Ina Garten's Secret To Crispy Potato Skins Is Already In Your Pantry

There are many ways to make baked potatoes, but Ina Garten's method ensures that you'll always have potatoes that are soft on the inside but with super-crispy skins. Surprisingly, her secret to turning the potato's skin crusty is actually a staple in everyone's pantry — salt. While most home cooks default to sprinkling salt on top of the potatoes before baking, the cookbook author, who likes to test recipes several times before recommending them to her readers, takes things further by giving hers a full-on salt rub.

In one episode of her Food Network series "Barefoot Contessa," Garten demonstrated her technique while making her recipe for Crusty Baked Potatoes with Whipped Feta. It's important to note at this point that she doesn't use regular salt. Garten opts for fleur de sel, or flaky sea salt, which is one of her favorite salt varieties. She also uses an inordinate amount of the salt to pull this trick off, generously rubbing it with olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and lemon zest. According to Garten, she prefers this type of salt since "it gives [the potatoes] kind of a briny flavor rather than too sharp or salty," and this goes well with the vegetable's crispy exterior once baked. 

It's common to assume that the salt's only job is to season food. After all, it is usually the first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word "seasoning." However, with Ina Garten's salt rub hack for baked potatoes, it doubles as a texture enhancer. By rubbing a generous amount of salt onto the oiled potatoes, the television cook ensures that the salt can draw out surface moisture as the potatoes bake inside the oven, causing their skins to dry and crisp. Meanwhile, the other components of the rub add flavor to the potatoes.

When recreating Garten's trick at home, you don't necessarily need to use fleur de sel. Kosher salt or any coarse-grain salt you can find in your pantry will do. Just avoid table salt as it is too fine and will readily dissolve in the oil rather than crisp. This hack will work on many potato varieties, including baby Yukon golds, sweet potatoes, and russets, which are the best type of potato for making french fries. So the next time you make baked potatoes and you want the skin to become crave-worthy and crusty, don't forget to use the Barefoot Contessa's salt rub hack.