Name: Jacket Potato with Cheese
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 1 h 10 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 2 large baking potatoes, about 600 g; 1 tbsp olive oil; ½ tsp salt; 30 g butter; 100 g cheddar, grated; ½ tsp black pepper

Jacket Potato with Cheese

A large potato baked until the skin is crisp and the inside fluffy, split and filled with butter and cheddar.

1 hr 15 min total Serves 2 servings Easy

Storing and Planning Ahead

Keeps in the fridge for 2 days. Reheat in a hot oven to bring the skin back.

How to Make Jacket Potato with Cheese

Tap a step to highlight it, or turn on Cook Mode for large type and step-by-step focus.

Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F. Scrub the potatoes, prick them with a fork and rub with the oil and salt.
Put them directly on the oven rack and bake for 70 minutes until the skin is crisp.
Cut a cross in the top of each and squeeze open.
Add the butter, then the cheese and pepper, and serve at once.

Something wrong or unclear in this recipe? Report a problem with this recipe.

Worth Knowing

Do not wrap the potatoes in foil.
Prick the skins before baking.
If your oven runs hot, check at 60 minutes.
Butter first, then cheese.

Behind the Recipe

Bake it long. A jacket potato needs over an hour in a hot oven to turn crisp outside and fluffy inside.

Pick large baking potatoes of an even size and scrub them well. Prick each one a few times with a fork so steam can escape, rub with oil and salt, and put them straight on the oven rack. The oil and salt help the skin crisp, and the rack lets the heat reach all round. Do not wrap them in foil. Foil steams the skin and leaves it soft and wet.

Bake at 200°C / 390°F for 70 minutes. The skin should be crisp and the potato should give when squeezed with an oven glove.

Cut a cross in the top, squeeze open, and add the butter first so it melts. Pile on the cheese and serve at once.

What to Put Next to It

Baked beans · Green salad · Coleslaw · Tuna mayonnaise