Giant Baked Potato

So I finally baked off the giant potato I had, and you know? It's not as big as I thought for some reason. It was still really yummy and fulfilling though. On a day when I'm busy with lots of chores around the house, and it's cold outside, I love to just turn on the oven and bake something. In my case, potatoes are the easiest thing to bake, since they require next to no preparation at all. Surprisingly, I originally thought that it would take longer to completely cook this bad boy, it actually only took 1 hour and 10 minutes! It was great, because I was getting really hungry smelling the aroma from the kitchen!

Read on to find out how I baked my potato and how to fluff it up real good!


Giant Baked Potato

1 Large Potato, scrubbed
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt
1 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1.  Preheat oven at 375 F.

2.  Rub the potato evenly with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt. This will make the skin crispy. Place in baking dish.

3.  Prick the potato with a fork a few times to prevent steam built-up, then place in oven.

4.  It is ready when a sharp knife or a fork can easily penetrate the potato more than half-way. (About 1 hour 10 mins for this potato)

Yay! The fun part! Fluffing it up!

Once the potato is completely cooked, use a sharp knife and cut it lengthwise, half-way down the potato.

Using a clean kitchen towel, hold the hot potato on each end, and gently apply pressure inward to "open" up the potato.

Once it is open, I like to immediate put a pad of butter in it, let the heat do the work and melt the butter. All the while, I would use a fork and quickly fluff out the meat from the middle (of the spud), working outward (towards the skin), and mixing the melting butter at the same time.

At this point, you should have a beautifully fluffed baked potato. (Click on below image to see close-up!) I enjoy eating it this way just with butter and some salt, but you can also add any topping you like at this step! Ooooh...I forgot I had some bacon in the fridge...