Potato skin is quite nutritious and known as the weighted blanket of food. It is warm, heavy, and as comforting as it needs to be. However, most people tend to peel potato skins off and then cook just the potatoes. Potato skins are just as nutritious as the potatoes themselves and should therefore be included in dishes like scalloped potatoes and more. However, there’s a recipe reserved for potato skin, and that’s the potato skin casserole. In this recipe, we transform the potato skin into casserole; let’s find out how you can get it right.
What You’ll need
- Bacon
- Russet potatoes
- Olive oil
- Finely-chopped chives
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Unsalted butter
- Shredded cheddar cheese – divide into three equal halves for each step that needs it.
- Sour cream
Although russet potatoes are famous for scalloped potatoes, they are also ideal for the potato skin casserole. Now that you know what you’ll need to prepare your potato skin casserole, let’s begin.
The Preparation Method
The process for preparing potato skin casserole is broken down into steps below; let’s take a look.
- To get started, you have to cook the bacon. You can use any bacon you prefer. Lay a rack on a baking sheet and lay your bacon on it. Place it in the oven’s middle rack and switch it to 375°F. Your bacon should be ready within 20 minutes.
- Now, get your potatoes out and scrub them vigorously. Once they’re clean, you can pat them dry with a towel.
- Poke some holes in the potato skin with a fork. This action allows heat to escape from the potatoes while they’re in the oven. Unlike scalloped potatoes, you won’t be dicing the potatoes.
- Next, place your potato(es) in a bowl and rub it all over with some olive oil.
- Spray with salt and pepper all around to taste.
- Your bacon should almost be ready at this point. You will need to grab some plates and lay paper towels on them to soak up excess grease. Take the bacon out and then turn the oven to 400°F to preheat for the potato dish. Place the bacon on the plate and bad off all the extra grease.
- Break out your chopping board, chop the bacon into little bits, and strain out the grease you collect into a pan.
- Now, put your potato in the oven’s middle rack and allow it to cook for an hour to seventy-five minutes. By this time, the skin should be crispy while the insides are soft.
- Take it out once the time is exhausted and let the potato cool for some minutes.
- You have to slice the potato in half length the long way and scoop out the insides into a bowl. However, some of the flesh should still be left behind.
- Next, coat both sides of the skin with olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on it.
- Place the skins in the pan with the skin side up and set the oven to broil. Let the oven heat up while mixing the scooped inside with chives, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. Chop your butter into little cubes and add them to the potato. Then mix and mash your mixture.
- Add salt and pepper to the mashed potato to taste but watch the salt as you get salt from the potato skin. Once your potato is well mashed, cover with a foil.
- Now, place the casserole dish of skins into the oven and set the timer to three minutes. The goal is to make the skin crackly, don’t let it burn.
- Take the dish out, flip the skin; place it back in the oven to broil for another five minutes.
- Next, take it out once both sides are crispy and lay half of the skin down on the casserole dish. Cover the skins with bits of bacon and cheddar cheese, then lay an even layer of mashed potatoes on them.
- Take the second half and place then skin down on top of the mashed potatoes again. Sprinkle with the remaining cheddar cheese and place the dish back into the top rack of the oven to broil for a minute. Check to see if the cheese properly melts, and once they are, take it out and serve immediately. You can garnish with the rest of the bacon, sour cream, and even more chives.