How to Make Grilled Loaded Potato Skins RecipeGrilled Potato Skins

These grilled potato skins are crispy, tender, and fully loaded with melted cheese, crispy bacon, and sour cream.

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Making A Great Grilled Potato Skin

This is one of my favorite party foods for the big game. I love serving an easy appetizer that's grab and go friendly. By making them on the grill, you will have a delicious potato with crispy skin on the outside and perfectly tender light golden brown inside.

Once they are perfectly cooked, we can  load them up with melted cheese, crispy bacon, sour cream and fresh herbs. As an added bonus, by cooking these on the grill, we can get a big batch done all in one shot.

The Super Simple Grilled Potato Skin Ingredients 

The ingredients couldn't be simpler.

• Russet Potatoes - 8 small to medium sized potatoes will yield 16 potato skins
• Vegetable Oil or olive oil 
• Salt and black pepper - season to taste
• Shredded Cheese - 1 ½ cups 
• Chopped Crispy Bacon- for 16 potato skins, you'll need about 8 slices bacon
• Sour Cream
• Chives or green onions

A few recommendations though... Look for small russet potatoes. Think appetizer sized. Potatoes that are too big will be harder to handle, and this is a grab and go food.

For the cheese, pick a good melting cheese such as cheddar cheese or monterey jack cheese. I use the shredded cheese blend from Costco. Also, make sure to fill each potato skin up with a heaping pile! When the cheese melts, it will collapse and fill the potato skin completely. If it looks like you can't fit more cheese on each potato skin, that is the correct amount. 

For the bacon, any bacon is good. Just dice it small enough that it's easy to bite through. 

Helpful Supplies

A grapefruit spoon is the best way to scoop out the inside of the skins. It makes the process a little quicker.

Traeger grill- I can always count on a consistent temperature from my Traeger.

Sheet pans- these are my go-to for carrying food outside to the grill and back inside when I'm finished. 

How To Make Potato Skins On A Grill

1. Preheat your grill to 375F
2. Prepare the potatoes by cutting them in half lengthwise. Using a grapefruit spoon, scoop the inside flesh of the potato out and discard to a separate bowl. Leave about a quarter of an inch of potato around the edge so it will hold up its shape. If you don't have a grapefruit spoon, use a small paring knife to score the inside of the potato and that will make scooping it with a regular spoon easier.
3. After scooping out the center of the potato skin, place potatoes in cold water to prevent them from oxidizing (turning brown).
4. Once all of the potato skins are prepared, poor out the cold water and lay the potato skins out on a large baking sheet.
5. Drizzle the potatoes with vegetable oil and season with salt and pepper on both sides.
6. Now we can get cooking. Place the potatoes directly on the grill grates, skin side up. Cook the potato skins for 30-35 minutes total OR until they are fork tender. Flip the potatoes half way through the cooking process so that the inside doesn't burn.
7. After the potato skins have cooked completely, you can add the shredded cheese to the inside of each skin and close the grill lid for another 2-3 minutes for the cheese to melt.
8. Remove the potato skins and serve with whatever different toppings you love!

Why I Love Cooking Potato Skins On A Grill

Reasons to use the grill:

-cook all the potato skins in one batch

-no deep fryer needed

-take the mess and the smell outside

Here are the reasons I like to cook grilled potato skins versus deep fried potato skins...

~We can cook all of the potato skins in one easy batch. We don't need to stand over a deep fryer, watching the potatoes cook and then add the next batch. Once they are on the Traeger, we can walk away until the 30 minute timer goes off. 

~Cooking them outside keeps the smell out of the house. If I did have a deep fryer (which I don't), I wouldn't be allowed to use it in the house anyway. 

~Next up, the potato skins come off the grill tender and crispy, but not greasy. In fact, when I had my friend Tawni taste tested them for me, that was the first thing she commented on. 

~Lastly, the whole process can be done out on the grill. After they are cooked, I flip the potatoes over and fill them with cheese and bacon. Melting the cheese is an important step and I like A LOT of cheese. 

Saving and Reheating Leftover Potato Skins

Should you have any potato skins leftover, just save them in an airtight container like snap ware or a zip top bag. These do reheat pretty well in the microwave, oven or air fryer. If you want to reheat them in the oven or air fryer, just set the temp to 350 and heat for 5-8 minutes. 

Grilled Potato Skins Recipe

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Related Recipes

Another favorite Traeger appetizer is my Smoked Cream Cheese. It's a tasty spread and a synch to make.

Check out more recipes from my Traeger collection. You know I love cooking on my Traeger Grill because it cooks perfectly and I can take the mess outside!