Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe
If you love baked potatoes, you are going to love these loaded twice baked potatoes. Filled with cheese, bacon, and sour cream, these baked potatoes take them over the top.
These delicious twice baked potatoes are perfect as a side dish with smoked BBQ ribs for dinner, as a simple lunch idea, or even as an appetizer. While many people think they are only something to get while at a restaurant, they are incredibly easy to make. You can make them as a side to baked chicken, steak, or pork.
Twice-baked potatoes are russet potatoes that are baked, and once they are done baking, the insides are scooped out and turned into mashed potatoes. This filling is put back into the potato skin, and then the potatoes are baked again. The process and the ingredients create such a fantastic taste that twice-baked potatoes have grown in popularity over the years. In this case, the mashed potatoes are turned into loaded mashed potatoes, like a loaded baked potato with sour cream, bacon, and cheddar cheese.
I love serving these to my family paired with dishes like this bacon wrapped smoked mini meatloaf recipe or homemade chicken nuggets.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: All you need for this recipe are potatoes and a handful of other simple ingredients, and you’ll have a delicoiusly cheesy side in no time.
- Super Easy: This recipe has several steps, but they’re all very easy. It really just comes down to baking, scooping, mixing, and stuff. It’s simple stuff.
- HUGE Flavor: Every bite of these potatoes is loaded with cheese, sour cream, onions, and crispy, smoky bacon.
- Customizable: It’s easy to tweak these potatoes to create different flavors to suit your family’s taste perfectly.
- Versatile: These are the perfect side, main, or appetizer.
- Great for Meal Prep: These are freezer-friendly, so you can make extra for future use.
Ingredients
I’ve included all the ingredients needed to make these potatoes below. You’ll find their exact amounts in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Extra-large russet potatoes
- Butter
- Bacon – crispy and crumbled
- Sour cream
- Cheddar cheese
- Milk
- Garlic salt
- Green onions – sliced
- Salt and pepper
Variations
- Bacon: Use your favorite variety of bacon for this recipe. Any thickness and flavor will work very well.
- Other Proteins: Try mixing in leftovers like this beef brisket recipe or Dutch oven pulled pork for a totally different feel.
- Seasonings: Try adding different seasonings to these potatoes. Onion powder, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning all work well. You can even use bold blends like taco or steak seasoning.
- Spicy: Add red pepper flakes for a kick of heat.
- Cheese: I used Cheddar cheese, but you can use any bold, melty cheese you like.
How to Make Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes
I’m giving you an overview of the recipe here to show you how easy it is to make. You can find the full instructions in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Wash, dry, and pierce the potatoes with a fork. Then, wrap them in foil and bake them at 375°F until fork-tender.
- Cool the potatoes until safe enough to handle. Then, cut a V section out of their tops.
- Remove the insides of the potatoes, leaving some around the edges to keep the skin intact.
- Mix the scooped-out potatoes with the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.
- Place the mixture back inside each potato skin, top with more cheese, and bake again until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!
Tips
- Be very careful when scooping out the potato flesh. It’s important to take a little at a time so you don’t accidentally scoop out too much, or worse, puncture the skin.
- I recommend leaving about ¼ of an inch of flesh next to the skin to ensure the skin doesn’t collapse.
- Bake your potatoes until a fork slides in extremely easily. You’ll basically be mashing them before returning them to the skin, so they need to be nice and soft.
- Wrap the potatoes in foil when baking them. Unlike traditional baked potatoes, you want the skin to stay nice and soft so it’s flexible when you scoop out the flesh.
Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes FAQ
A perfectly baked potato takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half at 375°F.
Twice baked potatoes are potatoes that are baked. Then, their flesh is scooped out and mixed with ingredients like sour cream, cheese, and bacon. The mixture is then spooned back into the skins, and the potatoes are baked a second time until hot and melty.
Twice baked potatoes are perfect with steak, pork chops, chicken, and even seafood.
More Delicious Potato Recipes
If you try this recipe and love it, please be sure to leave a 5 ★★★★★ rating below and leave a comment! You can also pin it to your favorite Pinterest boards and save it for later.
Also, follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Remember to “like” or “follow” us on all social media.
Loaded Twice Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
- 5 large potatoes, washed, dried and pierce with a fork (I used Costco® size potatoes)
- 1 cup butter, 2 sticks, sliced into ¼″ slices
- 1 ½ cups bacon, crispy and crumbled
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 ½ cup Cheddar cheese, more for topping, if desired
- 1 cup milk
- ½ tsp garlic salt
- 4 green onions, sliced
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°.
- Wash and dry potatoes, then pierce each potato with a fork or knife on all sides.
- Wrap each potato in foil and place on a baking sheet.
- Place in oven and bake for 1 ½ hours or until they are cooked thoroughly.
- Remove from oven and remove foil carefully when cool enough to handle.
- Carefully slice potatoes lengthwise, removing a "v" section from the top, when potatoes are cool enough to handle.
- Remove the insides of each potato making sure to leave some potato around the edges and place into a large mixing bowl.
- Add butter, bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese to mixing bowl and mix well.
- Next add milk, garlic salt, green onions and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
- Spoon potato filling into each potato shell and place back on the baking sheet.
- Top with additional cheese, place back in the oven and bake until cheese has melted and potato filling is hot.
- Remove from oven and enjoy!
Notes
- Refrigerate for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
- Wrap in a layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil and freeze for up to 3 months in a heavy-duty freezer bag.
- Reheat leftovers at 350°F until heated through. Frozen potatoes can be reheated from frozen.
- Be very careful when scooping out the potato flesh. It’s important to take a little at a time so you don’t accidentally scoop out too much, or worse, puncture the skin.
- I recommend leaving about ¼ of an inch of flesh next to the skin to ensure the skin doesn’t collapse.
- Bake your potatoes until a fork slides in extremely easily. You’ll basically be mashing them before returning them to the skin, so they need to be nice and soft.
- Wrap the potatoes in foil when baking them. Unlike traditional baked potatoes, you want the skin to stay nice and soft so it’s flexible when you scoop out the flesh.
Here are a few pics that are the perfect size for pinning to Pinterest.
Enjoy, Terri
Copyright © Great Grub, Delicious Treats. All content and images are copyright protected. Do not use any images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, make sure to re-write the recipe in your own words and only list ingredients making sure to link back to this post for the original recipe and directions.
