🥔 Loaded Baked Potato Night
Ingredients
- 4 large russet potatoes
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
- Sour cream
- 4 slices bacon (optional)
- Green onions
- Butter
- Salt & pepper (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Bake pricked potatoes at 425°F for 50–60 min until crisp-skinned.
- Crisp and crumble bacon.
- Split potatoes; load with butter, cheddar, sour cream, bacon, and scallions.
Tips
- Bake them directly on the rack with no foil. Foil traps steam and gives you a soft damp skin instead of a crisp one.
- Rub the skins with oil and salt first. That's what makes the skin worth eating rather than something you scrape the inside out of.
- Squeeze the potato open rather than slicing it flat, and fluff the inside with a fork so the toppings have somewhere to go.
Substitutions
- Russet potatoes
- Russets are the right choice — high starch, fluffy interior. Waxy potatoes like new or red stay dense and won't fluff.
- Bacon
- Already optional. Crispy fried onions, black beans, or chilli all work as toppings for a vegetarian version.
- Sour cream
- Greek yoghurt, crème fraîche, or a dairy-free sour cream.
- Cheddar
- Anything that melts. Blue cheese is very good alongside bacon and scallion.
Storage & reheating
Baked potatoes keep 4 days refrigerated, unfilled. Reheat at 400°F for 15 minutes to re-crisp the skin. Don't leave cooked potatoes sitting warm for hours — wrapped baked potatoes held at room temperature are a known botulism risk.
Common questions
How long does a baked potato really take?
50–60 minutes at 425°F for a large russet. Microwaving 5 minutes first then baking 20 speeds it up, though the skin is never as good.
Should I wrap them in foil?
Not if you want crisp skin — foil steams them. Wrapping is only useful for keeping them hot after baking.
How do I know when it's done?
A skewer slides in with no resistance and the skin feels papery. That's around 205°F internally — potatoes need to go well past 'hot' for the starch to turn fluffy.