How to Bake a Potato in the Oven

How to Bake a Potato in the Oven How to Bake a Potato in the Oven Baked potatoes are a great favorite with almost everyone. They go well with almost all types of meals and you can fill empty stomachs with ease when you serve these on the table. If you have a lavish dish, then you can depend on the crispy skinned, fluffy potato goodness to work well as a side dish. It is one of the dishes that you can make without much effort and still manage to get away with all the praise. Those who like eating dishes made out of potato would claim that this dish keeps the original taste of the potatoes intact and the spices and the butter only add to enhance the appeal than change the taste. This mouth watering simple dish can be cooked by almost anyone, even the novice cook can easily toss a few bakes potatoes for a whole party.

If you are planning for a lavish feast or a party for your friends and family for some special occasion, you can definitely add it to the menu. This would be a yummy, filling dish that can even get away without additional spicing. You need not be extremely efficient in cooking to prepare this dish perfectly well. All you need to do is chose the right kind of potatoes and use the right temperature to bake the potatoes to golden brown color to get maximum taste.

First of all if you are not the one who did the grocery shopping, then you need to know how to choose the right kind of potato for this tasty recipe. All types of potatoes are good but you need to chose the ones that can be baked as whole for this you need to pick the right ones.

Take the potato and check for any marks or green patches. If you find any green patches, you should not bake them as whole because it may taste bitter of give you a bad tongue.
Try to press the raw potato skin to find any soft patches that might be there. If there are some soft patches, then that might be the sign of rotting. Do not use them for baking.
Taking similar sized potatoes would ensure that you have a nice looking platter. Perfectly done inside, in other words not over cooked or under cooked.

Ingredients:

Mid sized potatoes (number are dependent on the number of people you are serving to, take about one or two per head)
Olive oil or any other vegetable oil
Butter
Sour cream
Salt
Pepper

Steps to Bake

Take the potatoes and soak them in water for about 5 mins.
Take each potato by hand and scrub off any dirt that might be left on the skin.
Rinse the potatoes properly and leave them on a kitchen napkin.
Once excess water is drained off the skin of the potato, take a fork and pierce on the potato bodies at a few places.
You are now ready to brush them lightly with oil.
Take a little oil in a small bowl and roll in the potato.
Make sure oil has been coated on all sides perfectly.
Preheat the oven to about 350 degrees.
Spread a baking sheet and place the potatoes you are going to bake
Let them bake for about half an hour to on hour depending on the size of the potatoes you have used.
Take them out and pierce them with a fork in a single line taking it length wise.
Try to break open the potatoes with your fingers.
Now pour some butter or sour cream on it.
Spice it with salt and pepper and you are ready with this mouth watering delicious dish.

You can try your own unique way of adding spices depending on your taste.