Since the time of Peter the Great, potatoes have taken one of the leading positions in our diet. And if peasants several centuries ago preferred potato tubers to turnips, nowadays, due to the simplicity of growing and high content of nutrients, potatoes can be found in the kitchen of every family at any time of the year. A special place among the methods of preparation of this product is baked potatoes. In the oven, it is cooked in several simple ways. They will be discussed in this article.
You can bake potatoes in various ways: in the oven, in the microwave, or on the grill. But it is important to remember that baked potatoes in the microwave will be deprived of the beloved by many, a golden, crispy and fried crust. A microwave oven is more suitable for heating an already prepared dish created using an oven or grill. If you cook the dish on the grill, you can significantly reduce the amount of oil required during cooking, greatly reducing the calorie content of the dish as a whole. But the traditional way is baked potatoes in the oven, which will be discussed below.
Whole baked potatoes can conditionally be divided into two groups: cooked peeled and cooked “in their uniforms,” that is, unpeeled. In order to prepare the potatoes “in their uniforms”, we select not very large tubers, rinse them well with running water, let them dry and spread them on a baking sheet. Then we send it into the oven for about forty minutes, periodically checking with a toothpick for readiness. Before you put the potatoes to bake, you can boil it a bit, previously piercing the peel in several places so that it does not burst. But the taste of such a potato will be completely different.
Alternatively, you can bake potato tubers in foil: they will be juicier and softer without the addition of fat or oil, but the crust so beloved by many will also be absent. The indisputable advantage of such a dish as baked potatoes in the oven, cooked with a peel, is that it retains its taste for a long time. But still, it is best to use it in freshly prepared form.
If you bake peeled tubers, then the easiest way is to grease the baking sheet with vegetable oil, put peeled and chopped medium-sized potatoes on it and put them in the oven preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees for fifteen to twenty minutes. If desired, the potato halves can be turned over so that they are more evenly fried. This method can also be used to bake potatoes on parchment paper without using oil.
In order to cook the potatoes in slices, you can use the following recipe. The peeled and washed potatoes are cut into large cubes, then you need to mix it with the chicken fillet, chopped with the same cubes, salt and spices, and then put on a well-oiled baking sheet. Bake in the oven at a temperature of two hundred degrees for about forty minutes, periodically stirring the cubes and pouring oil and juice on them. Before serving, sprinkle with herbs and serve with tomato sauce or sour cream.
Oven baked potatoes can be made even more original by stuffing it with delicious toppings. To do this, you need to boil the potatoes in their skins, and then add the filling to it and bake for ten minutes in the oven. As a filling, cottage cheese, a little hard cheese, dill, green onions, parsley, spices and salt are ideal. You can simply put it in a potato - cut along a third of the potato, take out the middle with a teaspoon, fill the space with minced meat and cover with a cut "hat".
In order for the potato to retain the maximum amount of its nutrients, it is advisable to serve it immediately after cooking. Enjoy your meal!