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Whenever I want a hassle-free midweek meal, my go-to typically is a baked potato. A perfect baked potato is simple to cook and hard to beat. That said, if not prepped properly, they can turn out soggy and shrivelled. The outside should be dark brown and unbelievably crispy, and then when you pierce the skin, your fork should give way to a soft, fluffy interior.

To prep baked potatoes, many people just use oil and wrap them in foil; however, this can lead to mushy skin, as the foil traps moisture in the potato. Instead, you need to ditch the foil and, in addition to olive oil, coat your potatoes with one simple ingredient – salt.

Salt is the key to achieving that signature crackly skin. The large flakes pull moisture from the skin while it bakes, resulting in a crust that snaps when you slice into it.

This ingredient also helps prevent steam from softening the potato, ensuring the olive oil works properly and resulting in a much-improved, crispy skin.

While table salt works, it is recommended to use sea salt. The texture of table salt is finer, and the crust it leaves will be less dramatic.

I typically just use regular sea salt, but lately I’ve been loving rosemary sea salt I picked up at M&S, which elevates the flavour of baked potatoes even more. It makes roast potatoes tastier too.

How to make tastier and crispier baked potatoes

Ingredients

• One potato
• Olive oil
• M&S rosemary sea salt
• Toppings – tuna mayo, butter, cheese, or baked beans

Method

To begin, I preheat my oven to 200°C Fan, then properly wash the potato under cold running water and dry it as best I can with paper towels.

I then pierce the skin all over with a fork. Steam can build up inside potatoes, causing them to explode in the oven, and piercing the skin helps the steam escape.

I generously pour the olive oil over the potato and coat it in the rosemary salt, making sure every part of the skin is covered.

Before putting the potato in the oven, I make use of my microwave. You can just put your raw potato straight into the oven if you like, but they can take ages to bake that way, sometimes a good hour or more.

Plus, I’ve found that pre-cooking them in the microwave helps to give a really soft and fluffy middle, without ending up with a really tough skin.

It only needs six to 10 minutes, but for the potato I was using, eight minutes was perfect. When it’s ready, the skin should be just starting to wrinkle.

I then transfer the potato to a baking tray. Make sure to use tongs and an oven mitt, as the potato and plate will be extremely hot at this point.

This potato needed baking for 40 minutes. The potato needs to be tender enough for a knife to slide into the skin easily. Once the potato is ready, I like to leave it in the oven for five minutes to help the skin crisp up even more.

After, I slice the top open and pinch the sides to open it out, fluff the insides with a fork, and then add my toppings. This time around, I opted for some tuna mayo, but there are so many other toppings to choose from, like baked beans and cheese, chilli con carne, sour cream, or just some plain butter.