# Loaded Baked Potato Night

Loaded Baked Potato Night — a medium recipe with 6 main ingredients, ready in about 1 hr 10 min and serving 4. Check which of its ingredients are on sale at grocery stores near you.

- **Time:** 1 hr 10 min
- **Serves:** 4
- **Difficulty:** medium
- **Tags:** dinner, american, vegetarian, gluten-free
- **Source:** https://savingrecipes.com/recipes/loaded-baked-potatoes

## Ingredients

- 4 large russet potatoes
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
- Sour cream
- 4 slices bacon (optional)
- Green onions
- Butter
- Salt & pepper _(pantry staple)_

## Instructions

1. Bake pricked potatoes at 425°F for 50–60 min until crisp-skinned.
2. Crisp and crumble bacon.
3. 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.


_Photo: The Bushranger — CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gator_bites_and_baked_potato_from_Porter_Island.jpg)_