Why I Love This Appetizer
Simple—All you need are a handful of ingredients you probably already have on hand. These are simple and tasty. Flavorful—The crispy potato with the cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream, and chives is an explosion of flavor and texture. Favorite —People of all ages love these, from little kids to grandparents, and they pair with many different meals.What Potato Should I Use?
Russet potatoes make the best crispy potato skins. For an appetizer, choose a smaller potato. For a more filling dish, use a large potato and use more filling.How to Make Potato Skins
Bake and Slice Potatoes: Bake in the oven at 400 degrees F for 1 hour. For large potatoes, cut each potato lengthwise, into three sections, creating three long slices. (So each potato should yield two skins, plus a middle section that you can discard or use to make baked potato salad :). For small potatoes, just cut in half.
Scoop Out Some Potato Flesh: Use a small spoon to scoop out some of the potato flesh in the center, leaving a thick layer near the skin, but hollowing it out slightly to create a “boat”.
Brush and Broil: Brush the potatoes with butter on the inside and outside, place them on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, and broil.
Add Toppings: Remove from the oven and add a generous amount of shredded cheese and bacon pieces into each potato skin. Top with sour cream and chives or green onion. Serve warm.
Broil: Place loaded potatoes back under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly.
Serve: Remove from oven and top with sour cream and chives or green onion. Serve warm.
- Taco Style: Fill with taco seasoned ground beef and top with your favorite taco toppings.
- Sloppy Joe: Fill potato skins with sloppy joe beef filling.
- Chicken Enchilada: Fill with chicken enchilada filling.
- Pulled Pork: Load each potato skin with flavored, shredded pulled pork. Top with the best mango pineapple slaw.
- Mac and Cheese: Fill them with homemade mac and cheese for the ultimate comfort food.
To Store: Keep leftover potato skins in the refrigerator. Rewarm them in the oven, air fryer, microwave.
Loaded Potato Skins
This Loaded Potato Skins recipe is an easy appetizer made with the crispy skins of a baked potato and filled with bacon, cheese, sour cream, and chives!Servings 12 Calories 258 Prep 20 minutes mins Cook 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins Total 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins
- 6 small to medium sized Russet potatoes , washed and pat dry
- 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
- 8 slices bacon , cooked and crumbled
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (half of a stick), melted
- sour cream , for topping
- chives (or green onion), chopped, for topping
- salt , to taste
- freshly ground black pepper , to taste
Bake Potatoes: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Poke potatoes with a fork, place on a baking sheet and cook for 1 hour. Remove from the baking sheet, and allow to cool for about 15 minutes or until cool enough to handle.
Cut Potatoes: For large potatoes, cut each potato lengthwise, into three sections, creating three long slices. (So each potato should yield two skins, plus a middle section that you can discard or use to make baked potato salad. For small potatoes, just cut in half.
Hollow out: Use a small spoon to scoop out some of the potato flesh in the center, leaving a thick layer near the skin, but hollowing it out slightly to create a “boat”.
Season: Turn your oven on to a high broil. Brush the potatoes with butter on the inside and outside and place them back onto the baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper.
Broil for 7-8 minutes until the insides get a bit crispy from the melted butter.
Add Cheese and bacon: Remove from the oven and add a generous amount of shredded cheese into each skin, topping with bacon pieces.
Broil: Place back under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
Serve: Remove from oven and top with sour cream, chives or green onion. Serve warm.
Store leftover potato skins in the refrigerator. Rewarm them in the oven or air fryer.
- Taco Style: Fill with taco seasoned ground beef and top with your favorite taco toppings.
- Sloppy Joe: Fill potato skins with sloppy joe beef filling.
- Chicken Enchilada: Fill with chicken enchilada filling.
- Pulled Pork: Load each potato skin with flavored, shredded pulled pork. Top with the best mango pineapple slaw.
- Mac and Cheese: Fill them with homemade mac and cheese for the ultimate comfort food.
To Store: Keep leftover potato skins in the refrigerator. Rewarm them in the oven, air fryer, microwave.
To Freeze: Scoop the filling from the baked potato and allow the skins to cool. Store them in a freezer safe container for 2-3 months. Thaw them in the refrigerator overnight and then continue with broiling and filling the shells (step 5 of the recipe).
Nutrition
