Loaded Mini Baked Potatoes Recipe - Beyond Flour (2024)

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With St Patrick’s Day, I’m all about the potato recipes at the moment - and today’s recipe is one of my absolute favourite potato appetizers!

This easy appetizer involves roasted baby potatoes, done up twice-baked style, with a cheesy bacon filling.

Topped with a little sour cream and a sprinkling of chives, these mini baked potatoes are a great finger food for game day or dinner parties.

It’s also a great size dish to jazz up a random weeknight dinner - They can be roasted and assembled ahead of time, to be reheated and topped with minimal effort!

You know, an ideal side dish for busy weeknights! Serve it along some roasted chicken breast, pork chops - whatever.

Or, if you’re like us, it can go from “delicious side dish” to “main dish” by simply mowing the batch down on its own.

... trust me, we’re not in any position to judge, as we’ve definitely polished off a batch of these mini potatoes as an actual meal, LOL.

Anyway, let’s get to that recipe...

Ingredients

This quick appetizer - or easy side dish - uses some really simple ingredients that should be easy to find at any grocery store.

A few notes for you:

Mini Potatoes

While I usually use russet potatoes when making regular baked potatoes (and potato recipes that are *adjacent* to baked potatoes, like my Loaded Baked Potato Skins!), I generally use waxier type small potatoes for this recipe.

Of course, that could be because the little potatoes / new potatoes I see in stores are generally Yukon golds, red potatoes, etc... but I digress. The waxier type yield excellent results!

For best results, try to aim to keep the size of your potatoes pretty similar across the batch, as the size of the potatoes affects the cooking time.

Larger potatoes take longer to cook, so the smaller ones will need to be removed early, or risk burning.

Also, I find a consistent size just looks nicer on the plate, when presenting these as a party appetizer!

Bacon

I like to bake my bacon ahead of time, doing up a few more slices than I need, and using them for salads and such in the coming days.

What I do is line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, and arrange the raw bacon in a single layer on top, not touching.

Bake at 400 F for about 20-22 minutes, until crispy.

Lift the bacon slices from the pan, transfer to a plate lined with paper towels, and blot the excess grease from the tops of the bacon with another paper towel.

SO much easier than frying, and the bacon turns out much better, IMHO.

Bonus: You can use rendered bacon fat in place of the olive oil, for roasting the potatoes!

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you’ll need:

Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Sour Cream
Butter
Fresh Chives, or Green Onions
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

... I just really don’t have anything to add, for these ingredients!

Variations

While I love this flavor profile for my mini baked potatoes, feel free to customize the filling - and potato toppings - to suit your own tastes.

A few ideas:

Change the Cheese

2 words: Parmesan potatoes! Simply swap the cheddar out for some grated Parmesan cheese@

When doing Parmesan, I like to add a little fresh garlic, and swap the green onion out for some fresh parsley.

That said, all kinds of cheese work well in this recipe - gouda, havarti, pepper jack - just go with what you like!

Change the Greens

As far as fresh herbs go, I tend to look at the green onion - or fresh chives - as kind of my default for loaded baked potatoes.

Don’t let that stop you from using chopped fresh rosemary, thyme, or whatever else you like in your potatoes.

Vegetarian Mini Baked Potatoes

If you swap the crispy bacon out for vegan bacon bits, this becomes a vegetarian recipe.

If you swap the dairy ingredients out for your favourite plant based alternatives, you can make it a vegan recipe.

Really, it’s all about the technique with this one!

Add More Seasonings

For the most part, I like to let the bacon, cheese, and greens take center stage in the filling, seasoning them with just a bit of sea salt and Ground Black Pepper, to support.

That said, sometimes I like to add other seasonings to the mix - garlic is a great flavor to add to cheese and bacon, IMHO.

Try swapping out the salt for garlic salt, or adding a little Garlic Powder.

Onion Powder, Paprika, Mustard Powder, Smoked Paprika, and Smoked Sea Salt are all great additions, whether alone or combined with other seasonings.

Want to add some heat?

Add a bit of Cayenne Pepper, Chili Powder, Crushed Chilies, Jalapeno Powder, and /or Smoked Serrano Powder to the mix.

Feeling like going for a little southwest flavor?

Ground Coriander, Ground Cumin, and some Hatch Chile Powder are fantastic.

Just have fun with it!

How to Make Mini Baked Potatoes

The full ingredients list is included in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is a pictorial walk through.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lay 2 overlapping pieces of aluminum foil on a large sheet pan. (I like to use a rimmed baking sheet for this).

Prick each potato all over with a fork.

Place the mini potatoes in a large bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil, and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper

Place potatoes on the foil lined baking sheet. Pull the long ends of the foil up over the potatoes. Hold together and roll down to form a tube over the potatoes.

Fold in both ends of the foil tube, forming a sealed packet.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven, turn the oven heat up to 425 F.

Carefully unfold the foil packet, spread the potatoes out evenly over the foil lined baking sheet, return to the oven.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until crispy on the outside and fork tender. When done, remove potatoes from the oven and turn the heat down to 400 F.

Note: Smaller potatoes may need to be removed from the pan earlier, as they will cook faster than larger potatoes.

As your potatoes are baking, prepare your filling ingredients - you’ll want them ready to go!

Measure out the butter and sour cream, shred the cheese, chop up the bacon and green onion (or chives).

Allow cooked potatoes to cool slightly, before cutting the top ¼ or so off the top of each potato.

Use a melon baller or small metal measuring spoon (I used a ¼ teaspoon measure) to scoop most of the flesh from the center of each potato, placing the loose potato flesh in the bowl of a mini food processor, and the skins back on the baking pan.

Once all of the potatoes have been scooped out, add butter, sour cream, and shredded cheese to the scooped potato flesh, blitz until smooth.

Add the green onions / chives and bacon, blitz once more to combine and process the bacon down.

Season the cheesy potato filling with salt and pepper, to taste.

Using a small spoon or pastry bag, fill the scooped potato skins with the cheesy potato mixture.

Bake for 15 more minutes in the 400F oven , or until heated through.

To serve, arrange hot mini baked potatoes on a serving dish.

Top with a dab of sour cream, sprinkle additional bacon and/or chives on top.

Serve immediately.

Leftovers

Once you’ve piped the sour cream onto the mini potatoes, it’s best to avoid leftovers, if possible.

An easy way to do this is to only re-bake as many of the stuffed potatoes as you plan to eat - the rest can be cooled to room temperature and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.

Covering and storing the piped - but not re-baked - potatoes makes this a great make-ahead option, too!

When you’re ready to serve them, just bake at 400 for 15 minutes or so - until heated through - then top and serve!

If you DO end up with leftovers, they can be kept covered in the fridge for several days. Best reheated for 30 seconds or so in the microwave, before spending a few minutes in an air fryer.

More Delicious Gluten-Free Snacks and Appetizer Recipes!

Looking for even more fantastic gluten-free munchies that *everyone* will love? Look no further, I’ve got some great recipes for you !

Ahi Tuna Nachos
Air Fryer Jalapeno Poppers
Cucumber Shrimp Canapes
Deep Fried Stuffed Olives [Gluten Free Option in the Post]
Gluten-Free Beaver Tail Recipe
Gluten Free Cheez-Its
Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets
Gluten Free Chicken Pakora
Gluten-Free Chicken Satay
Gluten Free Corn Dogs
Gluten-Free Doughnut Holes Recipe
Gluten Free Fried Brie
Gluten-Free Gougeres
Gluten Free Mushroom Turnovers
Gluten-Free Paneer Pakora
Gluten Free Pizza Bites
Gluten-Free Samosa Recipe
Gluten Free Soft Pretzels
Gluten-Free Sauerkraut Buns [Piroshki]
Gluten Free Tempura
Hot Smoky Bacon Crab Dip
Jalapeno Popper Dip
Marinated Feta Cheese
Mini Mushroom Arancini [Gluten Free adaptation in the post!]
Smoked Salmon Canapes

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