It's Time To Start Basting Your Baked Potatoes — Here's How

As simple as the dish may be, people love to experiment with various ways to level up humble baked potatoes. It makes sense, I suppose, given that spuds are essentially a blank canvas just waiting to be painted with layers of flavor. But before you go testing out all the enticing baked potato toppings that some would argue are the true stars of the dish, try basting your bakers to make them stand out.

Cooking baked potatoes in the air fryer can crisp up the skin nicely, but if you want crispy skin combined with loads of flavor, basting is the way to go. However, Vivian Villa, the founder of UnButter, warned that the timing is essential for the best outcome. "If you want crunchy potatoes, you don't want to baste too early — you would rather wait until the end of the cooking process," she said. "Basting at the end supports crunchiness, and if you baste too early, you will not achieve this."

Basting helps establish an already crunchy exterior, but the oven does the heavy lifting. If you're constantly moving your potatoes around to baste them early on, they likely aren't sitting still long enough in the oven to crisp on the outside. As Villa succinctly stated, "Early basting cancels the crunch or crispy."

Crispy skin and a fluffy interior are the makings of a stellar baked potato, but that doesn't mean there isn't any room for improvement. The beauty of basting baked potatoes is that you get the opportunity to use any flavorful fat you like, from the best brand of butter the supermarket has to offer to something a bit more outside the box, like luscious duck fat. To further boost the flavor, incorporate some seasoning into whichever fat you're using to baste. Give your spuds an herbaceous accent with herbs like oregano, or spice things up a bit by incorporating mustard and peppercorns.

One trick Vivian Villa utilizes with basted baked potatoes is boiling them before they go in the oven. This provides another opportunity to add some flavor, as the boiling water can be seasoned with whatever ingredients you think will make your spuds pop. Sure, if you just need to fill that hole in your stomach, you can toss potatoes in the microwave and have a humdrum meal in minutes. But giving them a little extra attention can produce a crispy, flavorful baked potato that everyone will agree is a home run.