The Ultimate Twice-Baked Potato Guide: From Spud to Spectacular

When entertaining guests on special occasions, don't forget that you're putting on a show with the food. And, when it comes to starchy side dishes, these potatoes are a great way to express flair for the dramatic.

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Ingredients:

- 4 large russet potatoes

- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

- 3 tablespoons butter

- 1 tablespoon minced green onion

- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

- 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste

- ½ cup shredded white Cheddar cheese

- ½ cup heavy cream

- 1 egg yolk

- 1 tablespoon butter, melted

- 1 teaspoon paprika

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hello this is Chef John 

 with twice baked potatoes

that's right we've taken something that

was delicious cooked just once and

cooked it a second time anyway why human

nature but nevertheless if you're

looking for a side dish for a special

occasion dinner this is very tasty

visually impressive and really not that

hard to do so check it out step one

we're going to scrub and wash and dry

four rusted potatoes you can obviously

do as many as you want and just like

selecting a chef 

short and fat is always

better than long and skinny okay so we

have our four very stocky potatoes we're

going to put those on a baking sheet

with a little bit of foil I'm going to

drizzle just a couple drops of vegetable

oil on and give them a little massage

all right you don't need too much just

enough to coat the outside all right

once those are oiled we're going to go

ahead and throw those in a preheated

400° oven for about an hour or until

this happens a Parry knife will go in

almost with no effort you want these

cooked all the way through okay you're

going to grab yourself a towel you're

going to go around with a Parry knife

and cut off the top I want you to go up

about 23 s of the way so just like you

see me doing here cut all the way around

you're going to take that top off you're

going to grab a spoon and you're going

to scoop out as much of the potato as

you can without wrecking the outside and

because this is cooked all the way

that's not going to be that hard to do

and you of course are also going to

scoop the potato from the top you cut

off and by the way do not throw out that

piece we're going to use that to make

these extra visually impressive so

you're going to scoop your still fairly

Hot Potato into a bowl and then we're

going to add stuff now please keep in

mind this video is a technique video not

a recipe not only do 

I want you not to

follow my recipe exactly I'm going to be

a little bummed if you do this is the

kind of recipe that you really want to

tell or to your personal tastes all

right so we're going to scoop all that

out into a bowl and while it's still hot

I'm going to throw in some chunks of

butter and that's really not a lot I

could have used more all right I'm also

going to throw in some finely minced

green onions and I'm just going to give

that a quick stir get that butter

melting those green onions are going to

kind of steam a little bit in that hot

potato and yes I did switch from a spoon

to a fork thank you for noticing and

then of course we're going to season it

up with some freshly ground black pepper

a good amount of salt and some cayenne

pepper at that point I'm going to throw

in a handful of white cheddar all right

I think that works better color-wise in

yellow cheddar but same difference and

once the cheese is mixed in the last two

ingredients here I'm going to make a

little well I'm going to pour in some

cream and an egg yolk and the reason I'm

doing it this way is in case the

potatoes are still too hot I don't want

to scramble the egg yolk so doing it

this way we'll mix it in a little more

gradually and again I'll keep reminding

you all these ingredients are optional

you do this any way you want you can use

milk buttermilk basically you could just

simulate your favorite mashed potato

recipe you want to go with the bacon

bits or more onion or different kinds of

cheeses you'd be crazy not to experiment

and of course you're going to taste that

if that doesn't taste good the twice

baked potatoes aren't going to taste

good that just makes sense so make sure

you taste that especially for salt and

once you're happy with it we're ready to

fill the potatoes and before we do we're

going to do one little quick trick that

I invented back in 1981 we're going to

take that top we cut off and place it in

the bottom that's going to add some

extra height to this and as anyone will

tell you people like things that are

taller that's why tall people make more

money than short people true story and

then you're going to divide your mixture

among the four potatoes

and one of the things I love about this

recipe because of that extra slice of

potato underneath and the extra stuff we

mixed in these are going to fill way up

and it's going to look like you have

more potato than you started with kind

of a cool illusion so anyway divide that

mixture up evenly between your 

potatoes

and at that point we're going to take

the tip of a fork and go around and mess

up the surface it might have got smooth

out as you were scooping the stuff into

the potato but we want as many Nooks

crannies and crevices as possible that's

what's going to give it a very very cool

look after after we bake it the second

time all right looks good and then

before they go back in the oven we're

going to paint the top with some melted

butter just a tiny bit as you can see

here and then last but not least maybe a

little bit of pepper on top for some

extra color pop those back in the oven

for about 20 minutes to a half hour

until just spectacularly gorgeous I mean

look at that and you can see my fairly

awesome looking roast pork in the

background so I'm pretty excited right

now and of course I have to taste this

to make the video official after of

course touching the Crusty buttery top

and then we're going in oh yeah just

incredible so like I said nothing wrong

with regular baked potatoes but this is

just on a whole other level I mean why

have a dud Spud when you can have an

Uber Tuber by the way you're welcome

famous rappers looking for dope new

Rhymes but anyway if you're looking for

a special occasion potato side dish for

your next fancy meal give these a try

head over to foodwishes.com for all the

ingredient amounts and more info as

usual and as always enjoy