Baked Potatoes On The Grill – Easy & Delicious

How to identify the best potatoes for baking on the grill

So, you hit the supermarket with a list of supplies required to prepare your grilling feast and among the ingredients high on that list is potatoes. Standing before stadiums of bagged, loose and specialty potatoes, you realize that you’re facing a dilemma. They’re big. Small. Red. Gold. Yellow. Brown. Your job is to set your radar for the big, beefy Russets also known as Idaho bakers.

Ignore our advice and you’re going to wind up in a world of regret. Not every potato bakes properly and some types literally disintegrate while being roasted because their biological makeup means they’re destined for frying, mashing and boiling instead. Russets are the epitome of high-starch tubers with tough skin and white flesh. While there's nothing glamorous or beautiful about Russets, this potato family rules.

According to the Potato Association of America, this hardy potato has more names than a con artist, but find lany of these varieties and you're assured of getting the best:

Savory meats to serve with your perfectly-baked potato

1. For the caveman in you: Rib eyes all around.

2. On a budget but craving grilled steak? Fall in love with sexy chuck eye steaks.

3. Hunting gold: 10 Most Popular Venison Recipes.

4. It’s not your father’s Citrus BBQ beer can chicken recipe: 

8. Get your veg on if you’re living green.

Or you can always try this awesome Easy Vegan Cauliflower recipe: 

The perfect wine pairing?

Don’t chuckle. “Houston Press” food reporter Jeremy Parzen devoted an entire column to wines that perfectly pair with baked potatoes. He waxes poetic about his skin-scrubbing ritual and agrees with potato fanatics who insist that no potato worth its skin is justified unless that skin is crispy and savory!

Parzen says that while baked potatoes go with everything from fish to nuts, there are only so many wines on the market that belong exclusively to the baked potato. His specific recommendations are:

While you’re sipping on a glass of perfect wine, we have some more interesting information about the best and simplest food there is. After all, you can impress your friends at the party with some fun facts about the dish they’re enjoying!

5 potato facts you should know

If there’s a Whole Foods supermarket in your neighborhood, consider yourself fortunate. Even the lowly potato gets plenty of love in the produce department because potatoes are promoted as an important part of a balanced diet. Nutritionists responsible for gathering facts and figures at Whole Foods are potato trivia buffs, so feel free to share their findings with others while wielding your barbeque tongs:

1. Using the right potato for the right job is important because every spud has a unique sugar profile. If you’ve been disappointed by lousy baked potatoes in the past, you may simply have chosen the wrong type. It pays to pick potatoes earmarked for baking.

2. The number of potato types on the produce market has grown dramatically. There are now hundreds of types grown internationally, some of which take from 10 to 12 years to develop, says John Mishanec, a Cornell University vegetable specialist. Given the development of new potato types, grillers can look forward to experimenting down the road.

3. They won’t scream and plead for their lives, but potatoes continue to stay alive even after they’ve been harvested. They’re dormant. That’s why leaving them untouched for long periods of time could give you an unexpected surprise: potato sprouts. You’re more likely to find that your potatoes are sending out shoots if you purchased them from the farm. Commercial spuds are sprayed with sprout killer.

4. Potatoes are offended when grillers refer to sweet potatoes as cousins because the two belong to distinct families that have no relationship. Sweet potatoes are root vegetables that belong to the morning glory family, which is why you’ll never find them on potato species lists.

5. Potatoes have flown in space. The University of Wisconsin, in concert with NASA, sent a bunch of seed potatoes into the stratosphere in 1995 when Space Shuttle Columbia was launched. Since then, the Chinese have developed the quintessential chamber-grown space spud, given the nickname Quantum Tubers™. Whole Foods veggie experts call this variety “possibly the most badass potato on the planet,” and who are we to disagree?

Potato roots are deep

Archaeologists mining ancient sites in South America have proven that the Inca people cultivated potatoes in Peru as along ago as 8,000 BC. These early Peruvians did more than just eat potatoes: they used them to prevent rheumatism, sooth toothaches, heal broken bones and combat frostbite.

European and Asian nations learned about this tuber thanks to explorers coming and going from “the new world” over the centuries. Not embraced by folks of King Henry VIII’s era, spuds were used to feed livestock exclusively in the UK, and while Ireland may today lay claim to being the Potato Capital of the world, it took the Royal Society in England decades to encourage human consumption after the potato’s reputation had been sullied for so long.

Potatoes gained legitimacy around 1795—just in time for the legendary famine that swept Ireland, causing a catastrophic eight-year food deficiency that threatened to wipe out a huge chunk of the Emerald Isle’s population. It took nearly 100 years for potatoes to get a new foothold in the U.S., but once they did, they quickly became an important part of the American diet.

Want to impress your friends? Tell them that Idaho only became Spud Mecca in 1836, so all of that romantic folklore you hear from Idaho potato growers is just so much hype. In terms of strains, Russets weren’t even developed until around 1876, so today’s most beloved baked potato type is just a little over the age of 100.

Surprising nutrition facts

Baked Russet potatoes may be calorie laden at about 290 each, but this tuber is nutrient dense and has enough vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy, so don’t deny yourself! One Russet contains these vital nutrients:

Before we let you go - because we know you can’t wait to try out the recipe! - we have even more info in case you cook too much in the excitement!

6 Awesome grilled baked potato leftover ideas

As a grilling master extraordinaire, ​you plan how you're going to grill potatoes down to the last detail, but if you are a self-admitted baked potato fanatic, you may wish to double down on the number of spuds you bake so you have leftovers.

Leftovers? Is that a dirty word in your vocabulary? Keep reading and decide for yourself whether you’ll take a pass on post-potato paradise by baking extras next time you fire up the grill so you continue to indulge in your favorite guilty pleasure.

Recipe #1: Chop up those leftovers and whip up a pot of creamy baked potato soup.

Recipe #2: Dice leftovers and use them as filling in your morning omelet or stuff them into breakfast burritos.

Recipe #3: Make a loaded baked potato salad guaranteed to trigger recipe requests from others.

Recipe #4: Top leftover baked potatoes with hot chili and shredded cheese for a Mexican fiesta.

Recipe #5: Create an easy (make ahead) baked potato and bacon casserole.

Whip up any of these yummy (in some cases, unusual!) toppings to serve on leftover grilled baked potatoes.

Frequently Asked Questions