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1
Preheat your oven to 400.
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2
Clean and chop vegetables of your choosing.
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3
Cover and refrigerate.
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4
Fully clean and fully dry your Idaho #1 grade potatoes.
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5
With a sharp knife - peirce your spuds three times at both ends and once in the middle.
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6
Or, you can use a fork to peirce them.
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7
Place your spuds on a large piece of tinfoil.
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8
Shiney side up.
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9
Smear your potatoes generously with cold bacon grease.
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10
Place back on tinfoil.
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11
You can use olive oil but, bacon grease definitely makes these better!
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12
Sprinkle fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt, garlic powder and onion powder to taste on both sides of your bacon greased potatoes.
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13
I tend to go heavy on the sea salt!
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14
These are big spuds!
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15
Wrap your potatoes up tightly.
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16
Double wrap your potatoes tightly in another sheet of tinfoil.
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17
Again, shiney side up.
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18
A double wrap is more steak house style and steams your spuds more evenly.
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19
Place potatoes seam side up on the center rack and place a cookie sheet on the rack underneath it to catch any potential drippings.
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20
Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
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21
After that, gently peirce potatoes with a sharp knife in the center where you'll eventually slice your potatoes open.
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22
If the knife enters with ease - you'll know they're fully baked.
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23
If not, bake a bit longer until soft.
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24
Know that if you're baking more than 2 large potatoes - you'll need to increase your baking time by approximately 15 minutes.
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25
Once fully baked - you'll have two options.
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26
You can either serve by slitting the tinfoil and potato - then squeezing both ends together to force the moist insides up and out.
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27
Fluff with fork.
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28
Serve immediately with toppers of your guests choosing.
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29
Or, you can do the exact same thing but, gently scoop out the insides with a large spoon leaving your shells fully in tact.
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30
Place all insides quickly in a bowl, mix in all of your toppers in and, gently place back into your potato shells.
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31
You may need to re-heat mixture [not tinfoil] in the microwave before plating.
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32
Garnish with fresh chives and parsley.
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33
Enjoy!
