Have you ever wondered why the Outback Steakhouse Baked Potato tastes so good? What do they do differently from you and me? The potatoes have a magnificent salt crisp crust with a moist, tender inside.
Restaurant Style Baked Potato
You can make a baked potato just like Outback. It takes just an extra step or two to make your everyday baked potato taste like it came from a steakhouse.
Perhaps you have seen this classic baked potato in the steakhouse for years and you may have wondered for a long time how to prepare this famous side dish. It is very easy to do.
Ingredients
Here’s a list of what you need:
- Potatoes
- Vegetable oil
- Kosher salt
Ingredient Notes
I really recommend using a russet potato. They bake up very well and are ideal for a baked potato. Your cooking time may vary. If you have an extra-large potato you will need to be prepared so that it will cook for a little longer.
This recipe works best when using potatoes that are 5 ounces, for a 5-ounce potato you will need to cook it for 50 minutes. If your potato is larger, you will need to cook it longer.
Also, cut the sprouts off your potatoes before cooking them. The sprouts are not tasty, and they are said to be poisonous.
How to Make Outback Baked Potatoes
- Wash and dry the potatoes and do not poke each potato once or twice with a fork.
- Pour the vegetable oil into a small dish and dip a paper towel into the oil.
- Rub the oil all over each potato.
- Place the potatoes on a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle salt over the potatoes.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.
- Check the potatoes for doneness by inserting a fork into one. If it presses through easily, the potato is thoroughly baked.
- Serve with butter, sour cream, shredded cheese, bacon bits, and chives.
Potato Buying Tips
I have two major tips when it comes to buying potatoes:
- Do not buy potatoes with a green tint. Potatoes with a green tint are old, and they are past their prime.
- You should pick potatoes that are even in size, and those have that consistent brown skin.
Love Outback? Make these copycat Outback Steakhouse recipes!
- Bloomin Onion
- Outback Alice Springs Chicken Recipes
- Baked Sweet Potato with Cinnamon Butter
- Outback Steamed Vegetables Recipe – Green Beans
- Outback Soups – Walkabout Creamy Onion Soup
- Dill Sauce for Steak
Best Potato Recipes
- Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
- Air Fryer Potato Wedges
- Lipton Onion Soup Mix Potatoes
- Red Skin Potatoes Recipe
- Baked Potato Slow Cooker
- Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
- Leek and Potato Bake
- Easy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe
- Roast Potatoes Greek Style
Be sure to check out more of the best side dish recipes and copycat restaurant food.
Outback Steakhouse Baked Potato
Ingredients
- 4 russet potatoes (about 1/2 pound each)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 to 2 tablespoons kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Wash and dry the potatoes and do not poke each potato once or twice with a fork. Again, do not poke any holes in the potato. Potatoes only explode when they are overcooked.
- Pour the vegetable oil into a small dish and dip a paper towel into the oil. Rub the oil all over each potato.
- Place the potatoes on a baking sheet. Sprinkle salt over the potatoes.
- Bake for about 1 hour. Check the potatoes for doneness by inserting a fork into one. If it presses through easily, the potato has completed cooking.
Crystal H
Could you bake these, then scoop out the insides, mix with whatever you like to make a twice baked potato? Reuse the skin as the bowl?
Heidi W
Yes.
Stephanie
You could totally do this, it would be a great way to upgrade a twice baked potato.
Kristi
Last night I was in a hurry, but still wanted a baked tater. I increased the temp to 400 and since it was a large tater, it cooked 50 minutes. I usually use foil, but i wanted to later add broccoli to roast and just put it on a foil lined sheet pan. Best tater ever. It was more crispy on the outside than when i cook at 350. i also added garlic and pepper blend with kosher salt.
Wayne H.
I was born in 1931 and have loved baked potatoes all my life until about 20 years ago., give or take a few. The current baking potatoes have an off taste, have lots of hidden small black spots not shown through to the skin.
Restaurants often still have good baked potatoes but tell me they have to be bought from restaurant suppliers. I tried organic but saw no improvement. Can you tell what changed over perhaps the last 20 years? Thanks.
Nancy Lim
Has you tried using Instant Pot / pressure cooker, baked mode?
Stephanie
My two models of Instant Pot do not have a bake mode. I’ll have to look into this.
Carlos
Grocery stores no longer buy produce based on taste, or quality. The enduring appearance of freshness is the 1 goal of producers and buyers.
Dean
To: wayne, born in 1931, whom asked. Purchase chef’s potatoes. Which are Idaho types, all number 1 potatoes. And only from a fruit/ vegetable market. Grocery stores, super markets etc have old blemished stuff. Get to know an owner of the for mentioned.
Helene Berg
You need to visit the fields where potatoes grow to see the horror of how we grow potatoes now. Acres of potatoes are not dug up by hand but by machine. In order not to bung up the machinery, the plant greens are sprayed with herbicides to kill off the foliage. 2-3 days later the potatoes are harvested with a commitment by herbicidal companies that there is no contamination…IF HARVESTED WITHIN THOSE 2-3 days. If it rains in the meantime, or if machinery breaks down, etc., contamination can occur. No one’s going to destroy their crop because of a delay in harvesting. Growing your own potatoes? Your seed potatoes can come from the same source and thus also contaminated. Just so you know.
Mary B. Feagler
Love your recipes. Do you have a recipe for Old Chicago’s chicken tortilla green chili soup ( I think that’s the name…it is one of their 2 daily soups)?
plasterer bristol
Really happy to have found this recipe. It’s great. Thanks for sharing. Simon
Karyn
Hope you are still answering questions… I have 25 people coming on Sunday and want to make potatoes… what is the time and temp for 25 baked potatoes? Anything else I should know?
Stephanie
I still answer questions. I think the temperature would still be the same. I don’t know how large your potatoes are. So I don’t know if you have small potatoes, Trader Joes has some very small potatoes, and my local Kroger has huge baked potatoes that weigh more than a pound a piece. If they are fairly large I would do this, bake the potatoes for 50 to 60 minutes. Flip them over every 20 minutes or so and check them for doneness by piercing them with a fork.
Karyn
Thank you Stephanie !!! I look forward to following you in the future! Merry Christmas!
rags
I cook them at 425 for 1 hour.Perfect every time. I do use a large tater. No poke. Rub down with butter wrap in foil seam side up. And bake 1 hour at 425 degrees F .
rags
Fogot to add salt and pepper before you wrap it so you can eat the skin. Great tasten.
Shirley Donihoo
I could not locate a place to sign up for your emails. Do you have one? I love your recipes.
David Mosser
Keep the good ones coming !!!
Stephanie
Thank you!
Stephanie
thank you!
Mari
If I don’t want to heat the oven for one or two potatoes, I bake in a hot toaster oven. Same effect as regular oven Have you ever tried a copycat of St. Louis layer cake from miss Hullings? Or paradise cake from old lake forest bakery. Love for you to try.
Cindy Knight
Dear Stephanie,
Without a doubt, this is the BEST baked potato I have ever popped in the oven. Your video was great and wonderful instructions. Thank You for sharing this information.
Regards,
Cindy
dick
Some steak houses coat their oven baked potato with bacon grease Then wrap in foil Adds a bit more flavor
SyAna
Excellent video. You have an excellent voice. Thank you for the recipe.
Kay Fiveash
I’m probably older than most of you, and I have used a microwave for years. I like the softness of baked potatoes, especially sweet potatoes, just like Longhorn’s, and I use the microwave. It is faster and safer than opening the oven door.
Stephanie
I had a very powerful microwave, I am sure you need a hazmat suit to stand next to it. It would completely nuke a potato in about 3 to 5 minutes (depending on size). It had a nice texture 😉 I understand what you are saying.
Stephanie
How is opening an oven door unsafe?
Debbie Justice
I use the microwave a lot for bake potatoes to save time, but I am rethinking that. Lately I have gone back to using the oven and find that the flavor and texture is superior to the microwave! It is worth the time, I just have to relearn thinking ahead. Totally worth it! Love your recipe!
Stephanie
I really think the slow cooking makes these potatoes taste amazing.
Katt
Have you ever tried only partially baking them in the microwave and finishing them off in the oven? That’s the way I do it. That way your cooking time is cut drastically, but you can still get a nice crisp skin and fluffy insides.
Stephanie
I haven’t tried this. I have done something similar when I bake acorn squash.
Dianne
You CANNOT beat the texture a taste of an oven-baked potato!
Stephanie
I completely agree with you. What type of potato do you like to use for your baked potatoes?
Linda Killion
The directions say do NOT poke potatoes, but it also says so they won’t explode. Please clarify. Thanks!
theresa
Green on the taters is not an indication of old tater! The poor thing just got sunburned in the growing Field.
Stephanie Manley
I just went to a potato field and learned all sorts of things this weekend. The green is due to light. Potatoes grow underground, and light exposure can make them turn green. Do not eat the green portion is is poisonous.
http://www.wisegeekhealth.com/are-green-potatoes-poisonous.htm
http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Health/green-potatoes-are-poisonous-facts-analysis.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanine
JetfireK
Well a big thanks Stephanie as I did not know about the poisonous potato sprouts and the green on the potatoes. I thought green meant young and fresh…”Just shows to Go Ya” so thank you very much….whew….
fantasy01
In your video you say NOT to pierce your potato. However, in the instructions it says, “poke each potato once or twice with a fork.” So which is it, to poke or not to poke that is the question.
stephaniemanley
Thank you for noting my error in my text. I have corrected it. Do not poke the baked potato with a fork before cooking it.
Peggy Ward
I guess you never had one explode because of forgetting to poke. I always poke after that.
Cari Rickman
Guess you overcook your potatoes. ????
lindy
How long would you cook 20 to 30? 350 degrees?
stephaniemanley
It really depends on the size of the potato, your average medium potato needs about 45-50 minutes. The larger the potato the greater the cooking time. I cook my potatoes at 350 degrees.
Matt G, aka, Mr Slap n Tickle
Many out backs are franchise, so there may be different methods….but I worked at one in Orlando FL for 5 year and they were rolled in butter (margarine), then in salt, then wrapped in foil. This was am prep, cooked at night IN the foil.
stephaniemanley
I didn’t realize there were so many different methods for making their baked potatoes. Thank you for sharing this.
Katie
Working in Va we washed them, put them all in a bowl and mixed them in vegetable oil and salt before baking, no foil needed! hope it helps! And small stuff like that is different region to region.