French Onion Soup Potato Skins
These crowd-pleasing appetizers are a savory, dreamy, best-of-both-worlds situation. They have all the best characteristics of classic potato skins AND French onion soup.
Calories: 155kcal
Ingredients
- 6 small to medium baked potatoes
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) good salted butter, melted
- Fine sea salt
- 1 recipe caramelized onions
- 4 ounces (113 grams) Gruyere cheese, shredded
- ½ cup (120 grams) sour cream, optional
- ¼ cup minced fresh chives
- Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F with a rack in the center. Place a baking rack on a rimmed half-sheet pan.
- Cut each baked potato in half lengthwise. If there's a side that's flatter (which is often true for russet potatoes), cut so that the flatter sides will be on the bottom and the cut potatoes will be wide, shallow, and stable.
- From each potato half, scoop out some of the flesh, leaving about ¼ inch of flesh attached to the skins. (Reserve extra flesh for another use, such as Colcannon Cheddar Skillet Cakes or simply mashing up with a little milk and butter.)
- Brush tops and bottoms of potato halves with melted butter and sprinkle with fine sea salt. Place potato halves skin-side up on baking rack.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Skins will be crisp and lightly browned and flesh will be very tender on the inside.
- Flip potato halves right-side up and spoon some caramelized onions into each. Top with Gruyere.
- Return potatoes to oven for 5 minutes or so, until cheese is melted.
- Top each potato skin with a dollop of sour cream if you like, along with some minced chives and a bit of flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Video
Notes
- Russet or Idaho potatoes are starchy varieties, and that's what you want for this recipe. They'll give you crispy skins, tender, fluffy flesh, and a great shape for filling. Most of them have nice, flat sides for making stable potato skins.
- Gruyere is a classic element of French onion soup, and its umami-forward, nutty, slightly funky flavor works beautifully in this recipe. Note that if it's important to you that this recipe be vegetarian, you'll need to find a brand that isn't made with animal rennet.
- You can bake the potatoes and make the caramelized onions well in advance. Assemble and bake the potato skins themselves right before serving.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week and reheat in the oven or toaster oven.
Nutrition
Serving: 1piece | Calories: 155kcal | Carbohydrates: 11.3g | Protein: 4.5g | Fat: 10.7g | Fiber: 2.1g