Ever gawked at a plate of tiny potato skins and wondered how you could eat half a dozen without looking like a fat @$$?
Next time – make them ginormous, so you can barely finish one by yourself. BAM. Problem solved.
Behold– the epic lovechild of a Loaded Baked Potato Skin, and a Twice Baked Potato.
This is a pretty simple recipe that I like to whip out for pot lucks and lazy Sundays. I normally get yelled at for cooking way too much food (I tend to cook for ten people when there’s only four at the table), but after making these bad boys for dinner after a snowboarding trip this past weekend, and watching them all get devoured – for once, I didn’t have to beg anyone to doggy-bag the rest for lunch the next day.
See, I made these almost every other week during football season (after spending my Sundays at a house full of boys who liked to point fingers at the only woman around to make them dinner), and soon realized that if you throw bacon, cheese, butter, and cream on anything, then bake it ’til it all melts together – a man would happily eat it.
I like that while the potatoes heat in the oven (for about an hour) – you can do everything else in the mean time. While you wait, you can chop up your scallions, cook your bacon, and use the drained fat to cook your shrimp.
YUP. That’s right. You cook the shrimp in the bacon fat. If there’s one reason why this recipe is full proof – it’s because of the bacon and shrimp cooked in, well – bacon. If I’ve ever made these for you, and you wondered why you felt like you just had a grease facial, smelled like a pig, and felt significantly lethargic shortly after – it’s because you were on a bacon high.
You’re welcome. 😉
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 6 Russet Potatoes (scrubbed and rinsed)
- Olive Oil (to coat the potatoes)
- 6-8 slices of Bacon (center cut)
- 1 pound large Shrimp – peeled & deveined, tails removed
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Cajun Season
- 2 tsp Old Bay
- 2 tsp Garlic Powder
- Hot Sauce
- 5 Green Onions (thinly sliced) / separate white part for filling, dark green part for garnish
- 1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar
- 6 tbsp Butter
- 1/3 cup Sour Cream
- 5 tbsp Mayonnaise
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 2 tsp Sugar
Directions
- Preheat Oven to 450 degrees.
- Rub the potatoes in Olive Oil, and liberally season them with salt.
- Put them in a baking tray and bake for 1 hour.
- In the mean time, slice your green onions, and cut the shrimp into thirds.
- Cook the bacon at medium-high heat until crisp (about 5 minutes) and place them on a towel. (SAVE the bacon grease!)
- Crumble the bacon, (or chop up the pieces) and set aside.
- Reheat the bacon fat at medium-high heat
- Pour in the shrimp, cajun seasoning, old bay, garlic powder, and add salt / pepper / hot sauce to your liking.
- Cook until the shrimp are opaque, and stir constantly for about 3 minutes.
- When the potatoes are done, take them out and let them cool for a few minutes.
- Halve the potatoes to create two long halves (if they’re too hot to handle, you can use tongs to hold them in place with one hand, and cut with the other).
- Gently scoop the flesh of each potato halve carefully, leaving a 1/4 inch thick border, and discard into a large bowl.
- In the large bowl, mix together the potatoes, salt, green onions (white part only), cheddar, butter, sour cream, mayonnaise, ground pepper, and sugar.
- Fill each potato skin with the filling.
- Top with shrimp, bacon, and grated cheese.
- Bake for 15 more minutes at 350 degrees.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle with green onions (green parts), drizzle some sour cream on top and serve.
Enjoy!
