Bacon Potato Skins Appetizer – Perfect Game Day

Before you even read this post, do me a favor. If you are on a Windows computer, go ahead and hit CTRL + D. If you’re on a mac, that would be command+D. That will bookmark this Bacon Potato Skins masterpiece recipe so you’ll have it for your next party.

Any time you have any sporting event or celebration, you can open up your browser, find your bookmarks, and be reminded of these wonderful little snacks.

Ok… you don’t actually have to bookmark this post, but these Bacon Potato Skins are good enough to bookmark. Trust me.

Potato skins are one of my favorite appetizers but I never order them at restaurants because I feel ripped off. I mean, after all, it’s just the literal potato skins that the restaurant is then using for mashed potatoes.

They top them with some cheap cheese and sour cream, bake them, and charge you $8 for four.

Best Potatoes for this recipe

There are many potatoes at the markets these days but honestly the best potatoes for potato skins are plain Russet (or Idaho) potatoes. They are large so you can usually get 6-8 potato skins from each potato. Their skin also is thicker so it bakes nicely and gets really crispy.

How to cook the potatoes for potato skins

To start them, scrub your medium-sized Russet potatoes really well. Since we are going to be eating the actual skins, make sure those skins are clean!

Then drizzle the potatoes with some olive oil and sprinkle them with some kosher salt. Then bake them at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes until they are fork tender.

When the taters come out of the oven, let them cool for a few minutes before trying to work with them. They will be way too hot to handle initially.

Baked is great, but takes time.

If you want to make these faster, you can cook the potatoes in the microwave. The down side of this method is that the skin doesn’t get quite as crispy, but you can add some time to the baking later to counter-act that.

You can check out my microwaved baked potato tutorial on Simply Recipes for a really good walkthrough, but basically clean the potato, poke holes in it, and microwave it for probably 15 minutes – flipping it every few minutes, until it’s very soft.

Scooping and scraping the potato skins

When the potatoes have cooled slightly, you are ready to make potato skins! Just slice each potato in half and scoop out most of the flesh. Be sure to save the potato insides to make mashed potatoes or something later.

Also, when scooping out the flesh, leave a thin layer of it on the skin. You don’t want the skin to be too thin or too thick.

Then you can cut the skins down so you get six or eight per potato, depending on size.

What to do with the baked potatoes

When you make potato skins, you’ll be left with a mound of potatoes. Don’t throw these away obviously. You have the perfect base for good mashed potatoes or you could try to make gnocchi out of them!

How to use the bacon to make crispy potato skins

The trick to getting potato skins really crispy is to add some fat to them while they bake (after scooping them). While the potatoes cooked, I cooked some bacon in a skillet until it is very crispy.

Save the bacon for a topping and use some of the bacon grease to crisp up the potatoes!

Toppings for potato skins

I like to keep my potato skins pretty standard when it comes to toppings. Bacon, cheddar cheese, sour cream,and chives are all you need!

Finishing the bacon potato skins

Okay. Now that we have all the ingredients ready, let’s finish these!

Most potato skin recipes recommend a double baking strategy meaning that you bake the skins once so they get crispy, then you top them and bake them a second time to melt the cheese or whatever.

For the first baking, it’s good to rub the skins with a small amount of oil or melted butter.

I just used bacon grease though because that’s how I roll.

The key thing to remember here is to use a very light coating of grease on each potato skin. It shouldn’t be thick or pooling at all on the skins. A little goes a long way.

Once you have brushed the skins with a small amount of bacon grease, bake them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. They will start to get pretty crispy at that point.

If you chose to microwave the potato skins, you might want to flip them and bake them for another 5-8 minutes to encourage crispiness.

Then take them out of the oven. When you are ready to serve the skins, top them with some grated cheese and crumbled bacon.

Back in the oven for another five minutes or so just to melt the cheese and you are in business!

Baked potato skins with cheese and bacon.

I like to serve my skins with lots of chopped chives and sour cream.

Not everybody likes sour cream, but I sure do.

These Bacon Potato Skins are some of the best potato skins I’ve had.

I had some friends over for game night and we completely housed about forty of these skins in just a few minutes. They will go quick!