A top chef has determined which method of cooking the perfect jacket potato. Chef and potato queen Poppy O’Toole recently put to the test three different cooking methods to see which would come out on top.
In a recent Instagram post, she compared traditional oven baking to air frying and the microwave. All of them required different times and temperatures. Poppy said: “I’m going to be ranking the best way of cooking a jacket potato. Is it oven? Is it air fryer? Or is it le microwave?”
To ensure fairness, Poppy prepared the potatoes all in the same way by piercing them with a fork. She then doused the spuds in oil and sprinkled them with a little bit of salt.
For the oven, it should be preheated to 200℃. The potatoes should be baked for between 40 to 50 minutes.
When it comes to cooking in the air fryer, the spuds should be pre-cooked to soften in the microwave for around 10 minutes. She said: “This just means that it’s gonna get a little bit cooked.”
The spuds should then be cooked in the air fryer at 170℃ for 25 minutes. When using a microwave, the potatoes should be blasted for 12 minutes initially. They may need more time, depending on the power of the appliance.
On the oven-roasted jacket, Poppy said: “They do look very pretty and they’re very crispy. Appearance-wise, probably a five out of five, I’ll be honest with you.”
For the taste test, the chef added a little dollop of butter for good measure. The oven-baked potato has a wonderfully crispy skin, with Poppy giving it a four for fluffiness.
She recommended adding more butter and a filling. Overall she scored the oven-roasted potato a 4.75 out of five.
When discussing the air fryer potato, Poppy said: “I think in terms of appearance, very nice. They’ve still got that lovely colour. Looks really, really well-cooked.”
Poppy scored the air fryer spud a four for appearance, a five for fluffiness, and a three for the skin. She said: “I do think it’s slightly under overall than the oven-baked potato, so I’m going to have to give it a four.”
Poppy found that only one corner of the microwaved potato was completely cooked. For its appearance, she scored it a 2.5 and a three for fluffiness.
The crispiness of the skin was lacking, so the chef marked it as one. Overall the microwaved potato scored a two out of five.
She said: “There is place for it in my heart, just not that much space.”
For Poppy, the oven-baked method pipped the others to the post. Home cooks shared their thoughts in the comments, with one person saying: “I microwave the potato first and then for the crispy skin it goes into the air fryer. Perfecto!”
Lisa wrote: “I suspect that microwaving a spud then chucking it in the oven could be an excellent way to get the best of all worlds.”
Sam suggested: “My top tip to keep the skin crunchy whilst you serve (I had 8 people to feed most weekdays lol) is cut into it to let the steam out as soon as it’s out the oven. You probably already know this but others might not.”
Another said: “If I had to choose, I’d say Oven, but we wrap ours in foil. Never tried it oiled & salted. Will try it though. I hate the air fryer as a means to cook. But I do find microwaving potatoes you have to turn them over to be sure they’re cooked.”