Have you ever wondered how to cook potatoes in the oven? A lot of people love the idea, taste, and feel of baked or roasted potatoes but are just wondering how they can make this wonder emerge from their kitchen. And this is not about French Fries.
If you’re wondering what baked potatoes are (they’re also called jacket potatoes), they are simply potato dishes that are cooked in the oven. On the inside, the potatoes are soft and light while on the exterior they are crispy. Roasted potatoes are also cooked in the oven.
There are many ways to serve your baked (or roasted) potato dish – with cheese, gravy, sour cream, ground meat, bacon, or butter. Baked (and roasted) potatoes make healthy and yummy meals always. You’ll have to consider the type of potato that you use to prepare your dish. That has an effect on the outcome of your culinary venture. Your choice will depend on your taste.
Potato species like Carolus, Innovator, Sarpo Mira, Sante, King Edward, and Vivaldi are some species that come out really nice when cooked in the oven. If you’ve been thinking about cooking potatoes in the oven, how do you want them? As baked potatoes or as roasted potatoes? Whichever culinary style you wish to explore, read below for some guidelines.
Table of Contents
How to Prepare Roasted Potatoes
If you make your roasted potatoes right, they make a mouth-watering accompaniment for nearly any type of dish you serve it with. The seasoning you choose will depend on what you have in your kitchen or what you choose to get according to your preference.
It’s not difficult to roast potatoes in the oven. It’s often better to prepare your oven-roasted potatoes with fresh herbs albeit if there are no fresh herbs, go ahead and make use of your dried herbs. If you do not like your garlic burnt, then consider swapping fresh garlic with powdered garlic.
Choose to peel the potatoes, or Not! It all depends on you. If you prefer your potatoes peeled, then peel them. Otherwise, not peeling them is great too. Potato skin, when well cooked, is crisp and leaves an appealing flavor on your oven-roasted potato.
Wash the skin of your potatoes thoroughly to remove dirt and earth. Use a clean sponge if the dirt is much. If your potatoes are sizeable, it might be more effective to cut them into halves before spicing them. However, you should poke some holes in your potatoes so that moisture can easily get out.
Soak the potatoes in water for a few minutes (maybe 15 minutes) then get them out and allow them to dry properly. You can leave them in the sieve for another 15 to 25 minutes (or more) to get drained and dry from the water.
Soaking your cut potatoes in water helps extract some starch from the potatoes, ensuring that the skin comes out quite crispy and that the inside is light and soft. Allowing them to dry before rolling them in olive oil helps to prevent the potatoes from steaming when they should be roasting.
Procedure
(i) Wash the potatoes
(ii) Chop them into cubes (1-inch)
(iii) Immerse them in water and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes
(iv) Remove potatoes from the water and allow them to dry in a sieve
(v) Set your oven to heat up (as you want it to)
(vi) Spice your potatoes with olive oil, herbs, and seasonings
(vii) Put the spiced potatoes in the oven to roast
Best potatoes for your oven-roasted potatoes
Seriously, any type of potato you choose will do just fine. You can use russets, sweet potatoes, Carolus, sante, or anyone you prefer. Each one you choose will come out equally yummy.
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Roasting your potatoes in the oven
The temperature for roasting your potatoes in the oven depends on what you want to achieve. You can tweak the temperature each time you roast until you find your preferred consistency. Higher temperatures are more likely to give you potatoes with more crispy skin and a softer interior.
Also, higher temperatures take less time to roast the potatoes than lower temperatures. Here are some estimates of how long it’d take to roast 1-inch cube potatoes according to the oven temperature.
350 degrees F 45-50 minutes
375 degrees F 35-40 minutes
400 degrees F 30 minutes
450 degrees F 20-25 minutes
Preserving your Oven-roasted potatoes
You’ll want to put away some of your oven-roasted potatoes for another meal, except you always want to make a fresh dish each time your family has to eat in.
Save some roasted potatoes in a Ziploc Storage Bag or any freezer bag of your choice and put them in the freezer. When you want to eat them, just put them back in your oven or toaster and heat them up. Makes an easy and great breakfast or dinner side dish.
How to Bake Your Potatoes in the Oven
Preparing the Potatoes
(i) Thorough wash your potatoes. You can use a clean soft sponge to scrub them so that all those dirt and earth goes away
(ii) Towel the potatoes till they are dry. Just like roasted potatoes, baked potatoes need to be dry before baking them else you won’t get that crispy feel from it after the oven time
(iii) Put the clean dry potatoes in olive oil. Make sure every part of the potatoes is covered in oil – this helps the potato skin become crispy when it bakes
(iv) Spice them up with salt and any seasoning of your choice
(v) Make holes in the potatoes for the moisture to let out while they’re oven baking
(vi) Place them in your preheated oven and allow it to bake for about 1 hour 30 minutes
(vii) Remove them when they’re ready and serve with what the dish you want
What ingredients you should choose for your baked potatoes
Potatoes (use your preferred type of potatoes. If you’re not sure, use russets)
Olive oil
Salt
Black pepper (fresh, preferable. But if only have dried, no problem)
Watch This Video to See How to Bake a Potato
Directions
(i) Heat up your oven to 350 degrees
(ii) Poke holes in the potatoes and season them adequately with salt, pepper and any other spice you want
(iii) Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes (or a fork can easily tear them)
Finally
Are you wondering what the difference is between oven-roasted potatoes and oven-baked potatoes? It’s time and the temperature of your oven. Oven-roasted potatoes are cooked with high temperatures and they spend a relatively shorter time in the oven – say 450 degrees and 25 minutes.
Oven-baked potatoes are cooked with lower temperatures and they spend more time in the oven – 350 degrees and 1 hour 30 minutes. To bake potatoes in the oven, you need to be patient.
However, to make any of the dishes, you need to pay attention to the process of preparation, the temperature of your oven and the timing. Check your oven intermittently to observe the progress of the cooking as this may vary depending on your oven.
Whether it is mashed, roasted, or baked, a meal of potatoes is always a delight for families. You can always put together a few tricks and treats to make your potato meal unique, sumptuous and memorable.
