I haven’t done a recipe here in ages, huh? Well, here you go. I love potato skins. Love. The only restaurant where I have had them that I think are close to as good as my own is TGI Fridays. So there’s that for comparison. And, yes, these take a lot of time. But, it’s completely worth it.
Baked Potato Skins
A bunch of potatoes (I usually use 10-12)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese or Cheddar-Jack (whatever you like, really)
Bacon Bits (or cook your own bacon and crumble it)
Butter
Salt and Pepper
Finely diced white onion (optional)
Scallions (optional)
Sour Cream (for serving)
Beer (not pictured)
Turn oven on to 400 degrees. Clean, pierce and wrap your potatoes in foil. Bake at 400 degrees for about and hour. Once baked, unwrap and halve the potatoes. Turn oven down to 350 degrees. Scoop the guts out of the halves, and discard, or leave the bowl of guts sitting around on the counter to snack on bits as you finish preparing the skins. Whatever.
Place skins on lightly greased pan. Fill with a pat of butter, bacon bits, a bit of diced onion, a dash of salt and papper, and cheese. Lots of cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or so (it’s really just until the cheese is melted) at 350 degrees. Done.
Serve topped with scallions (I didn’t have any when I made this batch, but normally can’t eat my skins without them) and sour cream. And a cold beer for the perfect combination. Yum.
I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t be good with butter, bacon, and cheese on it. Mmmm…
I made grilled cheese sandwiches yesterday, and I was just thinking, “hmm Beth hasn’t done a recipe for a while” Hee hee. And now you have! They look yummy. And the insides of the potatoes would make for a lovely mash, with some of that cheese and scallions in it for tomorrow’s dinner. Yum!
Those look SO good. I’m hungry now.
Oh, we’re doin’ this; we’re definitely doin’ this. I’m going to e-mail Susana right away!
Say… how do you use the extra potatoes? Could you make mashed on day one, refrigerate the skins and bake the skins on day 2?
You bet. I usually do make some sort of mashed potato for another meal…or I just eat the guts plain…because I like them
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Indeed. I love mashed potatoes with cheese, sour cream and scallions. YUM!
I can attest to their deliciousness!
I’m not a foil-wrapper, though. At home I just oil them a bit, salt & poke them, then throw them in the oven. That is, that’s what I’ve done the ten times in my adult life that I’ve made baked potatoes.
Follow-up question: do you mash them on day two?
I was thinking they might get starchy. My red potatoes sometimes get starchy on day 1, but the regular baking potatoes may have a better time with that anyway…
Thanks for the tips! Oh, and Susana agrees that we are definitely doing this one.
My problem with baking potatoes is all the time the oven has to be on… I try to do it when I’m baking something else.
My mouth is watering…seriously!!
I love those potato skins at TGIF…I’ve gotten the frozen version they sell at the food store, but now…I must make these! Thanks Beth!!
My only alteration…a little less chesse (on mine only).
Even elephant dung?
I have always mashed them on day one. I haven’t even tried to wait until day two…
Perhaps it’s an experiment for Susana?!