Pre-recipe warning, this one is not good for the waistline. However, it is absolutely delicious! This is the sort of comfort food that you can serve at any time of the year and as either a starter or a main meal, depending on the size of the portion. Here is an easy recipe for loaded potato skins that makes 24 skins.
(Don’t allow the cooking time to put you off making this recipe. This is predominantly because of the time to bake the potatoes, and it is not a labour-intensive recipe.
| Preparation time: 10 minutes | |
| Cooking time: 1 hour | |
| Serves: 4 (6 skins each) | |
| Vegetarian/ vegan: NO | |
| Dairy-free: NO | |
| Gluten-free: YES |
Ingredients for Loaded Potato Skins
- 6 large white potatoes
- 250g hard cheese, such as Cheddar, grated
- 6 rashers of bacon
- To serve- soured cream and chives
How to Make Cheese and Bacon Loaded Potato Skins
- Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4.
- Wash and dry the potatoes and put on a baking tray.
- Put the tray in the oven and cook for approximately 45 minutes or until the skins are beginning to brown and the potatoes feel soft when you squeeze them (using an oven glove).
- 10 minutes before the potatoes are cooked, add the rashers of bacon to another baking tray and put in the oven so they are cooked and ready to remove at the same time as the potatoes. Then, turn off the oven.
- Leave the potatoes on the side to cool and break your bacon into small pieces.
- When the potatoes are cooled, cut in half.
- Scoop out most of the soft potato flesh to leave hollow skins with just a thin layer of potato. (See tip for ways to use the leftover potato below).
- Turn on your deep fat fryer and set to around 180C.
- While this is heating, cut the potatoes lengthways so that each potato skin is a quarter of a potato.
- Fry the potato skins in batches for five minutes until browned and crispy and then transfer onto the baking tray.
- Sprinkle over the cheese and pieces of bacon.
- Turn on the grill and place the loaded potato skins under for long enough to melt the cheese.
- Serve the skins with a dollop of soured cream sprinkled with chopped chives.
TIPS
- Don’t waste the potato filling! There are plenty of things you can do with it. Since cooking the loaded potato skins yesterday, I have made crunchy tuna fishcakes for tea tonight. You can also mash it up to serve with meat or as a topping for a fish pie or cottage pie. Read our articles on using leftovers and elevating mashed potatoes.
- Experiment with different fillings. Instead of cheese and bacon, try chilli con carne or chilli beans.
- Swap the soured cream. If you do not like soured cream, then try having a BBQ dip or a blue cheese dressing. You can also spice up some mayonnaise in various ways. Check out our article on things you can do with mayonnaise.
- You might also like our recipes for potato wedges, pan haggerty, and potato gratin.
Great recipe
Thank you!
Looks yummy! Can’t wait to try it!
thank you!