Who doesn’t love a garlicky jacket?

Do you remember that trend from a few years ago, the Korean garlic bread? It was around when I was just starting out, and so I just had to squeeze a link to it in a potato. The star crossed garlicky butter jacket potato was born. It very quickly became one of my most viral recipes, and since then I have made this glorious spud on national telly, so it’s got to be good! Here’s my handy little guide to making these delicious potatoes, get ready to follow along babs! You can make this recipe in the oven or the air fryer, use whatever method you prefer.

The ingredients list for this recipe is wonderfully simple, starting with:

2 large Maris Pipers or Russet potatoes

80g cream cheese

100g salted butter

1 bulb garlic

Small bunch parsley, roughly chopped

Salt, ground white pepper, fine sugar and neutral oil

Prick your Potatoes

First things first, preheat your oven or air fryer. For the oven method, you’ll want to preheat it to 200ºc fan/220ºc/440ºf, or 200ºc/400ºf for the air fryer. Prick your potatoes all over with a fork and drizzle with oil. Season generously with fine salt, then bake for 45 minutes-1 hour until cooked through and crispy. When you pop the potatoes in, you’ll also want to chop the top off of a bulb of garlic and pour over a glug of olive oil. Season and then wrap your garlic bulb up in tin foil tightly, and chuck into the oven or air fryer with the potatoes.

Stuff ’em reaaaaaal good

When your jacky p’s have about 10 minutes left of cooking, remove the garlic bulb from the tin foil. Squeeze all of the garlicky goodness into the butter and pop it in the microwave to melt down and mingle. Season with salt and throw in the chopped parsley, then set aside for later. In another small bowl, mix together the cream cheese and a pinch of salt, ground white pepper and fine sugar. Give it a taste to check the flavour and put on the side too. If you have a piping bag handy, you can spoon in the cream cheese mixture to make it a bit easier to fill up your star crossed jackets, but it’s not essential.

Give the jackets a few minutes to cool down so you can handle them a bit easier, then cut 3 crosses in the top of the spud. I do one straight down the middle, then 2 more crossing over like an X in the centre of the line. Does that make sense? Maybe. Who knows – just watch the video. Use a knife to gently work open all of the cuts so you have enough room to add in your filling. Snip the tip of the piping bag (if using – if not, just grab a small spoon!) and squeeze a blob of the cream cheese mixture into the centre of your spud, then fill up each cut around the sides. You want your jacket potato to look nice and plump with the amount of filling that’s in there.

Smother it in butter

The final step for these glorious little beauties is to pop them back onto the baking tray or into the air fryer basket that you’ve been using. Grab your roasted garlic butter and slather a healthy spoonful of butter on top. You want it to completely coat the potato, so it’s a little easier when the butter has firmed up again! Turn up the oven slightly to 210ºc fan/230ºc/450ºf (leave the temperature the same for the air fryer). Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown, bubbling and deliciously buttery. Sprinkle over a pinch of flaky sea salt and bask in the GLORY of the star crossed garlicky butter jacket potato.

This recipe is available in my new book THE POTATO BOOK which is out now! You can also find a full video recipe on my Youtube channel.