This recipe for potato skins tacos leaves the taco shells behind for easy and delicious eating! Welcome to your new favorite stuffed potato supper.
These potato skin tacos are the marriage of two of my favorite things: tacos (obviously) and twice baked potatoes.
If you’ve never had a twice baked potato, it basically involves baking a potato, scooping out the inside and mashing it with some butter and milk, stuffing it back into the potato and baking it a little more until the outside is crispy.
But what if instead of stuffing the potato skin with mashed potatoes, you stuffed it with taco filling? And topped it with guacamole? What if?
[Tweet “This recipe for potato skin tacos leaves the taco shells behind for easy and delicious eating!”]
I think you know the answer. I think we ALL know the answer.
I did add one extra step that I think made these even more wonderful, which was this: after I baked the potatoes and scooped out the inside (which of course you should save and mash another day!), I brushed the inside of the potato skins with some olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and pepper and ran them under the broiler just until they got a little crispy.
Then and only then did I load them up with taco filling and top them with guacamole.
You could of course also top them with cheese, sour cream, salsa, chopped onions…you know what to do when it comes to taco garnishment.
When it comes time to eat, you can pick that potato right up and eat it, and because it is, well, a potato, there will be absolutely no taco shell breakage when you get to taking that first bite.
So go ahead. Make ’em and take that first bite!
PrintPotato Skin Tacos
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2–4 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Microwave and Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 Idaho potatoes, scrubbed clean
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 14 ounce can chopped tomatoes, drained
- Olive oil for basting the potatoes
- Your choice of toppings: guacamole, chopped scallions, shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, etc!
Instructions
- Pierce the potatoes a few times with a fork and microwave until tender, about 8 minutes. Cool until you can handle them.
- Cut potatoes in half and scoop out the insides, getting as close to the skin as you can without breaking it. Save the scooped out potato for another use.
- Brush the insides of the potato skins with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and broil until they start to get brown and crispy, watching carefully so they don’t burn. Set aside.
- Crumble the ground beef into a large skillet and cook over medium high heat until brown. Stir in spices, and then stir in tomatoes. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Taste and add more chili powder if you want a little more heat.
- Divide the taco meat among the 4 potato halves. Top with your choice of toppings and serve at once.
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust says
I love this idea! We make taco potatoes (like nachos) but I love that you put them in the skins. Genius!
And now I have to try taco potato nachos!!
Karen @ The Food Charlatan says
Tacos + potatoes?? Um I’m pretty sure you just combined my 2 favorite things and called it dinner. YUS!
I can’t believe it took me so long to figure this out!
Joan Curran says
This looks like healthy heaven to me! Thanks.
They are pretty wonderful – no more taco shells for me! xo
grace says
i can only hope that my own marriage is this happy! excellent combo in every way!
I’m sure your combo is just as wonderful and delicious as these tacos! :) :)
Christin@SpicySouthernKitchen says
These are my kind of potato skins! Love all that guacamole on top!
Guacamole could be its own food group, I love it SO much. :)
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says
What a great way to jazz up a potato. Looks so flavorful and comforting!
Thanks Gayle! I’ll pretty much do anything that allows me to eat taco filling. :)
Mir says
Whaat? This is such a good idea. Whenever I make tacos, my son eats the crispy shell and ignores everything else. This way, he’d be able to focus on the whole dish!
I was pretty thrilled with the whole potato skin part – plus it means I MUST make mashed potatoes later in the week so none of the potato goes to waste. win-win!
Gail Goetz says
Ingenious! I could eat these every day. Thanks for dreaming them up!
Well my pleasure! We had them again tonight for supper! :)