Twice Baked Potatoes for Two (2024)

Jan 6, 2014 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan · Last modified: Nov 28, 2023 · 8 Comments

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Cooking time: 20 minutes mins

Simple and delicious, Twice Bake Potatoes are perfect for two or more. Creamy, cheesy, and packed with bacon and things you love—a great side dish for any meal or date night.

Easy to make ahead and freeze for later. Perfect for steak or many other meals or load on the topping, and it can be the main course.

🥔Ingredients

Potatoes—large russet only
Dairy—butter, sour cream, milk, shredded cheese
Seasoning salt and black pepper
Optional ingredients—bacon, green onion, chives, broccoli, or anything else.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

🥔Ingredients
👨‍🍳How to Make Twice-Baked Potatoes
✔️Tips to make it right every time
Serving
Other potato recipes
❓How to make them ahead
Storage and reheating leftovers
FAQs
📖 Recipe

This easy twice-baked potato recipe is delicious with cheesy potatoes and your choice of additives or toppings. Make them for two or a crowd.

Take your baked potatoes to the next level with simple step-by-step photo instructions. Make them loaded twice-baked potatoes with bacon, cheese, and onion.

👨‍🍳How to Make Twice-Baked Potatoes

Special note: Pictures are for eight servings, but instructions and recipe card are written for 2 servings (one potato.) Use the serving adjustment in the recipe care to adjust for larger amounts.

Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.

Scrub the skin well.

Brush the skin with a light coat of oil. This will help the skin not dry out and break as you scoop.

Bake for 1 hour or a little more. Be sure they are well done. If unsure, check for an internal temperature of 200° to 210°.

While potatoes are cooking, combine butter, sour cream, milk, shredded cheese, seasoning salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add optional ingredients, but do not add onion if storing for later. Mash them together and set them aside.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes; cut in half, then scoop out most of the potato with a large spoon, leaving a ¼ inch rim of potato.

Add the potato to the butter mixture and mash together—no need to over-mix. Rough is fine. You could add other things at this point.Bacon bits would be about 2 tablespoons or 1 slice of bacon per half of the potato. The green onion is about one onion per whole potato. If freezing or storing, do not use green onion.

Scoop the potato mixture back into the skins and top with shredded cheese. You could refrigerate or freeze them at this point.

✔️Tips to make it right every time

Use only russet potatoes for twice-baked potatoes. You need the starchy center and the thicker skin to hold it together.
While still warm, the potato should be mixed with the sour cream or the texture may be gummy.
Do not over-mix the potato mixture. Mix by hand or gently with the mixer unless you want a fluffy mashed potato texture.
Be careful to spoon out the potato, leaving about ¼ inch to protect the skin.
Do not use onion if you plan to store or freeze the potatoes. The taste will dominate.
Most optional ingredients may be added to the potatoes or on top before baking.

Serving

We use twice-baked potatoes with steak recipes, like Pan Seared Oven Roasted Strip Steak or Pan Seared Oven Roasted Filet Mignon. But they are also exceptional with Baked Chicken Breasts or Pan Seared Oven Roasted Pork Tenderloin.

Other potato recipes

Check out these other easy potato recipes, like Roasted Baby Potatoes, Parmesan Potato Wedges Parmesan Baked Potatoes, and Crispy Smashed Potatoes.

❓How to make them ahead

Once stuffed, the potatoes can be sealed airtight and refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 3 months. If doing either, do not add onion, which will dominate the flavors.

Generally, frozen potatoes would be thawed first, but frozen twice-baked potatoes can be cooked without thawing. Remove from the freezer and unwrap. Place in a baking dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake covered for about 30 minutes at 425°, then uncover and bake another 15-20 minutes until hot.

Storage and reheating leftovers

Store leftovers sealed in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 4 days. Leftovers can be frozen depending on your optional ingredients.

Reheating in the oven, air fryer, or microwave.

FAQs

How to prevent "gummy" twice-baked potatoes?

The gummy texture comes from mixing cold ingredients after the starch has fully formed. To prevent this, mix the filled while the potato is still warm, don't over-mix, and with a hand mixer to fluf a little.

This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

Potato Recipes, Side Dish Recipes

Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.

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📖 Recipe

Twice Baked Potatoes for Two

From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

Simple and delicious,Twice Bake Potatoesare perfect for two or more. Creamy, cheesy, and packed with bacon and things you love—a great side dish for any meal or date night.

4.48 from 23 votes

Prep Time: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Ingredients

US Customary - Convert to Metric

▢ 1 russet potato - larger
▢ 2 tablespoons butter
▢ 2 tablespoons sour cream
▢ 2 tablespoons milk
▢ ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese - plus a little for topping
▢ ¼ teaspoon seasoning salt - I used Lowry's
▢ ⅛ teaspoon pepper
▢ 1-2 strips bacon - 8 Tbsp or 4 strips, optional
▢ 1 green onion - One per potato - optional
▢ anything else you want - optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.
Scrub the potato skin well.
Brush the skin with a light coat of oil. This will help the skin not dry out and break as you scoop.
Bake for 1 hour or a little more. Be sure they are well done. If unsure, check for an internal temperature of 200° to 210°.
While potatoes are cooking, combine butter, sour cream, milk, shredded cheese, seasoning salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add optional ingredients but do not add onion if storing for later. Mash them together and set them aside.
Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes; cut in half, then scoop out most of the potato with a large spoon leaving a ¼ inch rim of potato.
Add the potato to the butter mixture and mash together—no need to over-mix. Rough is fine. You could add other things at this point.Bacon bits would be about 2 tablespoons or 1 slice of bacon per half of the potato. The green onion is about one onion per whole potato. If freezing or storing, do not use green onion.
Scoop the potato mixture back into the skins and top with a little shredded cheese. You could refrigerate or freeze them at this point.
You can add more optional ingredients before baking. Place on baking tray sprayed with PAM and bake at 375° for about 20 minutes until hot and browning.

Do you have a question?Leave a comment to ask or check the recipe post above for most common questions and variations.

Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print. Otherwise step-by-step photos are in the post.

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Recipe Notes

Pro Tips

This is only for mature Russet potatoes.
The recipe is for one potato which makes two servings. You can easily adjust the ingredients in this recipe card by changing the number of servings.
I find half of a potato is a good serving.
The milk, sour cream, cheese, and usually bacon are basic. So is the green onion usually, but I would skip it if refrigerating or freezing.
Good sealed tightly in the refrigerator for 3-4 days and frozen for 2-3 months. So make them ahead.
You can cook a still-frozen twice baked potato. Instructions are in the post. But generally, you would though first.

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories : 241 kcal (12%)Carbohydrates : 21 g (7%)Protein : 5 g (10%)Fat : 16 g (25%)Saturated Fat : 10 g (50%)Cholesterol : 44 mg (15%)Sodium : 211 mg (9%)Potassium : 493 mg (14%)Fiber : 1 g (4%)Sugar : 2 g (2%)Vitamin A : 505 IU (10%)Vitamin C : 6 mg (7%)Calcium : 110 mg (11%)Iron : 1 mg (6%)

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course : Potato

Cuisine : American

© 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.

Inspired by Pioneer Woman since she keeps it basic.

Editor's Note: Originally published January 6, 2014. Updated with expanded discussion and options. Photos have been refreshed, and a table of contents has been added to aid navigation.

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