Note: I’ll be back home from girl’s camp tomorrow. I am sure I will be glad to sleep in my own bed after a week on a bunk bed and a sleeping bag! I’m sure I’ll have some photos to share!
My men love potato skins and so do my girls. In fact they have been a standard part of our Christmas Eve menu for decades!
Well, when I saw the recipe for potato skins in Pioneer Women Cooks I knew they were not just for Christmas Eve any more. They make a great appetizer for just about any party.
We were invited to a 50th birthday party a few weeks ago (there seem to be a lot of those going around lately) and I volunteered to bring an appetizer. Since the party was for a man and there were going to be lots of men there I knew a “man worthy” appetizer was necessary. Potato skins were perfect.
Pioneer Women’s method is a little more labor intensive then my usual recipe but the extra steps give the skins a nice crispy outer crust which, as a non potato lover, I even enjoyed.
Adding the oil to the skins of the potatoes before you cook them gives them that nice crispy skin. After hollowing out the skins you add some more oil and back again to get them even crispier. A little more work but worth it. You can make them to this point earlier in the day if need be and then just add the cheese and bacon and pop back in the oven to melt right before serving.
They are best served warm or hot! Just top them with some sour cream and chopped green onion and watch them disappear!
Taken from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
- 8 slices of bacon I used a nice thick bacon
- 8 russet potatoes scrubbed clean
- canola oil
- kosher salt
- 1 1/2 C. grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 C. sour cream
- 4 green onions sliced
- Preheat the oven to 400 F
- Rub the outside of the scrubbed potatoes with canola oil
- Place on foil lined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until the potatoes are fork tender
- Let potatoes cool so the are easy to handle
- Slice in half lengthwise
- With a spoon or small scoop, scrape out the inner flesh of the potatoes, leaving a small margin of potato in the skins
- Brush both sides of the potato skins with canola oil and salt liberally
- Place the skins cut side down on the pan and return to the oven
- Bake for 7 minutes and then flip the skins over to the other side
- Bake for 7 minutes more or until the skins are crispy.
- Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a skillet and chop into small bits
- Set aside
- Grate the cheese
- When the skins are crisp, remove them from the oven and sprinkle each with cheese and bacon pieces
- Return to the oven just until the cheese melts (2 minutes)
- Just before serving, spoon sour cream onto each skin and sprinkle with sliced green onion
- Serve piping hot
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They look delicious! I’m sure you took home an empty plate. Potato skins=YUM!
They look delish! Question: When you bring an appetizer like this to someones home, do you warm it up there and prepare the finishing details (sour cream, etc) or do you bring them hot from your house? I brought something once to someones house that needed to be reheated in the oven. The hostess was annoyed saying she didn’t have any room in her oven for my dish. What to do? (I haven’t brought anything that had to be hot, since!!)
I brought these warm to the party and then just added the sour cream/toppings there. Potato skins are good at room temperature. If I need to warm or cook something at the party I will always call the hostess before hand to see if that is o.k. .
Yummy! Looks delicious.
I agree that potato skins would be good even at room temperature, but maybe you could pile them into a 9 x13 dish (if you are adding the sour cream & green onion at the party) and put that in one of those insulated carriers. I have a really neat double decker one that holds two 9 x 13 pans. That way they would still get to the party hot.