For The Best Baked Potatoes At Home, Make Them Like Longhorn Steakhouse

Few steakhouse sides are more classic than a simple baked potato. Sure, it's fine topped with a dab of butter, salt, and pepper, but a baked potato really goes to the next level when you fully load it up with delicious toppings. Almost every steakhouse you visit has some version of this classic side. In the steakhouse universe, one of the best chain restaurant loaded baked potatoes comes from none other than Longhorn Steakhouse. It's such a simple treatment that you can (and should) try preparing your own baked potatoes this way at home.

The key is to rub the potato skin with oil, then apply flaky salt all over the exterior. This yields a fluffy, soft interior contrasted with a delectably crispy skin. Then, there are the toppings. Longhorn's loaded baked potato contains specific ingredients that may already be in your fridge right now: crispy applewood smoked bacon, Daisy sour cream, aged yellow cheddar, butter, and crunchy green onions. Alongside that perfectly prepared skin, these toppings offer a full range of flavors and textures.

You can add a parmesan crust layer as well by making a seasoned parmesan mixture at the bottom of a sheet plan, then placing halved baked potatoes, cut side down, on top of the cheese. It's the perfect complement to one of Longhorn's famous steaks or its other proteins, such as the parmesan-crusted chicken, pork chops, or baby back ribs. It works just as well with a dinner you can whip up in your own kitchen.

For your copycat Longhorn Steakhouse baked potato, start with the same potato the chain uses: a standard russet with the skin scrubbed thoroughly. Rub the potato with a high-heat oil, such as avocado oil, to prevent the outside from burning, and sprinkle some flaky kosher salt along the exterior. Poke the potato on each side with a fork to let the steam escape while baking. Then it's just a matter of cooking the spud at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for at least an hour, up to 75 minutes if needed. The potato is done when you can easily pierce it with a fork. Slice the potato in half, and use that same fork to fluff up its interior. Then, add all those delicious toppings.

If you're in a time crunch, you can save about 15 minutes by cooking the potato in an air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. You could also cook the potato in the microwave. Pierce it several times with a fork, cook for about four minutes, then flip the spud and cook for another four minutes. This isn't how Longhorn cooks its baked potatoes, so you shouldn't expect the exact same results, but it's a decent alternative if you're in a hurry. If you simply follow these steps — using this process that Longhorn Steakhouse and many other restaurants follow — it's really hard to mess up this loaded baked potato. Enjoy that crispy, oiled and salted exterior, the fluffy, soft interior, and all those creamy and savory toppings.