Seriously crispy potato skins oven baked to perfection then topped with gooey cheese and bacon. Serve with sour cream and green onions if you must, or just pop these crunchy potato bites into your mouth by itself!

I am so in love with the flavor and texture of these delicious Crispy Baked Potato Skins!

Looking for more party food/finger foods? Don’t forget to check these favorites out as well: Cream Cheese Sausage Balls, Bacon Cheeseburger Sliders, Shredded Chicken Nachos, and Ranch Cheeseball!

Loaded Oven Baked Potato Skins

These Crispy Baked Potato Skins are seriously addictive, especially when you load it with bacon, chives, and sour cream.

Potato skins are kinda like twice baked potatoes, but without the insides. I actually kinda like the hollow insides because it’s a bit less carbs, and you have a larger bacon/cheese to potato ratio, which makes it more flavorful!

Potato skins make the best game day finger food, munchies for parties, snacks for kids, or even as side dishes for dinner.

We are oven baking and crisping up the potato skins (nothing quite like actually CRISPY baked potato skins, I tell you!), and then loading them up with all the yummies! Let me tell you – it’s a party in your mouth!

Ingredient Notes

To make Crispy Baked Potato Skins, here’s what you will need:

• Russet potatoes – I like using smaller ones so you have bite-sized potato skins, versus gigantic ones. Other types of potatoes work as well! Oval shaped potatoes make it visually more appealing, and more like classic potato skins.
• Bacon bits – to make things easier, I’m using store-bought bacon bits because they are already cooked and chopped up. Buy a good quality kind and it’ll tastes just like bacon from the oven. You can, of course, cook bacon in the oven (425ºF for 15-18 minutes) or pan fry them and then cut them into smaller pieces, it just takes longer.
• Cheddar cheese – shredded
• Salted butter – avoid using unsalted as the salt from the butter brings lots of flavor to the potatoes.
• Green onions – or chives
• Sour cream
• Salt

How to make Potato Skins

To make Crispy Baked Potato Skins, we are first going to prepare the potato skins. This takes a little bit of time, but it’s mostly passive time waiting for the potatoes to bake (and we are baking them twice).

First, scrub and wash potatoes then place them on a baking sheet without wrapping them in foil. Wrapping it in foil will cause condensation thus making the potato skins less crispy.

Bake the potatoes in the oven for 1 hour at 400ºF.

When done, remove potatoes and let them cool enough to work with them. Do not rinse in water! Remember, we are trying to maintain its crispiness!

Slice potatoes in halves lengthwise and then dig out the center, leaving about 1/2 inch of potatoes on the side.

You don’t want to fully dig out the potatoes and leaving only the skin, some potatoes attached to the skin will make your Crispy Baked Potato Skins a lot tastier. You want some potatoes in there after all!

Place potato skins on baking sheet and line them next to each other.

Then comes my favorite part – smother them with butter! YES.

Nothing quite like butter to make Oven Baked Potato Skins taste amazing…

Here’s an important part: brush butter on BOTH SIDES.

This will help make your Crispy Baked Potato Skins actually crispy!

Once potato skins are generously smothered with butter, bake them in the oven for 10 minutes on each side.

When done, butter should have soaked into the potatoes giving it some very incredible butter-y flavors, and it should also crisp up the potato skins a little bit more!

Next, these Crispy Baked Potato Skins are not complete without some bacon and cheese!

So flip these babies potato side up and let’s LOAD THEM UP!

Bring it back into the oven one last time…this time it’s a short one…and bake them at 400ºF for 3-5 minutes or until cheese melts.

I typically just leave my oven on the whole time while making these Loaded Baked Potato Skins for the ease of it, and every time it bakes at 400ºF so you do not need to adjust the temperature at all.

Top Crispy Baked Potato Skins with chopped green onions or chives. And if you like your Loaded Potato Skins a bit saltier, feel free to sprinkle a pinch of salt on top of each potato skin.

I find that depending on types of bacon I use, I may or may not need the salt, so adjust it to taste!

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you, Crispy Loaded Baked Potato Skins.

I also like to serve mine with a dollop of sour cream….YUM!

How to bake potato skins crispy

Our goal: CRISPY Baked Potato Skins. Here are key steps to make sure that happens!

• Bake whole potatoes in the oven, not boiling it in water, and do not wrap it in a foil. Wrapping potatoes in foil when baking will cause condensation and make the potatoes soggy.
• Prior to baking the potato skins (after potatoes are sliced in halves and the insides have been dug out), smother potatoes in melted butter on both the top and bottom. Butter will help potato crisp up more when baking…while giving them incredible flavors! It’s a win win!

Storage and Reheating

If you have leftover Crispy Baked Potato Skins (we usually don’t!😉), store in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to 5 days.

The best way to reheat is using a toaster oven or back in the oven. I like to add more cheese on top before reheating but be careful not to burn the tops as it would have been in the oven multiple times already.

If desire, cover the top with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning.

If reheated in the microwave, loaded potato skins will no longer be crispy.

What to serve with potato skins

These Crispy Baked Potato Skins are super versatile and can be enjoyed as an appetizer or side dish…or by itself!

• As an appetizer, these will go great with so many other fun finger foods/appetizers such as:
  • Caramelized Onion Dip
  • Spinach Pinwheels
  • Baked Cream Cheese Wontons
  • Chipotle Corn Salsa
  • Cranberry Baked Brie
• As a side dish, it is a good lower carb substitute to regular potato dishes, and can be served with your favorite proteins such as:
  • Pork Tenderloin with Gravy
  • Sheet Pan Oven Baked Sausage and Peppers
  • Teriyaki Chicken Skewers
  • Garlic Rosemary Chicken
  • Creamy Spinach Chicken
  • Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Chicken

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More Delicious Potato Recipes

Some of our other favorites include:

• Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes
• Baked Potato Casserole
• Roasted Baby Potatoes
• Garlic Parmesan Hasselback Potatoes
• Cheesy Potato Wedges
• Potato and Ham Au Gratin