In her latest good things post, Billie talks about cooking eggs in the microwave, and how good they turned out. Her post reminded me of how I’ve just learned a new way to cook potatoes in the microwave, and they turned out really good. Surprisingly, good.

Instructions

  1. Prep the potatoes: clean and pierce the skins. Mom likes to slice the ends off, but I like to make a long slit length-wise in the potato on both sides. Choose your own method of perforation.
  2. Butter the entire skin of each potato, all the way around. There is just no easy way to avoid getting your fingers a little messy on this step.
  3. Wrap each potato individually in plastic wrap. I’ve been using press and seal wrap because that is what we have available. At the craft show, one of the ladies was selling what looked to be two pot holders sewn together with a top flap like a sandwich bag. If you try and like this method and don’t want to use plastic wrap in the microwave, you could get/make yourself something similar without too much difficulty.
  4. Microwave until done. For two small to medium sized potatoes, five minutes works for me.
  5. Unwrap and enjoy with whatever toppings you desire. We had some leftover barbecue chicken (boneless, shredded/stringed cooked in the crock-pot the day before) that was really great on top with a little sour cream and pepper.

I’m usually very picky about only eating potatoes baked in the oven. I am just not fond of how plain microwaved potatoes taste. I’d rather not even eat them (and that is saying a lot because I love potatoes!)

I really like this new way of cooking potatoes in the microwave. Note: If I am planning ahead of time, I will still bake potatoes in the oven, but when I need potatoes at the last minute, I’ll use this method. I don’t know where the idea originated. Mom told me about it. She learned it from my brother. I don’t know where he picked it up. Maybe I’m just late to the potato baking party, but I thought I’d share the new method in case there are other potato lovers who haven’t heard of it yet.