Crispy on the outside pillow-y, soft on the inside, and loaded with good things – that’s what makes a perfect stuffed potato perfect. That’s what we had for dinner last night and I think you may want that too. Especially when you see how easy this is.
This is truly not a food you need to buy ready made, you simply need to pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees, wash a couple (or more) potatoes and get out a pan for baking them. Let’s just accept that this dish is actually going to be the star of your dinner, no matter what else you are serving. It is amazing how something so basic can delight my family making it seem like I’ve spent all day in the kitchen when in truth I’ve baked a potato for an hour and put some good stuff in it. Once you have acknowledged that, you really just need a steak, or fish, or chicken to throw on the grill or under the broiler and an equally simple veggie to steam/broil and dinner is a fait accompli. Sadly, I think my guys would be perfectly happy with just the potato. I use a couple of tricks to keep this from being a mess and to add extra yumminess (is that a word?) to the potatoes. One trick is simply to line the pan with foil, coat it with olive oil, roll the potatoes in the oil and add a little salt and pepper and then roll the potatoes again to cover with seasonings.
I like to say this is for health reasons so everyone will eat the skin, but in truth it’s because it’s just delicious when it’s crispy and a bit salty. Next I add roasted garlic, which sounds like a big process, but actually I wait until the potatoes are half way baked and throw two whole un-skinned cloves into the pan with the potatoes. Once the potatoes are cooked and soft – really about an hour, I cut them in half to cool for 10 minutes.
The next step is to scoop the potatoes out add the basics, sour cream of course, butter, and chopped green onions. My favorite thing is to use white cheddar. Any cheese would be okay, but somehow this just makes it special. Use half of the cheese in the potato and half on top and don’t forget to squeeze in the garlic cloves when you mash it all up! I promise this will be your perfect stuffed potato and a very easy way to make any dinner shine. You’ll love it!
Ingredients
(You can easily double – triple recipe according to your guests and math skills)
2 russet potatoes, scrubbed clean
1 Tbsp olive oil – just enough to coat potatoes
½ tsp each salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 Tbsp butter
¼ cup sour cream
2 green onions chopped (reserve a pinch to decorate top)
4 oz grated cheddar cheese
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with olive oil.
Roll potatoes in oil on baking sheet, add salt and pepper and roll again.
Pierce each potato gently with a fork a couple of times, and bake for an hour.
Remove from oven and cut lengthwise. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Scoop out potato into a mixing bowl leaving a ½ inch of potato near skin.
Return potato skins to pan.
Mash scooped potato with a potato masher or fork to get out most of the lumps.
Add garlic, butter, sour cream, green onions, half of the cheese, and salt and pepper.
Mix well (taste for seasonings) and add back into potato.
Top with remaining cheese.
Bake for 10 minutes to melt cheese – you may want to broil it for 30 seconds to really get it brown.
Serve to rave reviews!
