Loaded Potato Skins
Crispy potato shells loaded with cheese, bacon, and sour cream - the ultimate pub snack
- 6 mediumrusset potatoes
- 8 slicesbacon(cooked crispy, crumbled)
- 2 cupsshredded cheddar cheese
- 4 tbspbutter(melted)
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 0.5 tspgarlic powder
- 0.5 tspblack pepper
- 0.5 cupsour cream(for serving)
- 3 tbspchives(chopped, for garnish)
Bake and hollow potatoes up to 2 days ahead. Crisp and fill just before serving.
- 1Preheat oven to 400°F
- 2Scrub potatoes and prick several times with fork
- 3Bake directly on oven rack for 60 minutes until tender
- 4Let cool enough to handle, then halve lengthwise
- 5Scoop out flesh leaving 1/4-inch shell (save flesh for another use)
- 6Increase oven to 450°F
- 7Brush potato skins inside and out with melted butter
- 8Season with salt, garlic powder, and pepper
- 9Place on baking sheet cut-side up and bake 10 minutes until crispy
- 10Fill each skin with cheese and bacon
- 11Return to oven for 5 minutes until cheese melts
- 12Top with sour cream and chives before serving
Russets are essential - their starchy flesh creates the crispiest shells. Don't discard the scooped potato - make mashed potatoes. Brushing both sides with butter is crucial for crispness. Pre-cook bacon until very crispy; it won't crisp further in the oven. Serve immediately while shells are still crunchy.
Loaded potato skins as a restaurant appetizer are closely associated with T.G.I. Friday's, which claims to have created the dish in 1974 at their New York City location, though similar preparations using potato shells had appeared in home cooking contexts before that. The dish belongs to the broader American tradition of zero-waste cooking — using the hollowed skin that most people discarded as the vessel for a composed appetizer. The Russet Burbank potato, the standard for baked potatoes in American cooking, was developed by horticulturist Luther Burbank in Lunenburg, Massachusetts in 1872 and became the dominant American baking potato through the 20th century. Cheddar cheese, sour cream, and bacon bits — the canonical potato skin toppings — are all products of the American dairy and pork industries that experienced rapid commercial expansion through the post-World War II period. T.G.I. Friday's as a restaurant concept itself was founded in New York City in 1965 by Alan Stillman as one of America's first singles bars; its menu innovations through the 1970s and 1980s, including potato skins and other appetizer-focused formats, helped define the American casual-dining genre. By the 1980s, potato skins had become a staple of American sports bars and casual restaurants nationwide.