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★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
A Crowd-pleaser
Loaded potato skins are a crowd-pleasing appetizer that is perfect for any gathering. Enjoy this special treat for a holiday party, as football food, or as a tasty side dish with dinner.
Every bite of a potato skin is a delightful experience, offering both crispy texture, a soft inside and tons of flavor, making it one of the best appetizers or snacks to enjoy on any occasion.
Customizable
You'll love these crispy, oven-baked potato skins loaded with toppings. These are customizable and kid-friendly!
Add tasting toppings including melty cheddar cheese, salty bacon, tangy sour cream, and green onions or chives.
What Sets this Recipe Apart
Potato skins are very simple to make. It may seem like you don't even need a recipe, but there are a few subtle ways you can really improve your potato skins to offer the best combination of texture and flavor.
Here's how we'll achieve potato skin perfection:
- Lightly coating the outer skin in seasoned butter, mid-way through baking, to produce a crisp crust whether you're baking these in the oven or making them in the air fryer.
- Hollowing out the potato skins leaving a generous layer of potato in the skin. You don't want to be munching on just the skin, you want the perfect combination of skin to potato and leaving about ¼" border of potato is going to make a huge difference than scraping your skins too thin.
- Coating the inside of the potato skin with butter, mid-way through cooking. This allows the butter to seep into the potato adding richness and seasoning the potato.
- Seasoning. Adding a layer of seasoning along with the butter is so key. Melted butter acts as the perfect vehicle to infuse the potato skins with garlic, sea salt and parsley.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
Here's everything you'll need to make amazing potato skins:
- Baking Potatoes. Large, russet potatoes work best for this recipe. They have skin that will hold together when baked.
- Unsalted Butter. This allows you to customize your level of salt and also use sea salt which adds a really nice flavor beyond normal table salt. If you prefer, you can use olive oil on the outer skin and butter on the inside or use butter on both sides.
- Parsley. This breaks up the richness, adds subtle texture and flavor.
- Garlic Powder. Garlic is an overlooked seasoning with potato skins but adding it in really makes the potatoes taste amazing.
- Cheddar Cheese. Choose mild or sharp depending on your preference.
- Bacon bits. Fresh-made bacon, crumbed into bits is always going to taste better even over the real bacon bit; however, you can totally use bacon bits to save time. Or you can make your own bacon ahead of time or use leftover bacon from breakfast.
- Sour Cream. Both cool and creamy, this topping is a must as it melds all the ingredients together and adds just the right touch of tang and creaminess.
- Green onions or chives. Fresh is best! Green onions add a little bit more spice but chives add a really nice flavor. Your choice or go all out and use both!
★ How to Make this Recipe ★
These potato skins are very easy to prep, just follow the steps.
Here's a look at what to do, the full recipe can be found below.
- Wash and dry potatoes. Poke to vent.
- Bake to soften potatoes. Cut in half. Scoop out the insides.
- Melt butter and combine with seasonings.
- Brush insides and outsides with butter and bake.
- Flip then fill with cheese and bacon then bake.
- Top with sour cream and chives or green onions.
That's it. A simple process with a few key steps that make these the absolutely BEST potato skins you will ever eat.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
Oven Bake or Air Fry
These can be made in the air fryer in smaller batches as needed to accommodate your air fryer's size. Follow the recipe as written but reduce the bake time by half. Add additional time if needed. Air fryers can vary greatly by size and model.
What can I do with the potato insides?
Once you’ve scooped out the insides of the potatoes you can use them for some delicious Sour cream and chive mashed potatoes. Any other recipes that require mashed potatoes, like the topping of shepherd’s pie, would be a great use for the left-over insides as well!
Storing Leftovers
These potato skins are best enjoyed fresh out of the oven; however, you can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Reheat by baking them at 425˚F for about 5 minutes.
These can be frozen as well for up to 2 months. It's best to freeze without the sour cream, then add that after baking. You can scrape it off leftovers and add new sour cream after baking. Or freeze them before baking and adding sour cream.
★ More Potato Recipes ★
Hungry for more easy snack ideas?
Browse all my appetizer recipes and be sure to Pin your favorites for later!
The loaded baked potato skins were featured on South Your Mouth!
Loaded Baked Potato Skins
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 baking potatoes (russets) washed and dried
- 3 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon sea salt more or less to taste
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- ½ cup bacon bits
- 4 oz sour cream
- salt and pepper to taste
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400˚F.
- Scrub and dry potatoes. Poke each potato with a fork to vent.
- Bake for 45 minutes then allow potatoes to cool until safe to touch. Cut in half (lengthwise) and spoon out almost all the inside leaving about ¼ - ½ inch border along the skin. Place the hollowed-out skins back on the baking sheet, inside up.
- Brush with butter. Melt unsalted butter in a small pot or microwavable bowl. Add sea salt, dried parsley and garlic powder to butter. Brush the inside of hollowed potato skins.
- Bake for another 10-15 minutes, face down.Carefully flip potatoes over and fill each evenly with cheese and bacon. Bake for another 2-3 minutes to fully melt the cheese, if needed.
- Remove from oven and top each with a dollop of sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish with green onions or chives then serve hot.
Notes
- Use a small melon scoop to easily remove inside of potatoes.
- Lightly scrub the potatoes to remove any dirt from the skin before baking.
- If using salted butter, you may only want to add a small pinch of sea salt.
- Venting your potatoes will release any pressure that might build up while baking. This prevents potatoes from exploding!
- Be sure to dry potatoes well after washing.
- Don't overcook the potatoes or they can become gluey. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature. You want it to be at least 205˚ and not above 210°F.
Kenneth email says
Potatoes and put them back in the skins along with the other ingredients