Loaded Baked Potato Skins

Warm potato skins loaded with cheese, bacon, sour cream, and green onions. A delicious gameday snack.

The first College Football Playoff National Championship is tonight (this afternoon for us in Hawaii) so I thought I'd share a football snack. These Potato skins really hit the spot. They are slightly salty and crisp baked potato skins loaded with all my favorite toppings. These skins are baked and not fried so they don't get as crisp as the deep fried kind you can get at restaurants but they are delicious and easy to make.

Declicious #bakednotfried Loaded Baked #PotatoSkins [Tweet this]

Loaded Baked Potato Skins: Warm potato skins loaded with cheese, bacon, sour cream, and green onions. A delicious gameday snack. #footballsnack

First off you need to start with great baked potatoes and I have a trick that makes them awesome. You rub the potatoes with olive oil and sea salt before baking them (it's super simple but makes a huge difference). Click the link for more details. Then cut into wedges and slightly hollow each wedge. Now you have the base potato skin. Don't throw away the potato insides. I saved them to make Gnocchi (I'll post that recipe eventually) or add them with some eggs and sausage/bacon to make a breakfast hash...there are plenty of things you can make with it.

Start with great #bakedpotatos for Loaded Baked Potato Skins [Tweet this]

Loaded Baked Potato Skins

Ingredients:

4 baked russet potatoes, cooled (even refrigerated over night would be fine I think)
Shredded cheddar cheese
Bacon, cooked and chopped
Sour cream
Green onions, sliced

Cut each baked potato into wedges. I had medium to small potatoes so I cut them into quarters (cut in half long ways then cut each half in half again--longways) if you have really big potatoes you may be able to get more.

Carefully scoop out, you don't want to tear the skins, all but about 1/4-1/2 inch of the potato insides making the wedges concave so they can hold toppings. At this point I refrigerated them to make the next day (or just make them the same day) but I bet you could freeze them laid out on a sheet pan for about 1-2 hours then store in a freezer bag until you want to use them too.

Lay out the skins, skin side down, on a baking sheet. Sprinkle on as much cheese as you like and bake at 400 F for about 10-15 minutes. Then switch to broil and broil for a little while until cheese is well melted.

Remove skins from oven and top with bacon bits, a dollop of sour cream, and some green onions.
(alternatively just use a dollop of Loaded Baked Potato Dip on top of the re-baked skins)

Serve immediately. Makes about 12 skins which was fine for 2 people but we would have liked even more...they're delicious.

Enjoy.