Stuffed potato skins

Name: Stuffed potato skins
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 4 medium Jersey Royal potatoes or similar ((12 ounces or 350 grams)); 3 rashers streaky bacon (cut into small pieces); 1 ounce / 30 grams butter (melted); ¼ cup / 60 grams sour cream; ½ cup / 65 grams cheddar cheese (grated); 2 spring onions or scallions (finely sliced); ½ teaspoon garlic powder (optional); Salt (to taste); 1 tablespoon sunflower oil (to rub on the potato skins); ¼ cup / 30 grams cheddar cheese (grated); 1 spring onion or scallion; ½ cup / 120 grams sour cream (optional)

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Stuffed potato skins are made by mixing mashed potatoes with sour cream, cheese and bacon then piling the mixture into hollowed-out potatoes. They are covered with grated cheese and oven-baked until the cheese is melted and golden.

Serve them as a side dish with a roast, or hand them around as snacks on game day or at a barbeque with a pot of sour cream for dipping!

Stuffed potato skins garnished with chopped spring onions on a white plate.

I've been meaning to publish this recipe for so long now. Stuffed potato skins were always popular back in the day whenever we had friends around for a barbeque. So I thought with the warm weather we've been enjoying recently, now would be the ideal time to resurrect it!

The potatoes are twice-baked; once to cook the potato, and a second time to crisp the skins. Once crisped, the skins are filled with a mixture of potato, sour cream, cheese and bacon before being covered in cheese and put back into the oven to melt the cheese.

I love to serve these potato skins as part of a roast dinner; they make a delicious alternative to the ubiquitous roast potatoes that seem to be the standard roast dinner side dish.

But they come into their own when you serve them as pre-barbeque nibbles while you wait for the meat to finish grilling! A plate of little stuffed potato skins and a dish of sour cream ... mmm! ... who needs meat?

Close up of stuffed potato skins on a white plate.

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What I love about these stuffed potato skins
Ingredients
Instructions
Tips for a perfect outcome
Equipment
Storage
Stuffed potato skin FAQ
Save for later
Related recipes
📋The recipe

What I love about these stuffed potato skins

You can bake the potatoes in the oven, but if you have access to a microwave it cuts down on the cooking time enormously!
They are economical to make - one small bag of baby potatoes will feed many people.
You can serve them either hot or at room temperature.
You can make a huge batch at once and freeze some for later, saving both time and energy.

Let me show you how easy they are to make.

Ingredients

There are no hard and fast rules about quantities here. You can easily adjust the ingredients depending on how many people you are catering for.

I made 4 potatoes for 2 of us, which made 8 stuffed halves. They were served with air-fried chicken Maryland along with a selection of steamed vegetables, and as delicious as the potatoes were, we only managed to eat 2 halves each!

I warmed them up the next morning and served them with a fried egg. They were delicious, although I did find that the garlic I'd added was a bit much for early morning. If you intend to serve them for breakfast I suggest you don't add any garlic!

Potatoes - I used 4 medium-sized Jersey Royal potatoes, weighing 350 grams or about 12 ounces. You can use any variety of potatoes for this dish. If they are very floury the texture will be smoother. Jersey Royals are quite waxy and give a nice chunky texture.
Bacon - I prefer using streaky bacon because the fat helps make the bacon crispy. You can fry the bacon without cutting it, and crumble it into the filling, or cut it into small pieces before frying.
Butter - this is melted and mixed into the potato filling.
Sour cream - adds extra flavour to the potato filling, and can also be used as a dipping sauce.
Spring onions, which you may know as scallions or green onions - add more texture and taste to the filling. They should be finely sliced.
Cheese - I used good old British cheddar, but you can use any cheese that melts easily.
Garlic powder (not shown and optional) - you could add a little garlic powder to the filling mixture for extra flavour. From my experience I have found that this tastes great if you are eating these stuffed potatoes hot; not so good if they are eaten cold. You decide!
Salt - for seasoning to your own taste.

***See the printable recipe card at the end of the post for the ingredients I used for 4 medium potatoes***

Instructions

Here are the steps in a nutshell:

Bake the potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes until softened
Scoop out the inside of the potatoes and bake the skins in the oven until they turn crispy
Mix the filling ingredients and spoon it into the potato skins.
Top with grated cheese and return to the oven until the cheese is melted.

And here are the details:

Step 1: Wash the potatoes, prick them once or twice with a fork and arrange them on a plate on a paper towel. Microwave for 3 minutes on full power. Turn the potatoes over and microwave for another 2 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Bacon pieces frying in a black frying pan.

Step 2: While the potatoes are cooking, place the bacon pieces into a dry frying pan and fry on low heat until they are crispy.

Baked potatoes cut in half with the insides scooped into a bowl.

Step 3: When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Leave about one-quarter of an inch of potato in each skin.

Baked potato skins arranged upside down on a baking tray.

Step 4: Rub the outside of the potato skins with sunflower oil and place them skin-side up on a baking tray lined with foil or baking parchment. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 10 minutes in a hot oven (200C/400F) until they are starting to crisp.

Filling for stuffed potato skins mixed in a glass bowl.

Step 5: Add the remaining filling ingredients to the potatoes and mix well to combine.

Potato skins stuffed with filling and covered with grated cheese on a baking tray.

Step 6: Divide the filling equally between the potato skins, top with grated cheddar cheese and bake for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

A white plate of cooked stuffed potato skins.

Step 7: Top with additional chopped spring onions if desired and serve hot with a roast, or at room temperature as an appetiser (with a bowl of sour cream for dipping).

Tips for a perfect outcome

Here are my top tips to ensure this recipe turns out perfectly every time:

To save time I cooked the potatoes in my 900-watt microwave and they were perfectly soft in 5 minutes. Actual cooking time will vary depending on the size of the potatoes and also on the wattage of the microwave.
You could also bake the potatoes in an air-fryer or in the oven. If baking the potatoes this way you should coat them with oil and sprinkle them with salt first. The skins should crisp without you having to bake them in the oven as I did with the microwaved potatoes.
Test the potatoes are fully cooked by poking them with a wooden skewer or the point of a sharp knife. There should be no resistance.
Freshly baked potatoes will be extremely hot. Allow them to cool before scooping out the centres.
Leave at least one-quarter of an inch of potato inside the skin.
I used baby potatoes, but you can easily make this dish with larger potatoes. Just increase the other filling ingredients accordingly.

Stuffed potato skins on a white plate with a dish of sour cream and a dish of chopped spring onions.

Equipment

To make this recipe you will need the following main pieces of equipment:

Baking tray - for baking the potatoes. I like to line my tray with baking parchment or tin foil before putting it in the oven to make cleaning up easier. You could also use a silicone baking mat.
Small mixing bowl - for mixing the filling ingredients.
Frying pan - for cooking the bacon.

Storage

If you want to freeze these stuffed potato skins, assemble them and open-freeze them on a baking tray. Once solid, pack them into freezer bags and freeze for up to 4 months.

When you are ready to eat them, take out as many skins as you need and bake them from frozen at 180C / 360F for 12 to 15 minutes until they are well heated and the cheese has melted.

Leftover potato skins can be kept in a covered container in the refrigerator and either allowed to come to room temperature on the countertop or reheated in a hot oven or in the microwave for a few seconds.

Stuffed potato skin FAQ

Do I have to use baby potatoes?

No, you can use whatever potatoes you have available. The steps for making them are the same. You may need to increase the quantities of the bacon and sour cream if your potatoes are on the large side.

What is sour cream?

You may know it as soured cream. This is NOT cream that has been kept too long and turned sour in the refrigerator! Commercially produced sour cream is made from double cream mixed with lactic acid cultures, resulting in a thick texture and a slightly sour taste.

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Here are some other potato recipes that you might enjoy. You can find many other potato recipes on my vegetable recipes page.

📋The recipe

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