If Baked Potato Bar night isn’t in your dinner routine, this complete guide includes everything you need to assemble an affordable spread of protein-packed, nutritious and delicious toppings. This is also an excellent option for entertaining on a budget.
With a bit of creativity, there are so many budget-friendly meals you can throw together on a whim and feel good about feeding your friends and family, but today we’re talking about the trend-setting loaded baked potato bar.
My kids love building their own loaded baked potatoes, but is there anyone who doesn’t? We like loading ours with traditional toppings like cheese, bacon, sour cream, butter, green, and onions. I add a bowl of ground beef and sausage crumbles as an added protein option. I sometimes wilt a few handfuls of spinach with the beef and sausage mixture to sneak in leafy greens.
Use your imagination and dress the toppings up or down for the occasion. You can serve baked potatoes with different cheeses, veggies, cooked meats, and condiments. Really, there are no rules!
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- What’s not to love about building the loaded baked potato of your dreams?!
- This BYOBPB lets everyone pile on the toppings precise to their preferences and dietary needs. There are lots of gluten-free and dairy-free toppings to choose from.
- This is a healthy kid-friendly meal guaranteed to please everyone on any occasion, casual or fancy!
Ingredients You'll Need
- Russet potatoes – To be fair, you can “bake” any type of potato, but to be a proper baked potato, it must be a russet.
- Olive oil – Rubbing the potato skins lightly with oil helps the skins get crispy instead of burning.
- Ground beef (93%) & mild pork sausage – A simple, flavorful protein option to add to the toppings bar. I like adding lots of garlic here.
- Cheddar cheese – Use cheese grated off the block if you can. It’s much creamier and more flavorful than bagged shredded cheese and typically cheaper.
- Green onions – or chives or both!
- Bacon – For crumbles, I always use center-cut bacon; it has more meat protein and less fat.
- Sour cream & butter – Loaded baked potato standards.
How To Build The Ultimate Baked Potato Bar
Step 1: Prep potatoes for baking. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Meanwhile, scrub the potatoes well, rinse under cool water, and pat dry. Rub lightly with oil, sprinkle with coarse salt, and prick several times with a fork.
Step 2: Bake potatoes. Bake the potatoes on a baking sheet or directly on the rack (with a lined baking sheet underneath to catch the drippings) until the skin is crispy and the insides are tender (40-60 minutes). Once cool enough to handle, wrap it in foil, and keep warm in the oven while you finish assembling the bar.
Step 3: Cook bacon and crumble. Ten minutes before the potatoes are done baking, arrange the bacon strips on a foil-lined baking sheet in a single layer, leaving space between each slice. Then pop it into the oven alongside the spuds and bake until crispy. Cool on a paper-towel-lined plate, then crumble the pieces with your hands.
Step 4: Prepare protein filling. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add ground beef and sausage, and cook, breaking the meat into pieces, until browned and cooked. Drain excess grease from the pan, add garlic and cook until soft and fragrant. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Step 5: Assemble the bar! Serve the baked potatoes buffet-style alongside bowls of the meat mixture and crumbled bacon bits. As for the remaining toppings, anything goes! We love loading baked potatoes with shredded cheddar, sliced green onion, sour cream, and butter. Keep reading for more baked potato topping bar ideas.
Recipe Tips
- For a fail-proof, perfectly baked potato, use a probe thermometer and bake until the internal temperature reaches between 205°F and 212°F.
- After baking, wrap the potatoes in foil and keep them warm in the oven. Some ovens have a “warm” setting that keeps food heated without cooking it any further. If your oven doesn’t have a keep warm setting, set the oven temperature between 170 and 200°F.
- To save time, prep the toppings that you can refrigerate or freeze without sacrificing texture or flavor.
- If you end up with more baked potatoes than you need, making twice-baked potatoes with the leftovers is a no-brainer.
More Topping Ideas
You can’t go wrong with bowls of shredded cheddar, crumbled bacon, green onion or chives, sour cream, and pats of butter. Here are some of the more innovative topping combinations to pile on top of a baked potato:
- Pulled Pork with BBQ Sauce and Coleslaw
- Broccoli, Spinach, and Cheese Sauce
- Taco Seasoned Ground Beef with Salsa, Corn, Black Beans, and Monterey Jack Cheese
- Chili, Diced Onion, Cheddar, and Sour Cream
Want to build a bar that goes beyond impressive? Add baked sweet potatoes as an option with bowls of marshmallows, brown sugar, cinnamon, chocolate chips, chopped pecans, maple syrup, and homemade whipped cream!
Storing
Storing: Serving the toppings in bowls and ramekins with lids makes storing extra toppings and cleaning up so much easier. The time each individual topping will keep varies, so try to repurpose any leftovers as soon as possible. Can you imagine the omelets you could make with baked potato toppings?
Freezing: You can freeze cooked protein toppings like bacon and ground beef once cooked for 2-3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating in a skillet. Do not freeze the fresh produce or dairy toppings.
Recipe FAQs
No. If the potatoes are wrapped in foil, there’s no way for the steam to escape resulting in a bland, boiled taste and texture -and you’re aiming for rich and fluffy. You can, however, wrap the potatoes in foil once baked to keep them warm.
You might think there's a nutritional advantage to eating a sweet potato over a plain old white potato, but they are both full of great nutrients. You can include white and sweet potatoes in a healthy diet and still achieve your weight and body composition goals. Precision Nutrition tackles the sweet potato vs. regular potato debate in this excellent article: Which Potatoes Are Really Healthier?
Yes! Air fryers are a handy piece of kitchen equipment for baked potatoes. To bake perfect potatoes in the air fryer, preheat to 400°F. Meanwhile, prep the potatoes as instructed in the oven direction. Then, arrange in a single layer in the air fryer basket and cook until you can easily pierce with a knife (30-45 minutes).
More Potato Recipes You'll Love
- Slow Cooker Loaded Potatoes
- Loaded Potato Breakfast Casserole
- Slow Cooker Potato Leek Soup
- Beef Sausage Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
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Baked Potato Bar
Ingredients
- 6 russet potatoes rinsed and patted dry
- 1 ½ tablespoon olive oil divided
- coarse salt
- 1 lb lean ground beef 90% or less, I use 93%
- 4 oz ground mild sausage
- 2 cloves garlic pressed
- 4 oz sharp cheddar cheese shredded from the block
- 4 green onions chopped
- 6 slices center cut bacon
- *optional- butter, sour cream and fresh chives *see post for more delicious topping ideas
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
- Rub potatoes with ½ tablespoon oil and poke several holes on the top with a fork, then sprinkle with coarse salt.
- Bake potatoes for 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of your spuds.
- About 10 minutes before potatoes are done, pop the bacon in the oven along with the taters.
- Arrange bacon on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until desired crispiness.
- Allow bacon to cool before crumbling.
- Wrap potatoes in foil and put in the oven on the warm setting while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat and cook the ground beef and sausage until no longer pink
- Drain any grease and add the garlic and cook until soft
- Season beef mixture with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Arrange beef mixture, chopped green onions, shredded cheese, butter, sour cream, and crumbled bacon in bowls and serve ingredients with potatoes, buffet-style.
Notes
- For a fail-proof, perfectly baked potato, use a probe thermometer and bake until the internal temperature reaches between 205°F and 212°F.
- After baking, wrap the potatoes in foil and keep them warm in the oven. Some ovens have a “warm” setting that keeps food heated without cooking it any further. If your oven doesn’t have a keep warm setting, set the oven temperature between 170 and 200°F.
- To save time, prep the toppings that you can refrigerate or freeze without sacrificing texture or flavor.
Nutrition
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Anne|Craving Something Healthy
Love a stuffed baked potato for a quick (and cheap) dinner!
Amee Livingston
Me too Anne!! Spuds rock!
Timothy Martin
Protein-Packed Baked Potato Bar #TheRecipeRedux. How much protein in this "protein packed baked potato bar (using the recipe above.