How to make jacket potatoes even better

[PinotAndPlaydough]

I mean they are already pretty damn good and we have them about once a week. But I’m wondering if anyone has any sneaky tips to make them even better, is there a trick to make the skin super crunchy or is it all about the fillings.
What’s everyone’s favourites fillings or sides?

@ILoveMyBernina How can the skin be crispy and crunchy if you've peeled off the skin? 🤔 Peeling and roasting, that's roast potatoes not jacket/baked potatoes.

Definitely oil and salt. I actually haven't done that since weaning DD and trying to be more careful about salt but it makes the ultimate crispy skin. I'll have to separate hers off and do that again. I love cheese, bacon lardons and spring onions in a twice baked jacket and have just accidentally discovered that grated cheddar and carrot mashed up with cream cheese is also gorgeous on a jacket potato.

A metal skewer through the middle helps to speed up cooking time as it takes heat into the middle. ( or so my mum always told
me!)
Definitely dry skins and rub with oil and salt for crispy skin and bang them down on the work surface when cooked to fluff up the insides

@ILoveMyBernina

Peel potatoes, boil for 10 mins in salted water, drain, put in oven at 180 degrees fan. Bake until soft in middle. Skin will be very crunchy.

What madness is this?

Its not madness to peel the potatoes I also do this. Baking them in a hot oven will form a new crunchy skin. Try it before criticising it.
Its a potatoe ffs

No, it's a potato

Peeling before baking is utter lunacy. You're throwing the best bit in the bin, and then trying and failing to recreate it

Use the posh big potatoes....they do taste better than the cheaper ones !!!

A bit of Olive oil and salt on the skin = amazing

Ok, jacket potatoes are literally potatoes in their jackets. You can’t take off the jacket and then pretend it’s the same thing. Peeling them is insane. You might be making something nice, but it is not a jacket potato.

@TracyHorrobin

Its not madness to peel the potatoes I also do this. Baking them in a hot oven will form a new crunchy skin. Try it before criticising it. Its a potatoe ffs

Madness !!!!!!!!!!

It's not a jacket potato if you take its jacket off!

I always cook them on a metal skewer. That's it. No rubbing with salt or oil. Although maybe I'll try it.
My mum used to bake them with an egg in the middle. I think she baked them, cut them in half and cracked an egg in. Not sure if the potato went back in before or after it went back in the oven though.
She didn't always do them so it was a surprise if there was one there

Nobody’s mentioned baked sweet potatoes yet..
I love them with butter and cheese like a normal jacket or sometimes just butter, a dash of soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon and lots of salt and pepper

@DateLoaf

Nobody’s mentioned baked sweet potatoes yet.. I love them with butter and cheese like a normal jacket or sometimes just butter, a dash of soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon and lots of salt and pepper

Ooh yea!

I've got some hassleback potatoes in the oven after feeling inspired by this thread!

My favourite filling is cheese and coleslaw. I like baked sweet potatoes cold with Philadelphia.

Use garlic butter or herb butter instead of normal butter.

@Lunaballoon

Twice cooked! Bake potatoes as usual. When cooked, halve lengthways and remove the cooked flesh with a spoon into a bowl, keeping the skin intact. Add butter, seasoning and whatever else you fancy (grated cheese, finely sliced spring onion, crispy bacon) to the cooked potato. Mash and pile back into the reserved skins. Bake again for about 15-20 mins until golden.

I was going to say this, it’s delicious. I do herbs, and chopped bacon fried with a little bit of garlic. Then topped with cheese once the mix is spooned back into the skins.

Cook them in an air fryer for an hour.

Best baked potato I've ever eaten.

Sincere apologies for my mispelling of potato due to my ignorance.
That said, the OP asked for suggestions for making a potato skin crunchier. There was no reference to altering the nutritional value. Just thought I would share my experience. Never for one moment did I think my post would be so inflammatory.

Once cooked, rather than cut it with a knife, try wrapping loosely in a clean tea towel and karate chopping it - the inside will be a lot fluffier (think that was a Nigel Slater tip). Obvs, not going to matter if you scoop and refill.

*@PinotAndPlaydough

I really love twice baked potatoes! We would have them often for Sunday tea. Just butter and cheese and I put garlic salt over mine. Gorgeous!

Oil and salt and pepper and then bake them in a Le Creuset or any other iron pot. Game changer. The crispness is second to none.

Bake low and slow initially for a good while then whack up the heat for the last ten mins and I have found the skin gets that really crispy, thick texture

I rub them with salt and bake in the oven. Love them with a big green salad and filled with masses of cottage cheese :-)

@TracyHorrobin

Its not madness to peel the potatoes I also do this. Baking them in a hot oven will form a new crunchy skin. Try it before criticising it. Its a potatoe ffs

The discussion is about jacket potatoes!

You remove the jacket, you remove yourself from the discussion, and need to start another 🥔 thread.

@AllTheWayFromLondonDAMN

Oil and salt and pepper and then bake them in a Le Creuset or any other iron pot. Game changer. The crispness is second to none.

😱 Oh my Lord...