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English jacket potatoes feature a salty, crispy exterior with an incredibly fluffy and soft interior. These classic baked potatoes are the ultimate comfort food for when the weather has a bit of a nip in the air.
I recently got turned onto jacket potatoes because on my FYP, it started showing me this spud truck in England. It’s the simplest yet coziest truck selling jacket potatoes with the most incredible toppings. A jacket potato in England is really just their version of our baked potato, but I think their toppings are far more interesting than ours. Like, why don’t we load our baked potatoes with butter chicken or BBQ pulled pork? We tend to load ours with just sour cream, cheese, and bacon. Boooring.
I have loved making jacket potatoes year-round but especially when the weather is cold. There’s just something about a crispy, fluffy, baked potato smothered in butter, salt, and pepper to really warm you up. They’re also so hands-off when it comes to cooking that it makes it so easy to whip up for dinner.
Choosing The Right Spud For Your Jacket Potato
We don’t have the potato variety that the English use for their jacket potatoes so a russet potato is going to be our best option. I like using russet potatoes for jacket potatoes because the skin gets crispier than say a Yukon gold or butter potato.
How to Make a Jacket Potato
The key to getting a crispy jacket potato requires these components:
- An oiled and salted exterior,
- Cutting a slit or a cross shape into the top of the potato, and
- Baking it for at least 2 hours at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
The oil will help the exterior crisp up and the salt, well, gives it that salty bite in every mouthful. The slit or cross shape at the top of the potato will help the interior steam up and get all fluffy while also helping the exterior from splitting.
Toppings for Jacket Potatoes
Of course a large pad of butter with some salt and pepper on top is just enough for a baked potato, but I think the English have it right and like to elevate it a little bit with unique toppings. I’ve seen the following toppings and I’ve tried some of them myself!
- The most popular I’ve seen is beans and cheese. However, not just any beans. The Heinz beanz in tomato sauce in the teal can are what you want.
- Just shredded cheese or garlic butter and cheese.
- BBQ pulled pork.
- Butter chicken.
- Minted lamb.
- Curry chicken.
- Chili.
- Tuna (yes, like tuna fish salad).
- Coleslaw.
- And whatever they choose to top their jacket potatoes with, they love to add crispy onions on top too.
English Jacket Potato
Ingredients
- 2 large russet potatoes, try to find ones that are beefy round
- Olive oil
- Sea salt
- Salted butter or garlic butter
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 °F (204 °C)
- Cut a small slit in the center of the potato, about ¼” in length (long ways) then again the other way, to make like a cross shape. Make sure to only cut about halfway down, but not all the way through the potato.2 large russet potatoes
- Place potatoes on a baking sheet and drizzle exterior with olive oil and sprinkle with salt on top. Using your hands, rub the olive oil and salt all over the exterior of the potato.Olive oil, Sea salt
- Bake for 2 hours.
- Once the potatoes are done, place the potato into a heat-safe bowl then use a fork to open the potato and mash it up slightly. Kind of like making a well in the center of the potato while pushing out the potato insides.
- Add pads of butter into the potato and season with salt and pepper, to taste.Salted butter or garlic butter, Freshly ground black pepper
- Alternatively, if you have toppings (like the ones listed in the blog post), feel free to top your jacket potato with those!
Nutrition
Photographs by Meg McKeehan Photography
