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Our Twice Baked Potatoes are cheesy potato perfection. Perfect for potato lovers, loaded with cheese, sour cream, cheddar, and bacon. Your family and friends are going to devour this one!
We’re making twice baked potatoes, because if baking them once is good, baking them twice must be great!
It’s me, your friendly neighborhood potato connoisseur.
Every time we go out to a restaurant, I’m begging to order an appetizer. I mean, no, I’ll never be able to eat my entire meal plus an appetizer, but I’ll always try my best. 😜
Potato skins are a favorite of my husbands, but I’m always left a little…sad. Like, what did they do with all the potato? Why do I only get the skin?
Enter twice baked potatoes – they’re similar to a potato skin, but they aren’t missing all the good parts of a potato!
These twice baked potatoes make the PERFECT side dish – creamy, cheesy, carby. What’s not to love? 😉
These definitely are a bit more time intensive than some of my recipes, but a lot of it is hands off time while the potatoes bake. Besides, I firmly believe that potatoes are worth a bit of effort. After all…they’re potatoes.
Between these, our loaded mashed potatoes, and our crockpot potato soup, we eat entirely too many potatoes – and never regret a second of it.
Ingredient Notes & Swaps:
Potatoes – We use Russet potatoes here and try to use ones that are similar in size to each other for even baking.
Milk – We use 2% or whole milk when cooking. Either are great.
Sour Cream – Sub 0% Greek Yogurt if you prefer that. It’ll add a boost of protein.
Butter
Cream Cheese – The kind that comes in a brick is preferred.
Seasoned Salt – You could use plain sea salt here, but we really love the extra oomp from a little Lawry’s!
Bacon – You can bake it (400 degrees for about 15 minutes on parchment or foil), fry it, or make our air fryer bacon. Crumble it up once it’s crispy.
Cheddar – We prefer freshly shredded so that it melts better. This rotary cheese grater has been a favorite thing in our house!
Chives – We sprinkle these over the top. Green onion also works well or just leave it off for picky eaters.
What We Love About This Recipe!
Creamy mashed potatoes, plenty of cheddar, and bacon, and it’s all served up in a potato shell, making it easy to serve a crowd. You can easily halve or double this recipe to feed as many people as necessary. Plus, you can freeze these for later – tips on that below!
How To Make Twice Baked Potatoes:
Poke holes in the potatoes and then bake them at 375 for an hour or until they’re fork tender. While the oven is preheating to 375 degrees, scrub the potatoes clean and poke holes in the sides with a fork so that it can vent while baking.
Cut the baked potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the inside into a mixing bowl, leaving about 1/8th of an inch of potato along the skin.
Helpful Tip!
Let the potatoes cool for a few minutes before scooping out the flesh, but not too long or they’ll be hard to mash.
Add the milk, butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and seasoned salt to the potatoes and mash well until it all comes together. Add additional milk to reach your desired consistency, if you’d like. Mix in the bacon, chives, and cheddar.
Use a spoon to begin filling the potato skin shells evenly with the mixture, and finally top them all with the remaining cheddar cheese. Bake the filled shells topped with cheese for about 15-20 minutes more in the oven or until the cheese has melted and the potatoes are cooked through.
Freeze for Later!
While these aren’t difficult to make, they do take a bit of time, so I like to make enough to freeze some for later!
Prepare the recipe up to the second bake.
Let the potatoes cool for 30 minutes on a baking sheet, transfer to the freezer for 1 hour, and then wrap individually in foil.
Freeze for up to 3 months.
To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, remove the foil, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
Make it a Meal!
Pair this with…
- Slow Cooker Spiral Ham
- Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
- Pork Tenderloin
- Slow Cooker Ribs
- Air Fryer Drumsticks
Twice Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
- 6 Russet potatoes
- ½ cup milk more as needed
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup butter room temperature
- 2 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 2 teaspoons seasoned salt
- 6 pieces bacon fried and crumbled
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar divided
- 2 tablespoons minced chives plus more for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Scrub the potatoes clean and poke holes in the skin with a fork.
- Place potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour or until fork tender. Allow to cool slightly.
- Cut potatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop the potatoes out into a mixing bowl leaving about 1/8th of an inch of potato along the skin.
- Add the milk, sour cream, butter, cream cheese, and seasoned salt to the potatoes and mash well until smooth and creamy. Add additional milk if needed to reach the desired consistency. Taste and add additional salt, if needed.
- Stir the bacon, ¾ cup of cheddar, and chives into the potatoes until combined.
- Spoon the mashed potatoes evenly into the shells.
- Top with the remaining cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are heated through and the cheese has melted.
- Sprinkle with additional chives before serving.
sharyn fireman says
Love stuffed potatoes. after baking, I slice off the top. I scoop out and place the “top” of the potato (skin down) into bottom of shell. It gives it a better “HEIGHT”. I mix tog a bit of milk, butter and goat cheese to heat and add to potato mashed with chives. Don’t add toooo much liquid into mash. Put back into shell. Sprinkle w Paprika and continue to bake. It’s sooooo yum.
Bobbie Sutton says
I made these last night , best twice baked potatoes ever. They were even great for lunch today.
Karly says
So glad you enjoyed them, Bobbie! Thanks for the sweet comment! 🙂
vicki says
this was ok. i think i would add more bacon bits and add them as a topping. i could also cut back on seasoned salt. it seems like i got a lot of filling even though it was mounded high in the shell. the taste was ok and we ate them, not sure if I will use this particular recipe again.
Jackie W. says
I’ve never made twice baked potatoes in my life and these were better than ordering them at a restaurant! ?
Karly says
Yay! Love to hear that! 🙂
Kate says
Perfect use for leftover baked potatoes! So easy and yummy – even reheated days later.
Karly says
Thanks, Kate!
Carla says
I make these when I feel ambitious. My husband and I both love the twice baked potatoes. I skip the bacon and cheddar, but do use the sour cream, 1/2 and 1/2, salt and pepper to taste. I beat the insides of the potato with an electric hand mixer, put that back into the skins and bake until the mashed potatoes are golden brown. My daughter makes these often but then, lol, she is lots younger than I.
Most of the time I use the already mashed potatoes that are either by Bob Evans, or the ones at Price Chopper/Market 32. The older we become the lazier we become.
Tom Dudak says
I have made these long before they were selling in the stores. I put chopped green onion tops and Mozzarella, in the potato mixture, and mild cheddar in the potato boat before filling, after filling the boat, I add Mozzarella and cheddar combined for the top and add the chives before cooking, then cook for 20 minutes so that the cheese gets all gooey inside then after taking out of the oven I let them rest for 5 minutes before serving. Great for a leftover lunch the next day.
Karly says
Sounds delicious!