I built a baked potato in 3 various appliances, and I’ll hardly ever use my oven yet again

• I made a baked potato in the microwave, air fryer, and oven to examination the distinctive cooking strategies.

• The microwave ended up remaining the minimum reliable process, and the oven effects were being just Alright.

• Out of all a few cooking approaches, the air fryer was the greatest by considerably.

A flawlessly cooked baked potato is a gratifying aspect or even major system, dependent on how you costume it up.

Preferably, you want a fluffy center and a properly seasoned, crispy outer pores and skin. But there are a whole lot of cooking methods out there that will not generate these benefits.

In an hard work to uncover the very best way to cook a baked potato, I tried using three various strategies making use of a microwave, air fryer, and oven. For each and every a single, I merely utilized a cleaned russet potato, oil, and seasoning.

To start with I made use of a rapid microwave system to cook my potato

Utilizing the microwave took practically zero work.

The only draw back was acquiring to poke the uncooked potato with a fork, which wasn’t super simple and slowed me down a bit.

I also didn’t like stressing irrespective of whether or not I pricked it more than enough situations to assure it would not pop in the microwave.

Right after poking the potato about 10 periods, I put it in the microwave on substantial for 5 minutes, turned it in excess of, and cooked it for one more five minutes.

The potato came out dry and nearly chalky

I finished up overcooking the potato, which led to a dry, unappealing remaining product.

Due to the fact just about every microwave has distinct configurations and heat strengths, it was tough to find the appropriate guidance to make an evenly cooked baked potato.

For my second variation, I cooked the potato in an air fryer

I liked using the air fryer simply because I did not have to poke my potato a bunch of occasions for airflow.

All I did was spray it with cooking oil, time it with garlic salt, and pop it in the air fryer at 400 levels for 45 minutes.

It arrived out crispy on the outside and beautifully fluffy on the inside of

I checked it midway to make guaranteed it wasn’t burning and made use of tongs to rotate the potato for an even fry.

Just after 45 minutes, the pores and skin was crispy and the potato was performed.

Story continues

When I slash it open, I was shocked at how evenly cooked it was. The potato was effortless to fluff, and the skin experienced a excellent texture and flavor.

Fast idea: Insider’s Assessments crew analyzed air fryers and located the Philips Top quality Electronic Air Fryer the finest general. Browse extra about the best air fryers we tested.

The final system I examined out associated baking the potato in the oven

I used a fork to poke 12 holes all in excess of the potato so moisture could escape while it cooked.

Poking the fork in and out of the spud was just as labor-intensive as it was with the microwave strategy, mostly since the fork kept obtaining stuck.

Ahead of I put it in the oven, I coated the potato in oil and salt. Then I cooked it proper on the oven rack for an hour at 350 levels Fahrenheit.

The potato turned out Alright, but it didn’t defeat the air-fryer range

Just after an hour in the oven, the potato was finished.

It came out somewhat fluffy on the within, but it wasn’t as evenly cooked as the air-fryer approach.

Out of the 3 approaches, the air fryer absolutely won

The air-fried potato arrived out perfectly.

It was evenly cooked — fluffy on the within and crispy on the outdoors — which gave the potato a great form. The crispness of the skin also produced it best for stuffing with hearty toppings.

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