How to Make the Best Baked Potato of Your Life in 12 Minutes [CNET]

Stop wasting hours of time and electricity on a simple baked potato. This speedy method produces better results in a fraction of the time.

As the great Mitch Hedberg once said of making baked potatoes in an oven “Sometimes I’ll just throw one in there even if I don’t want one. By the time it’s ready…who knows?” 

Baked potatoes do take upwards of an hour to cook through in a conventional oven, but with a microwave and an air fryer, you can have the best baked potato of your life in under 15. 

Baked potatoes make the perfect sidekick to summer BBQ favorites, but while steak, burgers and dogs are ready in no time, baked potatoes require a ton of time and untold amounts of gas or electricity to cook. 

With this speedy method for baking potatoes, the microwave’s nuclear rays blast the potato to soft and toothsome doneness in about 10 minutes, while an air fryer can crisp the outer skin in just two minutes or less. By my math, that’s 12 minutes for a baked potato that’s as good or better than anything you’ll make in the oven.

As a bonus, air fryers and microwaves use far less energy than a large oven and take almost no time to preheat. Here’s how to make the best and fastest baked potato of your life in 12 minutes.

What you’ll need:

• 1 russet potato 
• 1 tsp olive oil or butter
• A microwave
• An air fryer 

Directions:

• Step 1: Poke air holes in the potato using a fork
• Step 2: Microwave the potato on high for 10 minutes or until it’s fork-tender and cooked through
• Step 3: Slice the potato halfway through and toss with melted butter or olive oil. You can also stuff the potato with cheese or bacon bits.
• Step 4: Air fry on high skin side up for 1 minute. Flip and cook another 1 or two minutes until desired crispiness is achieved. (If stuffing with cheese or bacon bits, cook skin side down only.)

For more tips, see my list of the seven foods I’ll only air fry from now and on and learn the best way to reheat every kind of leftovers.