Salt Crusted Baked Potato with Thyme Ground Beef and Gravy

For the potatoes:

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Wash and dry the potatoes. Poke holes in the potatoes with a two prong cooking fork. Cover all sides of the potatoes with olive oil. Sprinkle the kosher salt over all sides of the potatoes.

Place the potatoes on a rack that you’ve set inside of a cookie sheet. Bake them uncovered in the preheated oven for about an hour or until done.

While the potatoes are baking, make the thyme ground beef and gravy.

For the Thyme Ground Beef and Gravy:

Heat a pan on medium heat and add the ground beef, onion powder, pepper, garlic powder and salt. Stir the spices in with the ground beef.

Then remove the leaves from the sprigs of thyme. If the leaves are small, no need to chop them. But if the leaves are on the larger side, then chop the thyme. Add the thyme in with the ground beef.

Next, add 2 cups of beef broth and stir.

In a small bowl, add the flour and 4 ½ to 5 tablespoons of the beef broth or water, enough so that the consistency is just a bit thinner than ketchup.

Slowly add the flour mixture a little at a time into the ground beef mixture, and continuously stir as you’re adding it.

Then add the butter and stir. Let the mixture simmer and continue to stir until the gravy thickens up just a bit (about 5 to 7 minutes). Give it a quick taste and add more salt of you like.

Once the potatoes are done, brush off some of the excess salt, make a slice on top of the potatoes, and fluff up the insides with a fork.

Spoon the thyme ground beef and gravy over the top of the potato and serve with a small dinner salad or all by itself.