I am in love with potato skins. I really am. I think most people are as well. There is something to be said about them, and that is just plain awesome. There is also something to be said about a simple ham and cheese combination. To me, the ham and cheese sandwich is almost up there as the classic peanut butter and jelly combination. It’s that salty cheesiness that is just a perfect bite.
So with that thought in mind, I decided to come up with these ham and cheese potato skins last week. I wanted to have some tailgating football food during the Green Bay Packers game. Yes, I am from Wisconsin, and I love the Packers. Enough said.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
- 3 whole Russet potatoes
- 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 pinch of cracked black pepper
- 1 cup of thick cut ham, cut into bite sized cubes
- 2 cups of Colby jack cheese, shredded
Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Poke the top of each potato with a fork and place on a baking sheet. Cook in the oven for 1 hour. Once cooked, remove from the baking sheet, and place on a plate to let cool for about 15 minutes.
Once your potatoes are cooled, use a sharp bread knife and you will cut lengthwise, into three segments of one potato, long slices. So each potato will yield two skins, right? Discard the middle slice and reuse for breakfast the following morning, or heck for that matter, add some butter, salt, and cream, and make some rustic mashed potatoes.
Continue this cutting process with the rest of the potatoes. You should then have 10 skins. With a small spoon, being careful, scoop out about 70 percent of the potato, as you still want some potato in your boat.
Next, melt your butter in the microwave. Get your broiler heated to high.
Brush the butter on the inside and outside of each potato skin and place them back onto the baking sheet. Season the inside of each skin with salt and pepper.
Place them under the broiler for 8-10 minutes until the insides get a bit crispy from the melted butter.
Once the edges and interior are a bit crisp, and golden, remove them from the oven.
Add a generous amount of cheese into each potato boat.
Top with a generous amount of ham. Simply divide the ham into six sections so each potato gets enough of it.
Top with a bit more cheese.
Turn off the broiler, and put the oven to 425 degrees.
Place these back into the oven, and cook for about 5 more minutes or until the cheese is nice and bubbly.
The end result is nothing short of amazing with these ham and potato skins. These are a perfect bite any time of the day, and as a matter of fact I thought they would be even more amazing with a bit of scrambled egg mixed in before baking. That would be a great breakfast bite! Regardless, these are really simple to make and made everyone happy. Next time I will simply need to make more of them as they went too fast. Hope you enjoy.
Ham and Cheese Potato Skins
Ingredients
- 3 whole Russet potatoes
- 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 pinch of cracked black pepper
- 1 cup of thick cut ham cut into bite sized cubes
- 2 cups of colby jack cheese shredded
Instructions
- Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Poke the top of each potato with a fork and place on a baking sheet. Cook in the oven for 1 hour. Once cooked, remove from the baking sheet, and place on a plate to let cool for about 15 minutes.
- Once your potatoes are cooled, use a sharp bread knife and you will cut lengthwise, into three segments of one potato, long slices. So each potato will yield two skins, right? Discard the middle slice and reuse for breakfast the following morning, or heck for that matter, add some butter, salt, and cream, and make some rustic mashed potatoes.
- Continue this cutting process with the rest of the potatoes. You should then have 10 skins. With a small spoon, being careful, scoop out about 70 percent of the potato, as you still want some potato in your boat.
- Next, melt your butter in the microwave. Get your broiler heated to high.
- Brush the butter on the inside and outside of each potato skin and place them back onto the baking sheet. Season the inside of each skin with salt and pepper.
- Place them under the broiler for 8-10 minutes until the insides get a bit crispy from the melted butter.
- Once the edges and interior are a bit crisp, and golden, remove them from the oven.
- Add a generous amount of cheese into each potato boat.
- Top with a generous amount of ham. Simply divide the ham into six sections so each potato gets enough of it.
- Top with a bit more cheese.
- Turn off the broiler, and put the oven to 425 degrees.
- Place these back into the oven, and cook for about 5 more minutes or until the cheese is nice and bubbly.