I'm A Chef ― Here's How To Make Baked Potatoes Taste Like Garlic Bread

If you want to know how to make garlic bread, salad, and burgers taste like they do in restaurants, we’ve got your back. 

But your homemade jacket potatoes ― that midweek British staple ― surely can’t be improved on. Right? 

Well, according to Michelin-trained chef and cookbook author Poppy O’Toole (@poppycooks on TikTok), whose viral garlic bread jacket spud got her a spot on This Morning, it absolutely can. 

“The presenters [of Good Morning[, they absolutely bloomin’ loved it,” she shared in a TikTok about the delicacy, stating (to “wow”s) on the show that it’s “the garlicky-est ― it’s like garlic bread.”

Ok, so how’s it done?

She starts by pricking the potato with a knife and coating it in olive oil. She suggests using a baking potato, a Russett, or an Idaho potato, “something like that” ― basically, anything but a waxy spud. 

“Once it’s baked ― well, almost ― you can cut it into like a star shape. Rather than just into fours, into sixes,” she shared (meaning you cut across the top of the potato three times to make a *-ish shape, rather than twice to make a cross).

Then, she adds mushed-up cooked garlic cloves (hers looked like confit garlic) to some butter and parsley for the sauce. For the filling, she whizzes “either feta or cream cheese” in a processor for a whipped finish. 

If you’re a fellow garlic lover, she uses garlic and herb-flavoured cream cheese for her on-site recipe.

She fills her potato with the blended-up cheese, pops it back in the oven until the cheese is melted, tops it with garlic and parsley butter, and voila; “it’s a formidable potato. It’s absolutely gorgeous.” 

She stressed, “Those little star crosses make it extra-delicious and crispy.” 

People had thoughts in the comments

“Ooh, with some bacon bits on top,” one commenter wrote (Poppy actually adds these to her on-site garlic baked potato recipe).

Another person praised the recipe for how cheap it is to make, saying they “lived on baked potatoes as a student.” 

For more details on how to perfect the potato, Poppy’s site breaks the meal down even further, explaining exact temps, cooking times, and measurements. 

But if you ask me, lobbing butter, cheese, and garlic on a spud in any amounts you see fit is a surefire path to culinary delight...