There are few more satisfying things to have for dinner than a delicious jacket potato. Whether you like it with cheese, beans (or both!), chilli, coleslaw, tuna, or just butter, it always hits the spot.

But cooking it to perfection can take a long time - an hour or more, depending on how you like it done. Now, culinary expert Nick Evans has shared his top tip for making the perfect baked potato in a fraction of the time it takes when using the oven alone.

The secret: the microwave.

Nick says by using the microwave you can cook a jacket potato with delicious fluffy insides in just 10 minutes - plus another 10 minutes in the oven if a crisy skin is a must for you.

He said: "Because a microwave steams the inside of the potato rather than baking it from the outside, the resulting potato has a fluffier inner texture.

"The only downside of microwaving potatoes is that the skin gets soggy and doesn't have the crispy texture that you get from the oven. We can fix that with a quick trip in the oven."

He added: "If you cherish the crispy potato skin of a baked potato (I know I do), there's a trick to achieving a crisp exterior on a microwave potato. Once your potato is done in the microwave, place it on a baking sheet.

"Rub it with some olive oil and sprinkle it on all sides with kosher salt. Bake it in a hot oven for about 10 minutes and it'll crisp up beautifully.

"This adds a few minutes to your total time, but it's worth it for that crispy potato skin. No one will know you didn't cook the potatoes in the oven from start to finish."

Nick also said not to forget to poke holes in the potato before popping it in the microwave so steam can escape easily - if you don't do this there's a chance it could explode while cooking.

He said the time it should go in the microwave depends on its power - a 1,000 watt machine can cook it in about 10 minutes, flipping the potato half way through.

For a 1,200 watt microwave, you can reduce that time by a minute or two, and with a lower 800 watt machine, around 12 minutes should do the job.

Nick also said the size and age of the potato will affect the cooking time - smaller potatoes will cook more quickly, and older ones will take longer, and may not cook all the way through.

The trick is to experiment and, once you've found the perfect method, stick to it.

Nick said it is possible to cook up to four potatoes in a microwave at once as long as there is space - but they should be laid flat on a plate, with a little space for each one.

You should also add an extra minute to the cooking time per extra potato.