There are some easy meals which you just can’t beat for comfort and while some of them, like beans on toast, come with a pretty quick prep time, others take just that bit too long to make them a regular on the pop up supper scene when you’ve only a short time to spare.

You know the days, nothing is prepared and you need to eat now! This is exactly why ‘something on toast’ may win over the beloved jacket potato (serious comfort food at its best) because to make the perfect JP takes time if not effort. I have a fail safe way of doing mine to perfection. I pierce them all over and then microwave on each side for 5 minutes. This is already ten minutes down and I still need a further 45 minutes on a high oven temperature to execute my perfect baked potato.

The fillings for a humble JP are limitless but this IS definitely a meal to prepare in advance. Or… Is it now?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret… Tell you how to achieve that perfect jacket but in only 5 minutes total cooking time. Of course how you fill it is entirely down to you and could take you a long time if you’re feeling adventurous or you could simply serve it with only butter or grated cheese (the best way after all) for that quick comfort food fix. This little secret involves McCain Ready Baked Jackets which are microwaveable in just 5 minutes and fit perfectly with McCain’s #LunchIn5 initiative – how EASY is that?!

Basically the long prep work has been taken care of by McCain, they’ve been frozen and all you need to do in order to serve perfect (yes even in the microwave) and tasty jacket potatoes is take them out of the packet and put them onto a plate! Even the most hungry and inept cooks of us can do that!

Top with a filling of your choice. We like (as well as a simple grated cheese) tuna and mayo with a sprinkling of cheese, chilli with grated cheese, and baked beans with, yep you guessed it, cheese. So we like cheese on our jacket potatoes… Who doesn’t?

But…

You can do so much more with the humble baked potato and now that you’ve gained some time with the prep and cooking how about adding a few more minutes onto the end by cutting your McCain Jacket Potatoes into bite sized pieces (once cooked) and then shallow frying them with some Cajun seasoning, salt and pepper. Miz just a little of the seasoning together with the salt and pepper, pour on some olive oil and coat the jacket potato bites before frying for a few minutes on each side.

Jacket potato bites wouldn’t be anything without a dip though so I have prepared two very simple ones to serve with ours. A mildly spiced tomato salsa and a creamy cheesy (again) soured cream dip.

My salsa recipe: 6 medium tomatoes (Peeled – slice into them and put in boiling water to make the peeling easier), Half a medium red onion (chopped), 1 crushed garlic clove, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a squeeze of lime juice, a handful of fresh coriander (roughly chopped) and salt and pepper to taste.

Put all of the ingredients into a blender like the Nutribullet and blitz for 60 seconds. Voila!

Cheesy Soured Cream Dip: A Pot of soured cream, a handful of grated hard Italian cheese, a tablespoon of English mustard, some cucumber cut into cubes, salt and pepper and (cut chives to garnish).

In the same bowl you will serve it in place all the ingredients and mix thoroughly with a spoon. Finish with some chives to mix in at the end.

See, so jacket potatoes or indeed wedges made FROM jacket potatoes do not have to be challenging to make and whipping up two exciting dips which the children will love is pretty simple too.

This post is in collaboration with McCain.

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