Quick Baked Potatoes
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This Quick Baked Potatoes recipe is one of our favorite recipes. It will have you making delicious baked potatoes at home more often. It’s so easy to prepare, and it requires only 3 simple ingredients and about 30 minutes.
I’m Irish to the core. Well, at least I think I am. If nothing but for my lack of self-control when anything potato is involved, I would say I’m totally Irish. That has to mean something, right?
Potatoes are a staple in our home. We have to moderate our intake and how they’re prepared, but a good baked potato is always the perfect standby for us to serve as a side, or as the main star topped with chili, or maybe even something healthy. I’ve learned a shortcut for cooking baked potatoes quicker, and I have to say, tastier. My friend, Cindy, tipped me off to this technique for cooking Quick Baked Potatoes a few years back.
Cindy is also the person that originally spurred me on to begin this site. I didn’t really know what a blog was when she suggested I look into starting one of my own. So thank you for that, Cindy! And thank you for showing me how to bake a potato faster too.
How to Bake Potatoes Quickly
Here’s how it works. It couldn’t be easier. Begin with washed potatoes. Scrub the potatoes and remove any bad spots. We use sweet potatoes for this too. Sweet potatoes are my husband’s favorite. I always toss one in the batch for him. Once clean and when you’ve washed and removed any icky or weird-looking parts, follow these next steps.
1. Cut the potatoes in half length-wise. Then pour a little olive oil, and sprinkle a good amount of salt on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
2. Coat the cut potato halves with the olive oil and salt, place them on the baking sheet, cut side down. Just use your hands to coat the potatoes with oil and salt. It’s easier. Plus, olive oil and salt make for an excellent hand scrub.
3. Once they’re coated on all sides, sprinkle a little more salt, then bake at 400 degrees F for about 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven. Check with a fork for doneness and enjoy!
See? Isn’t that easy?
When potatoes are baked this way, they develop a super tasty skin (which I enjoy even more than the flesh), and they’re the healthiest part of the potato too. They end up being a cross between a baked potato and twice baked potato without all the scraping and re-stuffing involved. Super simple. Super quick. And super satisfying.
Try it soon and let me know what you think! Before you go, do you have any tips for cooking vegetables quicker without losing flavor and health benefits? Do share!
What to serve these quick baked potatoes with:
Potatoes are a great side dish that goes well with so many different meals. They are golden brown and crunchy on the outside and have a soft and crumbly texture on the inside. Their simple flavor and texture makes them the perfect side dish with almost any meal.
One of my go-to recipes that go perfectly with roasted potatoes are these Chicken Breasts in Mushroom Sauce. The mushroom sauce adds so much creaminess and balances all the flavors of the potatoes and juicy chicken breasts. I also like combining these quick baked potatoes with Glazed Salmon, Roasted Turkey, BBQ Chicken, and all other types of grilled meats.
You’ll also love to try:
Twice Baked Potatoes
Spicy Loaded Baked Potatoes
Lemon Garlic Roasted Potatoes
Easy Roasted Asparagus
Roasted Broccoli Recipe
Quick Baked Potatoes Recipe
Quick Baked Potatoes
A quicker and delicious way to bake a potato.
Ingredients
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- several pinches kosher salt
- 4 baking potatoes,* washed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400-degrees F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle lined baking sheet with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Cut potatoes in half length wise.
- Coat potatoes all sides with olive oil and salt, and place cut side down on lined baking sheet. Sprinkle potatoes with additional salt.
- Bake at 400-degrees F for 30-40 minutes until done. Check with fork for doneness.
Notes
* Sweet potatoes may be used.
OMG! I was wanting some sweet potatoes after trying some roasted ones at TJ’s. I found your recipe, went and bought some potatoes and made them tonight. They came out so fanastic that I ate 3 of the 4 I made for dinner. Being I can’t really cook, eating my own cooking like this says a lot! Thank you for posting this recipe!!!!
My favorite way to prepare almost any vegetable, fresh or frozen:
Lay out veggies on lined cookie sheet in a single layer.
Drizzle with oil of your choice (I prefer EVOO).
Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder (NEVER garlic salt).
Bake at 425 for about 30 to 45 minutes until they reach desired done-ness.
I tried this with a very large sweet potato (that would have taken over an hour to bake whole) & it was absolutely delicious! There was no need to add butter or anything else to the finished potato. It was beyond good! Thanks so much. This recipe is a keeper.
I see that I forgot to rate the recipe. 5 stars, of course!
I just stumbled upon this and made sweet potatoes this way tonight and will never go back to my old ways. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you for posting this great recipe! It was very easy and delicious. My favorite part was that my mom actually loved it and she rarely is a fan of what I make.
Yay for you Dina!!! So glad you tried them. They are one of my favorite things to make, especially for groups. So easy!
Searched online for way to cook potatoes fast in our busy lives. These were tremendous and done in 30 minutes. Thanks for posting. Can’t wait till try sweet potatoes this way.
Amy, thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! It seems so simple, but it’s hands-down the best potato recipes I’ve ever had to work with. Easy, painless, and am trying the sweet potato for the first time tonight. Can’t wait!
Yay! It’s absolutely the only way I bake potatoes now. I hope you enjoyed the sweet potatoes too!
My Irish husband who prefers rice wants you to know that he loves you … Enough said, except thank you!
😉 You’re welcome! Please send my regards to your husband! xoxo
Such a fast and awesome way to cook potatoes! I’m making these delicious babies tonight ; ) Thanks for sharing Amy!
I came across this post months ago and have been baking my potatoes this way ever since; they are perfectly cooked, every time! Thanks for the great tip!
Best,
Michelle
PS… your photos are phenomenal! Seriously, potatoes have never looked so pretty! Nice work!
I have used this for quite some time and needed to come back to thank you so much!! I love this recipe/method and am applying it to all kinds of vegetables now. super, really. thanks.
Thank you for letting me know! I’m glad it’s been a helpful technique for you.
Made these this past weekend…. turned out perfect! Easy, delicious, crispy outside, fluffy inside. Won’t make baked potatoes any other way from now on! Pinned, shared on FB, printed and in my fave recipe binder. Thank you for this one!
Hi, so is there no more need to poke the skin before baking?
Nope. No poking necessary. 😉
I made a quick search of Pinterest for baked potatoes to go with our steak dinner on Christmas day. I found this recipe and followed it to the letter. The potatoes came out beautifully – they looked just like your pictures(!) – and my family and I loved them! It would have taken so much longer to cook the potatoes whole – they were huge potatoes. Thank you so much for this recipe!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Glad to hear you and your family enjoyed them!
I made sweet potatoes following your recipe tonight. That were fantastic!
Yay! Happy tummy time!
Thank you so much for this quick baked potatoes recipe! They turned out great and I loved the crispy salty potato skins. We could eat these even without any toppings. Like giant french fries, kinda.
I totally agree! No need for butter at all. Glad you enjoyed them!
This is actually simpler version of a Croatian an Bosnian dish called “pole” (literaly means “halves”), but I would recommend you to bake young potatoes cause their skin is thinner so you can eat it too, and to bake them cut side up. This way potatoes would be crispy on all sides 🙂
Also, I rub each potato with the mixture of sea salt and ground dried vegetables (carrots, celery, onions etc.) and dried garlic powder. On each half I put a slice of unsalted butter or a few drops of olive oil.
When they’re almost baked you should put a thick slice of few-time-smoked hot sausage on top of each potato so that nice and aromatic smoky flavor and scent will cover each half and sausage slices become crunchy.
If you do not like hot sausages (our’s are homemade with a lot of organic paprika and very hot), I recommend you rub potato halves before bake with a bit of ground red paprika as well.. With this dish I always serve chopped sauerkaut with sunflower oil, ground black pepper and paprika.
This is how we cook in continental Croatia! 😀
This sounds great. I am going to try tomorrow for my daughter. She loved garlicky bakedpotatoes. I will add a dash of spices and flavorings, too. 🙂
This is my go to when doing baked potatoes. I make a bunch extra on a Friday or Saturday night so in the morning I cut them into small bite sized pieces and sprinkle with Lawrys and pepper and fry in the skillet to make the best home fries to serve with your eggs. Yum.
Excellent plan! Totally doing that with our next batch.
These were amazing! I did both regular and sweet potatoes. My family devoured them. And so easy….thanks!