Mike's Perfect Baked Potatoes
- 2 Extra Large Idaho #1 Grade Potatoes 1+ pound a piece - choose fresh/firm potatoes without deep brown spots
- 4 large Sheets Tinfoil
- Preheat your oven to 400.
- Clean and chop vegetables of your choosing.
- Cover and refrigerate.
- Fully clean and fully dry your Idaho #1 grade potatoes.
- With a sharp knife - peirce your spuds three times at both ends and once in the middle.
- Or, you can use a fork to peirce them.
- Place your spuds on a large piece of tinfoil.
- Shiney side up.
- Smear your potatoes generously with cold bacon grease.
- Place back on tinfoil.
- You can use olive oil but, bacon grease definitely makes these better!
- Sprinkle fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, garlic powder and onion powder to taste on both sides of your bacon greased potatoes.
- I tend to go heavy on the sea salt!
- These are big spuds!
- Wrap your potatoes up tightly.
- Double wrap your potatoes tightly in another sheet of tinfoil.
- Again, shiney side up.
- A double wrap is more steak house style and steams your spuds more evenly.
- Place potatoes seam side up on the center rack and place a cookie sheet on the rack underneath it to catch any potential drippings.
- Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
- After that, gently peirce potatoes with a sharp knife in the center where you'll eventually slice your potatoes open.
- If the knife enters with ease - you'll know they're fully baked.
- If not, bake a bit longer until soft.
- Know that if you're baking more than 2 large potatoes - you'll need to increase your baking time by approximately 15 minutes.
- Once fully baked - you'll have two options.
- You can either serve by slitting the tinfoil and potato - then squeezing both ends together to force the moist insides up and out.
- Fluff with fork.
- Serve immediately with toppers of your guests choosing.
- Or, you can do the exact same thing but, gently scoop out the insides with a large spoon leaving your shells fully in tact.
- Place all insides quickly in a bowl, mix in all of your toppers in and, gently place back into your potato shells.
- You may need to re-heat mixture not tinfoil in the microwave before plating.
- Garnish with fresh chives and parsley.
- Enjoy!
tinfoil
Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/349402-mikes-perfect-baked-potatoes (may not work)