what's cooking wednesday - baked potato

I love baked potatoes. So much. Mike is not such a fan though, so I often just through a potato in the microwave and "bake" it that way. I know. I know. It's likely the worst way to "bake" a potato. Very occasionally I will through one on the barbie, but to be perfectly honest... that almost never happens.

So tonight for dinner I was making a beer can chicken, but in my oven because we are all out of propane. Gosh I would love a natural gas barbecue so there was always gas available and I thought what the hey I should toss a couple of potatoes in there with it. Then I remembered seeing something about baked potatoes in this book.......



Yes I know he wears pinky rings. And flip flops. And terry wristbands. And bowling shirts. And, inexplicably, his sunglasses on the back of his head..... but it all works for me. Oh yes it does. So in love with him. Totally on my list!

So buried back in there on page 326, he has a recipe for baked potatoes. Now his recipe calls for brining them, which I didn't have time for, but basically you mix together 5 cups of water with a cup of salt and submerge your taters in there for 2-8 hours at room temperature. I can't speak to how that turns out because, like I said, no time for that.

Instead I skipped ahead to the rub.....

I had 4 red potatoes that I washed and then pricked with a fork a few times each. After which I drizzled a bit of olive oil and then rubbed them, making sure they were nicely coated with said oil.

In a small bowl I mixed up a rub of 2 tbsp seasoned salt, 2 tbsp garlic powder and a tsp of fresh ground pepper. Then I coated them with the spice mix, much like you would dry rub a piece of meat before cooking.

So the chicken went in the oven and the potatoes went in along side of them. Right on the oven grate, not wrapped or anything and I let them hang out there for a bit over an hour at 350 degrees, turning it up to 400 degrees for the last 15 minutes or so.

Hands down this was the best baked potato I had ever eaten in my life. I only made four (Papa and Grandma Linda joined us for dinner) and Mike passed on his. I couldn't stop talking about how much I had enjoyed that potato and would readily eat another one, but I shouldn't. Then Papa said he'd split the last one with me..... sounded good to me, but then Mike wanted to see what the fuss was all about so I ended up halving my half with him.. he loved it by the by. The skin was great, the inside moist and the rub was delicious, if a bit too salty in the places where the rub was heavier. I think you could easily tailor this to your own tastes and mix the spices up. Bottom line.... no more microwave baked potatoes for me!