Can You Freeze Jacket Potatoes?

3 minutes

Who doesn’t love a jacket potato? Whether it’s stuffed with baked beans and cheddar cheese, or topped with spicy homemade chilli, they provide the basis for a quick and easy midweek lunch or dinner.

You can prepare jacket potatoes in a number of ways, but it’s most common to microwave or bake them in the oven, the latter of which can take some time. To speed things up, you might be asking: Can you freeze jacket potatoes?

How to Freeze Jacket Potatoes

The good news is that there’s nothing too complicated about freezing jacket potatoes. Cooking them in advance saves you lots of time, and allows you to defrost them for a hearty lunch or quick evening meal.

Here are the simple steps to follow so you can freeze your jacket potatoes:

1. Allow to Cool
   Once your jacket potatoes are piping hot and cooked through, you will need to set them aside and allow them to cool. It’s a good idea to transfer them to a fresh tray and cover them with a paper towel, so they can cool down quickly.
2. Freeze Until Solid
   As soon as they’ve cooled, place your tray of jacket potatoes in the freezer for 1-2 hours, until they’re frozen solid.
3. Wrap in Foil
   Remove your tray of jacket potatoes from the freezer and wrap each of your potatoes in foil. Double wrap them to ensure there are no holes or tears where the foil connects.
4. Place in Box
   After wrapping your jacket potatoes individually, place them in a Tupperware box, to protect them from the other odours and flavours in your freezer.
5. Label and Freeze
   Make a note of the date that you cooked your jacket potatoes, as well as their recommended use-by date. Remember, you can freeze jacket potatoes for around six months.

3 Tips for Freezing Jacket Potatoes

Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing jacket potatoes to have the best results:

• Don’t Freeze With Fillings – Although some fillings will also freeze well, we advise you to freeze your jacket potatoes and desired fillings separately. Freezing them together can affect the texture of your potato and can also cause you some issues when it comes to the defrosting and reheating process.
• Reheat in the Oven – Although you can reheat your jacket potatoes in the microwave, to ensure they’re soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, it’s much better to heat them in the oven so they return to that delicious golden-brown colour.
• Keep Them in the Fridge Instead – If you’re planning to use your jacket potatoes within 5-6 days of cooking them, you don’t actually need to freeze them. Instead, you can wrap them in foil and place them in the fridge.

How Long Can You Freeze Jacket Potatoes?

You can freeze jacket potatoes for around six months.

If you end up freezing jacket potatoes for too long, you will notice that they start to change colour. By wrapping them in foil and adding them to a Tupperware box, you’re providing your jackets with an extra layer of protection from freezer burn, which means they should be good for up to six months.

You Can Freeze Jacket Potatoes for up to 6 Months

How Do You Defrost Jacket Potatoes?

The best way to defrost jacket potatoes is to place them in the fridge the night before you plan to eat them. Then, by the time you’re ready to reheat them, they will have thawed.

However, it’s perfectly fine to reheat jacket potatoes straight from frozen, either in the microwave or oven.

As we’ve already mentioned, to enjoy jacket potatoes that are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside, be sure to reheat them in the oven. Jacket potatoes reheated in the microwave can often be too soft.

Can You Refreeze Jacket Potatoes?

It’s best not to refreeze jacket potatoes if you want to be sure of their texture. The more you thaw and refreeze them, the more moisture they take on, which can affect the taste and texture of your potatoes when you come to reheat them.

To avoid having to refreeze your jacket potatoes, we advise you to only remove the potatoes that you need at any one time. This is why it’s important to wrap them individually.

Do Jacket Potatoes Freeze Well?

Jacket potatoes freeze really well. Providing they’re well wrapped and protected from freezer burn, you should have absolutely no issues with them if you use them within six months.

Although it takes longer, you should reheat your jacket potatoes in the oven instead of the microwave, so you can be sure of that delightful, crispy texture that you love so much.