Quick Summary
Twice Baked Potatoes-Salty and crisp baked potato shells stuffed with light and fluffy mashed potatoes, cheese, and bacon. These cheesy potatoes are a family favorite side dish and go great with any meal!
Potatoes are always a home run at our house. Potato soup, potato wedges, mashed potatoes, the list goes on! Anytime potatoes are on the menu, in any form, I can guarantee the boys will be excited.
Twice Baked Potatoes are probably their favorite potatoes and I am not surprised because they are basically the ultimate potatoes!
What is a twice baked potato? Basically, a crispy baked potato shell that gets stuffed with creamy mashed potatoes, lots of cheese, bacon, and garnished with fresh chives.
They are called twice baked because they get baked twice, once to bake the potato and once to cook after they are stuffed with cheesy mashed potato goodness! They are basically the king of all potatoes. Hello, comfort food!
Table of Contents
The Best Potatoes to Use
Russet potatoes are the best potatoes to use. They are larger than red potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes and we want a larger potato because we are stuffing the potato halves with a delicious filling.
The skins are also thick and sturdy, making them easy to hollow out and stuff. They can hold all of the filling without falling apart.
Key Ingredients
- Potatoes– washed, dried, and rubbed lightly with oil.
- Butter– bring on the butter!
- Sour cream– to make the potato filling creamy and rich!
- Milk– we use whole milk, but use your favorite.
- Bacon– cooked, chopped bacon goes in the potato filling. We also sprinkle cooked bacon on top of the potatoes because more is more!
- Cheese– we use shredded cheddar cheese in the filling and we melt cheese on top!
- Garlic powder– to add flavor to the filling.
- Paprika– so good with potatoes!
- Green onion– sliced green onions to stir into the filling.
- Chives– for garnish!
How to Make Twice Baked Potatoes
- First, wash the potatoes well and dry them. Pierce the potatoes with a fork and lightly oil them. Place on a large baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes to an hour or until potatoes are soft. If you are in a pinch, you can cook the potatoes in the microwave.
- With a sharp knife, slice the potatoes in half lengthwise. Carefully scoop out the flesh with a spoon, leaving about a 1/4-inch thickness of flesh in each shell. Put the potato flesh into a medium bowl and place the potato shells back on the baking sheet.
- Add the butter, sour cream, milk, chopped bacon, cheese, garlic powder, paprika, green onion, salt and pepper to the potato flesh. Mash until desired consistency.
- Fill the potato shells evenly with the mashed potato filling. Top each potato with a shredded cheese and place in the oven. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Remove from oven and top each potato with chopped bacon, chives, and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.
How to Reheat
You can keep leftover baked potatoes in the fridge for up to 4 days. To reheat, place them back in the oven until the cheese is melted. You can reheat in the microwave, but this isn’t our preferred method because the potatoes tend to get a little soggy.
How to Freeze
You can freeze twice baked potatoes. Here are a few tips!
- If you are making them in advance, you can fill them and freeze them. Don’t top with the cheese, bacon, and chives. Wait until they are cooled and then put them on a baking tray and put in the freezer for 1 hour.
- Remove and store in a freezer container or you can wrap them individually in foil or plastic wrap and put in a freezer bag. To reheat, thaw potatoes in the fridge for 24 hours. Add the cheese and bake according to recipe instructions or until heated through. Remove from oven and top with bacon and chives. You can heat in the microwave, but the oven is the preferred method.
- If you twice baked your potatoes and want to freeze leftovers, let the potatoes cool completely. Place on a baking sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Remove and store in a freezer container or you can wrap them individually in foil or plastic wrap and put in a freezer bag. To reheat, thaw potatoes in the fridge for 24 hours. Bake according to recipe instructions or until heated through. You can reheat in the microwave is the preferred method.
Serving Suggestions
Twice baked potatoes are the perfect side dish to almost any meal and they are always a hit during the holidays. You will often find them on the menu at Easter and Christmas time.
You can serve them along side ham, chicken, fish, steak, soup, or salad! The options are endless. Here are some recipe ideas:
- Lemon Butter Chicken
- Pistachio Crusted Baked Salmon
- Steak Salad
- Honey Mustard Chicken
- Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken
FAQ
Do not wrap the potatoes in foil before baking. It softens the shells and will make them fall apart. Baking them unwrapped makes the skins crispy and stronger, which will help keep the potatoes together when scooping out the flesh and filling them.
Again, don’t wrap them in foil when baking. The foil traps in moisture and will cause the potatoes to be too soft. Also, mash the potatoes when they are warm and use room temperature butter, sour cream, and milk. Don’t over mix your add-ins into the mashed potatoes. Finally, make sure you don’t over bake the potatoes after filling them.
The potatoes will be cooked twice, that is why they are called twice-baked). The exact time will vary depending on the size of your potatoes, but plan on 45-60 minutes or until your potatoes are fork tender for the first bake. The second bake will take about 15-20 minutes
More Potato Recipes
- Scalloped Potatoes
- Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Breakfast Potatoes
- Potato Soup
- Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
- Baked Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges
Twice Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
For the potatoes:
- 4 medium russet potatoes (washed, dried, and rubbed lightly with oil)
For the filling:
- 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
- 3 pieces cooked bacon chopped
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 green onion, sliced
- Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
For the topping:
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 pieces cooked bacon chopped
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Poke the potatoes with a fork and place the potatoes on a large baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the potatoes are soft. Remove from the oven and turn the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.
- With a sharp knife, slice the potatoes in half lengthwise. Carefully scoop out the flesh with a spoon, leaving about a 1/4-inch thickness of flesh in each shell. Put the potato flesh into a medium bowl and place the potato shells back on the baking sheet.
- Add the butter, sour cream, milk, chopped bacon, cheese, garlic powder, paprika, green onion, salt and pepper to the potato flesh. Mash until desired consistency.
- Fill the potato shells evenly with the mashed potato filling. Top each potato with a shredded cheese and place in the oven. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Remove from oven and top each potato with chopped bacon, chives, and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
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They were excellent thanks for the info
I love twice baked potatoes, hadn’t thought of cutting them in half! Thanks for the idea 😀
They were excellent thanks for the info
These were fabulous!
I love potatoes
I love potatoes all different ways
The food looks so good
I made these today to go with an Easter ham and they were delicious and very easy to make. Everyone said they were really good. Will definitely make these again! Thank you, Maria, for another great recipe. We had your lemon zucchini bread for breakfast and, as I’ve already left a review, it is phenomenal.