Baked Potato Skins Recipe | Moms Need To Know ™ (2024)

FAQs

What to do with the inside of potato skins? ›

Arrange the potato skins skin-side down on the roasting pan or rack. Sprinkle the insides with freshly ground black pepper, cheddar cheese, and crumbled bacon. Return to the oven. Broil for an additional 2 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly.

If you oil them up early, the skins may not turn crispy. The salt, too, can run off the potatoes in the heat. Instead, do a quick oil baste after the potatoes reach 205°F: Remove the pan from the oven. Brush with olive oil (or bacon grease if you have it) and a hefty sprinkle of kosher salt.

We recommend baking potatoes at 400 degrees F for about an hour. Smaller spuds might take a little less time, while larger baking potatoes over 1 pound might take a little more. For a fully baked Idaho Russet Burbank, the internal temperature should be right at 210 degrees F.

To get the most antioxidants, leave the skins on and choose colorful varieties like red and purple potatoes. The more color, the more antioxidants. Plus, the skin of some potatoes can have up to 12 times more antioxidants than the flesh. Baked potato skin is a great source of potassium and magnesium.

Light exposure can cause a potato's skin cells to produce chlorophyll. The chlorophyll then causes the skin to turn green and helps the potato get ready to sprout. Light also activates the skin cells to produce solanine, a glycoalkaloid toxin, which has a bitter taste.

If you plan on peeling your potatoes, washing them before peeling is essential for preventing cross-contamination. Otherwise, contaminants from the skin can get on your hands, vegetable peeler, and cutting surface, potentially ending up on your peeled potato and other food you're prepping.

Exposure to light means they make chlorophyll, which turns them green. When this happens, an alkaloid called solanine — a bitter toxin — develops. Solanine, when eaten in large quantities, can be toxic. You need to cut or scrap any green parts of the potato flesh or skin and discard those pieces.

You're familiar with the eyes on potato skins, but the skin on a potato also has pores, called lenticels. These lenticels can swell, and the skin can blister when the growing conditions are kept wet. This can cause the rough texture you found with your potatoes.

We recommend 400° F. In previous studies with Kitchen Consultants, out of Los Angeles, we raised our baking time suggestions from 45 or 55 minutes to one full hour or when the internal temperature of the Idaho® baked potato reaches 210° F. Baking in foil is NOT recommended, as it steams the potato.

Cook at 425 to 450 F for almost an hour

In order to achieve restaurant potato perfection, cooking your spuds in the oven is still the number one option. So, once you have prepped your taters for your preheated kitchen range, it is time to pop them in.

Should I cover my potatoes when baking? ›

NEVER BAKE POTATOES IN FOIL.

Foil wraps will not decrease baking time, but will result in a soggy potato interior with wet skin. Wrapping a baked potato in foil after it has been baked will allow you to hold up to 45 minutes, but the best method for holding a baked potato is in a bread warming drawer.

Wrapping a potato in foil prior to baking traps the potato's natural moisture, steaming instead of baking it. This results is a soggy baked potato, not the light fluffy Idaho Baker that most people prefer.

To be safe, it is best to not eat the green part of tubers." You do not need to discard green potatoes. Just peel the skins, shoots and any green color; that is where the solanines concentrate. The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service inspects only meat, poultry and egg products.

Potatoes are a versatile and delicious vegetable that can be enjoyed by everyone, including people with diabetes. However, because of their high carb content, you should limit portion sizes, always eat the skin, and choose low GI varieties, such as Carisma and Nicola.

Potatoes also have vitamin C, unlike rice. Plus, potatoes contain three times more minerals than rice, such as phosphorus, potassium and magnesium when you leave the skin on. Sweet potatoes on the other hand are even healthier than the standard potato, containing as much as twice the high amounts of vitamin!

Yes, you can. Potato peelings are excellent for composting. The only limiting factor in composting potato peelings is that they are a potential source of fungus that causes potato blight. For the peelings not to sprout, have them well buried well down in the compost, and also, ensure to turn the heap frequently.

Scabby potato tubers, while unsightly, are still edible. Infected potatoes need only be peeled before use. Store tubers with scab in a cool, dark, dry place to reduce the possibility of scabby areas becoming infected by soft rot bacteria that will totally decay tubers.

"From a health point of view, and I think from a taste and texture point of view, it's much better to leave the skin on," Simon says. "The skin of the potato is very high in fibre, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B — all of those good, healthy things are in high concentration in the skin."