Monday, November 10, 2014

Twice Baked Taco Potatoes


This recipe is a bit near and dear to me...its the first recipe I've ever created from scratch. Now I know it isn't a huge, grand masterpiece but for someone like me who follows recipes to a "T", making one from scratch with no recipe to follow is a big deal. 

One of the restaurants we visited when we vacationed in OBX last month had these on their menu. Dave and I decided to try them and they were delicious. I figured they were simple enough to make and here we are! 

Here's what you need:

  • 6-8 potatoes
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 packet taco seasoning
  • 1 cup sour cream, plus more for topping
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1 cup shredded cheese, plus more for topping--I used Sargento Mexican cheese
  • diced tomato
Here's what you need to do:

 Before we even get into the details of cooking this, let me just say this: I'm not really patient when it comes to cooking. If I can cook something faster, I will. Waiting an hour to bake potatoes is not something I choose to do. I used to buy the microwave ready potatoes at the store, but recently I picked up the Potato Express, which works great except that it takes about 6 minutes not 4 to bake the potato. That's still better than an hour. 

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Scrub your potatoes clean. If you are still going to bake your potato, rub it with oil, pierce it several times with a fork, place it on a baking sheet, and bake for one hour, or until piercing it with a fork meets no resistance. If you choose to microwave your potato, start that now.

2. While the potato is cooking, brown the ground beef until it is cooked through and add the taco seasoning in, following directions on the packet. 

3. When the potatoes are done cooking, cut each potato in half,  lengthwise. Scrape out the insides of the potato into a large bowl. Be careful not to get too close to the skin, you'll need that intact to make the potato skins. Place the hollowed out portion of the potato onto a baking rack. 

4. Mash up the potatoes with the butter, sour cream and milk. Add the cheese and meat. Fill up the potato shells with the filling, the more the better!

5. Top the potatoes with a little bit more cheese and bake for 20 minutes. 

6. Once baked through, top the potato with some tomato and sour cream and enjoy!