Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Crockpot Perfection Tasty Taters

I am sure many of you have already mastered the art of the perfect baked potato. I was not among you until this weekend! We had our church's fellowship group over at our house, so I needed to cook something that had minimal last minute prep time and was inexpensive enough (but stil tasty) to feed up to 14 people. I decided to make one of my personal favorites, Chili, over baked potatoes, with all the fixin's of course. In the past all my baked potatoes have been in the oven or microwave with less than stellar results. I thought there must be some way to do this part of the meal ahead of time without ending up with dry, tasteless taters. Allrecipes (and a bunch of other googled sites) to the rescue! All you need to do to have perfect, make-ahead baked potatoes for a crowd is pull out the trusty crockpot! Here's the lowdown:

Decide how many taters you need to serve (I did 14 medium sized)
Wash/Scrub thoroughly
Prick each tater with a fork all over
Roll each one in foil
Put in crockpot on high for 2 1/2-4 hours or on low 6-8 hours

Voila! Moist, tender baked potatoes.

Here's where you can use this tip to save even more time in the kitchen: Dinner the first night is baked potatoes with all the fixin's (chili, cheese, sour cream, broccoli, etc.) and a double batch of cornbread. Use the leftovers to make baked potato soup served with the second batch of cornbread!

Visit Tammy and Rocks in My Dryer for more great tips!

26 comments:

Jess said...

Thank you for sharing, I never thought to put the potatoes in my crockpot. I love using it and don't always need to. So this is perfect, because there is nothing better then a moist baked potatoe :)

Jessie's Attic

Sonshine said...

I have heard about doing baked potatoes in the crockpot before but just haven't put it to use. After reading your post, it has inspired me to give it a go! :)

Thanks for sharing!

CC said...

This is such a great idea since we can never properly time our baked potatoes to be done at the right time! Thanks for the tip!!

My Blessings From Above said...

This is a great tip. I started doing this last year! Like you said now we have perfect baked potatoes.

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

That is a great idea! I've been planning to have baked potatoes this week and I'm going to try it out!

~Mary~ 4boys4me said...

I'm definitely going to try this! Thanks for the idea. :)

Angie @ Many Little Blessings said...

Awesome! I'll have to give this a try sometime! Thanks for sharing!

The (Almost) Amazing Mammarino said...

Great idea! It reminds me of a friend who had a large gathering at her house for the day. As lunchtime approached, I kept thinking, when is she going to go fix lunch? It turns out that her lunch was next to effortless because she'd had the hot dogs in the crockpot all morning! (Sorry, I don't know how she did it!)

Crafty P said...

so cool! I am definitely going to use that tip tomorrow! I had baked taters on the menu. Now I don't have to heat up my entire kitchen by using the oven AND Friday we go meatless, so baked potato soup sounds delish!

thanks so much!

Memarie Lane said...

Excellent, I never thougt of using the crockpot.

There is a trick to making good microwave "baked" potatoes. You scrub them, prick them all over, then wrap each one in a paper towel. Run the wrapped potato under water and really soak it. Gently squeeze out the excess water, then nuke it. The wet paper towel causes it to steam, keeping it moist and cooking it more efficiently.

Beth/Mom2TwoVikings said...

Thank you! I will be trying this ASAP. And, as a fellow DR alumni, I'll be coming back to ck on how your "gazelle intensity" is going! *wink*

JenMarie said...

Thanks for sharing this! Can't wait to try!

Jinxy and Me said...

Wow. That really is a great idea - and definitely one I have never thought of. I'll be giving this a try!

Melanie said...

Love the crockpot, but have never done potatoes in them. Also love the potato soup leftover idea! Great ideas!! Thanks. Love your blog overall...we're beans and rice, rice and beans kind of people :)

Kristin said...

What a great idea! I have never considered cooking potatoes in the crockpot.

I will definitely use this little tip in the future!

jen said...

Mmmmm - yum! Thanks for the tip!

vicvic said...

That's a great idea! I do enjoy baking potatoes in the oven, but it gets really hot here in the summer, so the crockpot idea is one I'll have to try. I never even thought of it, though my in-laws have used the electric roaster for them before.

Toni said...

Thanks for this tip.It`s a great idea!You could probably peel and cube tem and let them cook all day for mashed potatoes.This is great for me!Hubby doesn`t go to church with the kids and I.He leaves for work at 4pm,so this is a great idea for a quick side dish!I could have one crock pot going with a roast and the other with the potatoes!I`ll definatly be back to view your blog again!

Jen said...

Wonderful tip. Thanks for sharing!!

Monica said...

Who knew? This tip could change my life:)

Wade's World said...

I love it! Check out my site today for 2 easy crockpot recipes. Thanks for the tip!

Nichole said...

I've never successfully made a baked potato -- I'll have to give this a try!

Nichole

GeonHui's Bakery said...

Thanks for the yummy tip! We have our small group to our home every month or so, I'll have to remember this idea!

Linds

Unknown said...

I'm doing this right now! I just sent my husband down to the basement to get the crockpot--yes, it is stored in the basement. We need a bigger kitchen. Actually, I'll probably do it in an hour-that will be how long it takes him to get it from the basement and it takes me to get off the computer! Thanks for the tip.

Rebecca Johnson said...

Awesome idea! I will definitely be using this one.

Beth @ The Natural Mommy said...

Amazing. Is there nothing the crock pot can't do? I'll be doing this one soon... thanks for sharing!