Love this sports bar appetizer and want an excuse to eat them before noon? #PutAnEggOnIt! I did, and I highly recommend it. Full disclosure: this breakfast takes a long time to make right, so I strongly suggest saving it for a slow, luxurious weekend morning. I made it on Thanksgiving to tide us over until dinner, and enjoyed working on it, Macy’s parade in the background, with nothing to rush me. I hope you can find time to treat yourself to this!

And remember, if you make these, I’d love to see. Show me, and you might end up featured in the Yolk Lover’s Guide!

Ingredients:

• 2 small-medium russet potatoes (see note below about using extras in case you break the potato skins as you’re scooping out their flesh!)*
• 1 tablespoon softened butter
• About 2 tablespoons of bacon bits
• About 2 tablespoons of chopped green onion
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but use whatever you have)
• 4 eggs

Estim. Prep & Cooking Time: About 1 hour

Please note – The recipe below is adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s excellent potato skins recipe, as well as this handy method for quick-baking potatoes from Dad Cooks Dinner (because who has time to bake potatoes for a whole hour?!)

Steps:

• Start by quick-baking the potatoes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Then spear each potato with a fork 3 times, and microwave them all together on high for 6 minutes.
• When the oven is ready, spray or carefully rub olive oil all over the skin of each potato, and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the skin starts to feel crisp.
• While the potatoes bake, get your bacon bits, green onion, butter, and cheese ready. I quickly fried bacon and chopped it into bits, and then chopped fresh green onion. I used pre-shredded cheddar cheese I had on hand, and then melted the butter in a bowl for 20 seconds. This is also when I got my eggs out and put them in an easy to grab spot next to the stove (which doubles as counter space for me lately).
• When the potatoes are finished, let them cool for a bit, then cut them in half lengthwise. I then let them cool for a few more minutes. Keep the oven on at 425 degrees.
• Scoop out each potato’s flesh, being careful to leave about a half-centimeter of flesh attached to the skin – enough to keep them sturdy enough to contain everything we’re filling them with. *On my first two tries, I accidentally scooped too much and the skins broke. Luckily, I was using more than 2 total potatoes and so had extras to do it right. Consider baking extra if you haven’t done this before and want wiggle room.
• Save the potato flesh for another recipe. Since I made these on Thanksgiving, I made mashed potatoes out of it!
• Place the potato skins back on the baking sheet, and brush or drizzle melted better all over the fleshy sides. Then flip them over and brush or drizzle butter all over the skin sides.
• Bake the skins, skin side up, for about 4 minutes.
• Take them out, flip them over, and sprinkle a healthy layer of cheese into each skin.
• Then carefully crack an egg into each skin. Because they’re round on the bottom, the skins may want to tip over at this point under the weight of the eggs. I leaned the skins up against each other to keep them upright. You can also create a little bed for them out of tin foil that you place underneath each skin to keep them up before adding the eggs.
• Sprinkle bacon bits on top of each egg, and salt or add other seasoning you like.
• Bake again for about 10 minutes – or until the egg whites have set, but the yolks still wiggle a little when you move the baking sheet.
• Top with green onion, let cool, take pictures of your hard work, and serve!
• Be sure to tag me me in any pictures – you might end up featured in the Yolk Lover’s Guide!