Daniel has already touched on in his final baked potato recipe—that can provide help to make the perfect loaded candy potatoes.

Make Outrageously Scrumptious Loaded Baked Candy Potatoes

Select the suitable 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 will have, needless to say the baking time will differ relying on how massive 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 massive 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 stop steam from build up and inflicting the spud to blow up, which might trigger an amazing mess in your oven and, extra importantly, may cause burns if a potato explodes if you end up checking it within the oven or dealing with it. So: Puncture these taters and deal with them with care.

Oil the candy potatoes, then depart them unwrapped. For candy potato skins that bake up barely crisp, give them a lightweight 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 really need to eat.

Bake them on a wire rack. As tempting as it might be to only chuck the candy potatoes on a sheet pan, inserting the spuds straight onto the baking sheet may end up in burned bottoms. I like to recommend baking the candy potatoes on a wire rack set right into a rimmed baking sheet—this enables scorching air to flow into round every potato in order that they cook dinner extra evenly. No wire rack? Bake the candy potatoes straight in your oven rack—simply remember to hold 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. When 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 large, overstuffed candy potatoes. 

Get inventive with the toppings. You’ll be able to’t go improper with basic loaded baked potato toppings, however there are many different enjoyable garnishes to think about. I like to high my candy potatoes with a big swoop of labne and tahini, a hearty bean chili, or corn salad. Comply with your coronary heart—or your abdomen. It received’t lead you astray.

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