Crispy Potato Skins

There’s no easier appetizer than a plateful of crispy potato skins. They’re appetizing, attractive, comforting and easily recognizable. Serve yours with a creamy dill sauce and bacon.

Best Potatoes for Crispy Potato Skins

Russet potatoes make the best potatoes for crispy potato skins. They are a good medium-sized potato with generous stuffing and a tough outer skin. Other potatoes such as the Yukon gold or red potatoes will work in a pinch for this recipe, but their skins are not as tough and will easily rip when prepared for potato skins.

If you do plan to use a potato other than a Russet potato, make sure to leave ample room when scooping, since other potatoes have skin that will easily rip.

How to Prepare Potatoes for Potato Skins

When preparing your potatoes, make sure to start with freshly baked potatoes. After allowing the baked potatoes to cool enough to handle, cut them in half and scoop out the insides, leaving a shell between a half and a quarter-inch thick. Brush the shells with melted butter and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Baking the shells with butter on them will crisp them up and give you a great base for your crispy potato skin. Some recipes call for frying the potato skin before adding toppings. While this will give you a skin like a TGIF potato skin, this method is not only healthier but is also easier. The thinner you are able to scoop the potato and more butter or oil is added the crispier the skins will be.

Best Toppings for Potato Skins

There are many different options when deciding what kind of topping to add to your potato skins.

• Cheddar cheese: Few things are better than super melty cheese on a potato skin. When you have your crispy skins, add shredded cheese to the middle and put them back into the warm oven for a couple of minutes. You can even set your oven to broil to get that cheese to brown and bubble on the tops. Yum!
• Green onion: A fresh pop of green and a bright onion-y flavor is delish on these potato skins.
• Chives: A pairing known well is chives and potatoes. Add instead of, or with, green onion.
• Sour cream: Who doesn’t love sour cream on a potato? Add on the side as a dipping sauce, or make this dill sour cream sauce for your potato skins.
• Bacon: Bacon adds a saltiness and more richness to your potato skins. To make your skins even more decadent, make candied bacon to add to your potato skins.

Potato Skins

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Recipe by Sarah Course: Appetizers, SideCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

25

minutes

Calories

210

kcal

Ingredients

• 5 russet potatoes

• 3 tbsp butter, melted

• sour cream

• cheddar cheese

• chives or green onion

Directions

• Prep. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take baked potatoes and scoop out insides, leaving a quarter to a half-inch of the skin. Use melted butter and use a pastry brush to brush the skins with butter. Bake for 15 minutes.
• Take skins and fill with cheese. Bake again until cheese is melted. Broil is desired to achieve bubbling and slightly browned cheese.
• Fill with toppings. Remove skins from oven and fill with toppings of choosing.