Quick Twice Baked Potatoes
Quick Twice Baked Potatoes are crispy potato skins loaded up with a creamy potato filling of cheese, bacon and green onions and are ready to eat in just 30 minutes.
Everyone has dishes whose separate components together make up the perfect meal and you are just simply not allowed to make one part of the meal without always serving up the other part of the meal with it. In our house, that particular rule applies to my hubbys favorite steak dinner. My Oven Grilled Pan Seared Steak always gets served up with these Quick Twice Baked Potatoes and a side of cheesy broccoli pasta. Don’t judge, the broccoli makes it healthy. … Right? No steak? No Quick Twice Baked Potatoes …. no Quick Twice Baked Potatoes? .. I had better be serving up chicken because the two just have to go hand in hand together and one cannot be served without the other. House rules!
What are twice baked potatoes? Simply put, twice baked potatoes are baked potatoes that have the potato inside scooped out and added to yummy things like cheese, bacon and green onions and then that filling is mixed all together and then put back into the crispy potato skin and baked with EVEN MORE cheese, bacon and green onion. YUM!!!
WHAT’S THE SECRET TO QUICK TWICE BAKED POTATOES?
This is an easy one … microwave! With a little care and a few easy steps, your microwave can serve up perfectly cooked baked potatoes. You can definitely spend the hour + time needed to make these twice baked potatoes in the oven but why spend that time if you don’t have to?
CAN YOU FREEZE TWICE BAKED POTATOES?
Oh heck yeah, you can!!! Simply follow the instructions below but stop before cooking them. Instead move the pan to your freezer and freeze the Quick Twice Baked Potatoes for 2 – 3 hours or until completely frozen. Move them to a zip top bag and store in your freezer up to 3 months. To reheat in the oven, place on a pan and cover with foil. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 45 mintues before removing the foil and then cooking for another 15 minutes. If you want them quicker than an hour, start them off by cooking the Quick Twice Baked Potatoes in the microwave on high for 10 mintues and then moving them to the 350 degree oven to finish for 15 – 20 minutes. You could also simply reheat them in the microwave but they will not be as crispy as if you had heated them in the oven.
HOW DO YOU MAKE QUICK TWICE BAKED POTATOES?
Easy! To make these Quick Twice Baked Potatoes, pre-heat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking pan with foil or parchment paper. Wash and pat the potatoes dry. Take paper towels and gently run them under running water. Squeeze out any excess water and wrap each potato in a damp paper towel. Move the wrapped potatoes to a microwave safe dish and heat on high for 5 minutes. Turn the potato over and heat on high for another 5 minutes. If your potatoes are a bit large, you may need to one more pass of 5 mintues. Once they are cooked, you should be able to insert a knife easily into your potato.
Once potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice potatoes in half lengthwise and run a knife along the outside of the inside of the potato, careful not to puncture or slice the potato skin. Using a spoon, gently scoop out the potato insides into a large mixing bowl.
Do not take the spoon all the way to the skin, leave a bit of potato around the edge to give the potato skin structure.
To the mixing bowl and potato, add the butter, most of the shredded cheese, most of the bacon, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper and most of the green onion.
Using an electric mixer or hand masher, blend until the potatoes are the consistantcy you enjoy (chunky vs smooth).
Spoon filling back into the potato boats and sprinkle with the reserved shredded cheese, bacon and green onion.
Line up the potatoes on the prepared baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
PS .. if you have a lot of filling left over (I usually do!) check out my recipe for Cheesy Twice Baked Potato Casserole!
Enjoy!
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Quick Twice Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 large russet potatoes
- 1 stick butter softened
- 8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese divided
- 6 slices bacon cooked crisp or 1 pouch pre-cooked bacon bits
- 6 green onions diced
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- PS... these also freeze beautifully .. just make and bake them and then transfer them to a zip lock bag when they have cooled .. they can then be microwaved or heated back up in the oven (thaw them in fridge overnight) for another 20 minutes at 400 degrees
- Easy! To make these Quick Twice Baked Potatoes, pre-heat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking pan with foil or parchment paper. Wash and pat the potatoes dry. Take paper towels and gently run them under running water. Squeeze out any excess water and wrap each potato in a damp paper towel. Move the wrapped potatoes to a microwave safe dish and heat on high for 5 minutes. Turn the potato over and heat on high for another 5 minutes. If your potatoes are a bit large, you may need to one more pass of 5 mintues. Once they are cooked, you should be able to insert a knife easily into your potato.
- Once potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice potatoes in half lengthwise and run a knife along the outside of the inside of the potato, careful not to puncture or slice the potato skin. Using a spoon, gently scoop out the potato insides into a large mixing bowl. Do not take the spoon all the way to the skin, leave a bit of potato around the edge to give the potato skin structure.
- To the mixing bowl and potato, add the butter, most of the shredded cheese, most of the bacon, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper and most of the green onion. Using an electric mixer or hand masher, blend until the potatoes are the consistantcy you enjoy (chunky vs smooth). Spoon filling back into the potato boats and sprinkle with the reserved shredded cheese, bacon and green onion. Line up the potatoes on the prepared baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Currently making right now. The oven for 10 minutes didn’t work. ;( my potatoes are hard as almost rocks. Will try again another day. These are getting boiled to mash right now! Lol
Well we are super sorry that they did not come out as intended and we see the confusion in the recipe card. You preheat your oven to 425. While that’s heating you are going to cook you potatoes in the microwave and that’s where the 10 minutes comes into play. Then you are going to scoop the insides of you cooked potatoes into a bowl with you other ingredients, combine and then fill you potato shells with the filling. Then you are going to move that to your oven and bake that for 10 minutes or warmed through.
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I am putting these ingredients on my shopping list and trying this. Looks so good!
I love twice baked potatoes! And I would never have thought of freezing them, thank you for sharing !
These are definitely going on my list of things I need to make ASAP! My family loves potatoes and I’m pretty sure they would devour these!
I love that you have a quick version of twice baked potatoes! These are definitely a favorite side in our house, but I have to admit, I’m not always willing to go to all the effort to make these. I’ll definitely be trying out your quick tips to make them a little less of a chore!
Twice baked potatoes are so good! I’ve been meaning to make them for my son but haven’t gotten around to it. I love that you mix the filling and then put it back in the potato instead of just using everything as a topping. My grandmother used to just mash potatoes and use that as filling. This is a great idea!
I used to make twice baked potatoes all the time and I’ve just realized I haven’t had them in atleast 2 years. Guess what I’m craving now? Your recipe looks spot on and wonderful! I can’t wait to add them to my dinner rotation soon.
Great tutorial! Amazing kid friendly dish. I wonder if i can add this potatoes to my kids lunch box? Would be awesome!
These potatoes look so GOOD! I love all the ingredients you put in the filling and I like that you can freeze these too. Great to pop out when I want a quick side dish.
I’m obsessed with potatoes and twice baked loaded potatoes is my favorite. You know I can finish the whole batch in now time 😀
Your recipe post is so helpful! Had no idea I could make these in the microwave and I had NO IDEA I could freeze twice baked potatoes! Your step-by-step process shots are also super helpful! Love this post! Such quality content!!
OK I am seeeeriously drooling over here! These look SO decadent and delicious! Love the tip about the wet paper towel – I’ve “baked” potatoes in the microwave before but never like that. Awesome!
Twice baked potatoes are the absolute BEST! I love making them for steak nights with guests! These look amazing!!