75 Best Comfort Food Recipes - Comfort Food Dinner Ideas

How Long Should You Microwave A Sweet Potato?

Whether you're making sweet potato casserole or you're just craving a baked sweet potato with a little butter, salt, and pepper, you likely don't want to wait the hour or more that it can take to bake a sweet potato in the oven. Of course, if you're mashing the sweet potato or turning it into a casserole, you can peel, dice, and boil the sweet potato rather than baking it, but why do that extra work if you don't have to?

Your microwave can turn a raw sweet potato into fluffy, orange goodness in a minimal amount of time. According to Mashed recipe developer Kristen Carli and her recipe for sweet potato casserole, all you need to do is poke your potatoes with a fork a few times and then microwave each one individually for eight minutes. If you want to microwave multiple sweet potatoes at the same time, Mashed recipe developer Sher Castellano shared in her 15-minute loaded sweet potato recipe that she microwaves her sweet potatoes two at a time for three minutes before turning the spuds over and repeating that time. You'll know your potatoes are done when they're soft to the touch and you can easily poke through them with a fork.

Read more: Mistakes You're Making With Your Corn On The Cob

Person checking sweet potato in foil - Basico/Shutterstock

Of course, no cooking hack is without its drawbacks. For example, if you're microwaving a sweet potato and forget to poke those necessary holes in its skin, the spud could explode in your microwave. On the other hand, if you don't microwave your potato long enough, it won't cook all the way through, and you'll need to zap it longer.

But what do you do if you've microwaved (and microwaved, and microwaved) your sweet potato and it's still hard in spots? If you suspect something's wrong, you might have stored your sweet potatoes improperly before cooking. If you put your sweet potatoes in the fridge after returning home from the grocery store, the spuds can become extra-hard in the middle, even after cooking. Plus, they just won't taste or look the same. So, if you're microwaving a sweet potato and it's just not cooking, you might want to rethink how you've been storing your produce.

Read the original article on Mashed.

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I Made 10-minute, 1-hour, And 10-hour Baked Potatoes, And I No Longer Trust Methods That Don't Involve An Oven

The first potato was cooked in the microwave. The 10-minute recipe uses the microwave. Paige Bennett

I'm not against "baking" a potato in the microwave. When I really have a craving, it's the quickest, easiest way by far.

I started by washing the potato and poking plenty of holes in it with a fork.

A recipe I found from the Kitchn said to rub the potato with oil and sprinkle salt and black pepper on the skin, which sounded like delicious additions.

The recipe ended up taking less than 10 minutes. I microwaved the potato in a mug. Paige Bennett

I placed the potato upright in a microwave-safe container and let it cook for five minutes.

Then I used tongs to carefully flip the potato over and cooked it for another three minutes.

The texture turned out OK. I've had microwaved potatoes before. Paige Bennett

The finished potato wasn't exactly undercooked, but it had a denser, tougher interior than a standard oven-baked potato.

The flavor of the skin with the oil, salt, and pepper was good, but the flimsy, papery texture wasn't pleasant.

Toppings greatly helped the 10-minute potato. It tasted better with butter. Paige Bennett

Fortunately, the texture issues, inside and out, were easy to mask with extra butter and toppings.

This method is great in a pinch when you just can't wait for a baked potato. But as someone who loves to eat the whole potato, skin and all, this isn't my preferred method.

The one-hour potato uses a no-foil method, which is closest to how I usually make them. The one-hour recipe uses the oven. Paige Bennett

The New York Times has a straightforward recipe to make baked potatoes with crispy skin.

I started by washing a large russet potato, drying it thoroughly, and poking it a few times with a fork.

Then, like the microwaved potato, I rubbed oil and salt all over the skin.

I placed the potato in the oven on a tray. I'm used to making baked potatoes without foil. Paige Bennett

The recipe doesn't call for the potato to be wrapped in foil. Instead, I placed the oiled-up potato on a small tray to bake it.

The recipe says 45 minutes to an hour, but this was a pretty hefty potato, so I let it go for the full hour.

I couldn't get enough of the skin on this potato. The texture on the outside and inside was perfect. Paige Bennett

The skin of the oven-baked potato had tons of flavor from the oil and salt, and it was thin and crispy, almost like potato chips.

I knew this recipe was going to be hard to beat.

The result was everything I hoped for. The oven makes the potato nice and crispy. Paige Bennett

I was a fan of the oven-baked potato.

The interior was soft, but it wasn't as fluffy as it is in my usual potato method. I typically bake mine slightly longer, score them, and bake them some more.

I expected the slow-cooker potatoes to turn out soft, but the result was quite the opposite. The 10-hour recipe called for garlic. Paige Bennett

Making "baked" potatoes in the slow cooker seems like a great idea if you're feeding a crowd or need space in the oven for other food. For dining solo, though, it doesn't seem practical.

I followed a slow-cooker potato recipe from Taste of Home, which starts with mixing softened butter and freshly minced garlic to coat the skin of the potato.

I wrapped the potato in foil and set it inside my slow cooker. The recipe called for the potato to be wrapped in foil. Paige Bennett

The recipe said to add 1 cup of water to the slow cooker, but that barely covered the bottom. I ended up adding a few cups until the water reached about one-third of the way up on the foil-covered potato.

My slow cooker tends to run hot, even when it's at a low temperature, so I set it to the lowest setting to prevent overcooking.

I started worrying about the potato's texture in the slow cooker. I was very skeptical about the texture of the potato. Paige Bennett

After a few hours, I noticed the foil became discolored.

Around the halfway point, the potato still felt hard, so I turned the heat up between low and medium.

At the eight-hour mark, I was concerned. The potato still felt rock-hard when I squeezed it with tongs, and the recipe says this process should take eight to 10 hours on low heat.

After 10 hours of waiting on a single baked potato, I finally caved and took it out.

The potato was still incredibly hard. This potato didn't look or smell appealing. Paige Bennett

When I took it out of the slow cooker, the skin was hot, damp, and dark, so the heat was definitely reaching the potato.

The inside was hot, too, but it was so tough I could barely pull out a full bite with a fork.

Aside from the horrible texture, the smell was bad. I expected the butter and garlic to smell amazing, but it created a very strange odor I really hope I never have to smell again.

I won't use the slow-cooker recipe again. The potato was so hard, even after cooking for 10 hours. Paige Bennett

I didn't expect the slow cooker to become a go-to method for me, but I at least expected a soft potato from the steaming process.

Unfortunately, I won't be making potatoes like this again.

I'd use the microwaved recipe again if necessary, but the one-hour potato was the best by far. The one-hour recipe was pretty much perfect. Paige Bennett

Microwaving potatoes is quick and convenient, but the texture just pales in comparison with a standard oven-baked potato.

I understand the appeal of making potatoes for a crowd in a slow cooker, but I can't see myself attempting that method again.

The one-hour potato, complete with a delicious and crispy skin, was my favorite of the three.

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75 Best Comfort Food Recipes - Comfort Food Dinner Ideas