How Long To Bake Potatoes At 375 In Foil? The Ultimate Guide

Today we take a look at how long to bake potatoes at 375 in foil. This is an extremely handy guide that will discuss every factor that affects the final baking times. With it, you can bake the perfect potato and manage your food-prepping time better.

Also, check out my Ensalada Rusa, which you can easily do with those baked potatoes with oil.

What Will Affect The Baking Times Of Potatoes?

There are actually a shocking number of factors that affect the baking times of potatoes. These factors apply to all cooking techniques and ingredients.

Baking/Cooking Temperature

Potatoes are one of the easiest ingredients you can cook.

First, it’s obviously the baking temperatures. The lower the temperature is, the longer the item will take to cook thoroughly.

However, if the temperature is too high, it will negatively affect the potatoes by drying them out.

The Size Of The Potato Or Cut You Are Baking

This is another major factor that will affect how long it takes to bake potatoes in foil at 375 degrees. As you may already know, the larger the item, the longer it will take to bake thoroughly. 

You can cut larger potatoes into bite-sized blocks. These smaller pieces will bake for a much shorter time than whole potatoes or even wedges.

This process may be tedious, but it comes in handy when you are in a time crunch by cutting your baking time in half!

Size Of Whole Potatoes

Small potatoes usually weigh less than 5 ounces (142 grams). However, keep in mind that they shouldn’t be as small as baby potatoes.

Your average medium potato weighs between 5-10 ounces (142-284 grams).

And, of course, a large potato is any potato that weighs more than 10 ounces (284 grams).

With Or Without Foil

Have you ever wondered why many people bake their potatoes covered with foil?

Well, that’s because foil helps cook the potatoes faster.

How does it work? It’s simple: the aluminum foil layer helps conduct the heat to the potato very quickly. Furthermore, it’s an excellent retainer of heat, ultimately helping keep a stable cooking temperature, which reduces the overall cooking time.

Making oven-baked potatoes with foil will save you a lot of time. However, the downside is that they won’t become nice and crispy like many would want.

Doneness Of The Potato

Last, and certainly not least, you have to consider the doneness of the potatoes.

For something like a potato salad, you want the potatoes to have a firm shape. So, you would bake them for a shorter amount of time than if you would want to make mashed potatoes (that need to be extremely soft).

How Long To Bake Potatoes At 375 In Foil? 

So, one thing that won’t affect the baking times of potatoes today is the baking temperature. Baking these veggies at 375 provides the perfect amount of time to bake them quickly and evenly without drying them out. And the foil helps with that, too!

On average, it will take between 20-30 minutes to make medium-sized baked potatoes at 375. Remember, the key to baking potatoes in foil is to wrap them individually.

And again, larger potatoes will take longer to bake, potentially 40 minutes!

How Long To Bake Potatoes At 375 Without Foil? 

While foil doesn’t dramatically decrease the baking time of potatoes, it still does make a difference.

Unwrapped potatoes will take roughly 30-35 minutes to bake (for medium-sized potatoes). Large potatoes will definitely take at least 40-50 minutes to bake without foil. Check out more potato recipes like Peruvian Stuffed Potatoes, Easy Creamy Potato Soup, or Roasted Potatoes On The Grill.

How To Make Foil-Baked Potatoes Crispy?

The biggest downside to baking potatoes in foil is that they don’t become crispy. 

The foil covering is an insulator of heat and helps trap moisture. That’s the worst thing that can happen if you are trying to make crispy skin.

A crispy texture is a result of drying up the moisture.

If you want to keep your foil-baked potatoes crispy, remove the covering during the final 10 minutes of baking. This won’t make them uber-crisp, but it will help reduce the boiled potato flavor and texture.

If you want to know how to Reheat Twice-Baked Potatoes, check this out.

How To Test The Doneness Of Baked Potatoes?

Potatoes are fully baked when their internal temperature has reached between 208-211ºF (97.8-99.4ºC).

You can also check out my guide on How Long You Need To Boil Potatoes For Potato Salad to see other signs of doneness.

Tips And Tricks For This Baked Potato Recipe

• The exact baking time for the potatoes can vary depending on how you want to use them. For an uber-creamy and silky-smooth mash, you have to bake the potatoes until they are completely soft. They should break apart easily!
• If you want to make stuffed potatoes, you can bake the potatoes for slightly less time. While they are still slightly undercooked, half the potatoes, scoop out some of their flesh, and stuff the holes with the filling of your choice. When you place the potatoes back into the oven (with the filling), the leftover time will finish them off. This technique leaves you with tender stuffed potatoes, not overcooked ones.
• If you are pre-baking whole potatoes to make crispy fried potato wedges, you can also slightly underbake them. This makes them easier to slice into chips or wedges and deep-fry. They won’t break apart like completely soft potatoes would.
• When baking potatoes in foil, there isn’t any point in heavily seasoning the skin. The flavors won’t be absorbed as well as when baking wedges or cubes. They will mostly sit on the skin of the whole potatoes. So, at the most, I would add some oil, butter, fresh herbs, and maybe some spices.