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I had to make one pretty big tweak, but it was so worth it.
I have a deep fondness for Alton Brown. When I decided that I wanted to learn how to make a nice, bubbly baked mac and cheese from scratch, I went to YouTube. I found this old episode of Good Eats where Alton walks through the entire process of making a cheese sauce, starting with a roux. And after a bit of trial and error, I was able to nail the recipe. It’s now one of my go-to meals.
So, I was very excited to see Alton start posting some Good Eats-inspired content on social media again. He uploaded a video about how to make a perfect baked potato, and I decided to give it a try. My first attempt was a bit of a flop, but my second attempt was perfect. Here’s how that process went, and what I changed from Alton’s instructions to ensure success.
What is Alton Brown’s baked potato hack?
In a video on Instagram about baked potatoes, Alton explains why russets are the best for baking. (Spoiler: It’s their starch content.) Then he walks through his preferred method of baking a potato. These are the steps:
- Wash and dry a russet potato
- Poke it all over with a fork so the steam has a way to escape
- Rub it with oil and sea salt
- Place it directly on the oven rack
- Bake it at 300°F for one hour
- Remove the potato and toss it in more oil
- Turn the oven up to 400°
- Place the potato back in the oven for 10 minutes
- Remove the potato from the oven and use a fork to split it open—not a knife
- Add your preferred toppings and enjoy
The hack happens in Steps 6 and 7, and Alton says it will ensure crispy potato skin. By removing the potato from the oven, rubbing it with some more oil, and finishing the bake at a higher temperature, the skin will have a chance to crisp.
Whenever I bake potatoes, the skin always seems to remain soft. So I was excited to try this hack out and see if it gave my potatoes more texture. Plus, I loved his note about splitting the potato with a fork instead of a knife. That is genius.
Did Alton Brown’s baked potato hack work?
Well, kind of. Did anything about that initial recipe seem a little odd to you? Because when I first read it, I was surprised at the instruction to cook the potato in an oven set to only 300°. This is a lower temperature than I would normally bake potatoes at, but I figured that there must be a reason. I followed Alton’s instructions exactly, and my potato was underdone with no crispy skin. This is what it looked like:
I mean, sure, I’ve cooked things that have turned out worse (don’t ask me about the too-spicy lentil incident of 2014). But you can see from this photo that the potato was difficult to split, and it retained most of its shape. It didn’t yield the fluffy interior or crispy exterior that Alton’s recipe promised. I knew that the steps made sense—just not the oven temperature.
So the next day I redid the experiment, but I baked my potato at 400° for one hour, then cranked the oven up to 500° for the final 10 minutes. I know, it’s hot—but this made all the difference. Look at this beauty:
The potato was tender and fluffy throughout, easily split with a fork and had a beautifully crispy skin. I topped it with butter, sour cream and some dried parsley because I didn’t have any chives. It was absolutely delicious! I’ve never made a better baked potato.
Do I recommend Alton Brown’s baked potato hack?
Yes, with one note: Increase the oven temperature! Every oven is different, and potato sizes do vary, so some trial and error might be necessary. I think that baking the potato at a higher temperature is the only way to make this work. The rest of the advice is perfect, and I love the hack of removing the potato and oiling it a second time to get crispy skin.
This is the perfect recipe to make on a weeknight when you have tons to do but still need to get dinner on the table. Because the potato requires minimal prep and a long bake time, you can squeeze in more chores. I was able to unload and reload the dishwasher, throw in a load of laundry and do some vacuuming while my potato cooked. Sure, there are quicker ways to make baked potatoes, but this one was still easy and gave me some flexibility in managing my time. I’ll be using this hack a lot this winter.
Related:
- Alton Brown’s Tricks for the Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- The Easy Baked Potato Bar Your Weeknight Needs
- Ina Garten’s Simple Trick for Using Dried Herbs More Effectively
