When I want to serve something hearty, satisfying, and something everyone will love, these Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes are the ticket. It's great served for a weeknight dinner side, game day dish, and especially for holidays!
While we know everyone loves mashed potatoes around the holidays, this unique take on the traditional side will have your guests coming back for seconds..and thirds..
Why You'll Love This Side Dish
Honestly it's all the goodness of a loaded baked potato mixed up into a casserole style dish. What's not to love?!
When I'm hosting the holidays, make ahead side dishes are essential for success. Mashed potatoes can be made a day ahead of time and warmed up before serving.
It's a no brainer when it comes to holiday entertaining to serve up double baked mashed potatoes. & if you are a potato lover, try out these Air Fried Sweet Potato Fries and Lebanese Potato Salad too!
Twice Baked Mashed Potato Recipe
When it comes to baked potatoes, you don't skimp on the toppings! Load those up with things like cheese, bacon, and lots of green onion for a fresh pop of flavor on top.
The ingredient list is easy and cost effective. Which is another reason I love this recipe for a crowd of people during the holidays. I'm mixing it up with my secret ingredient: Boursin Cheese.
Potatoes: I used russet or Yukon gold potatoes for this dish because they are hearty and don't have a tendency to get "gummy" when cooking. I would avoid any waxy skinned potato like red, rainbow, or baby potatoes.
Bacon: You can really use any bacon you like! I cook it until crispy and set aside to stir into the dish and use as a topping.
Greek Yogurt: This gives the whole dish a light tang which balances the richness of the twice mashed potatoes.
Cheddar Cheese: It's really important to get a block of cheddar cheese and shred it yourself for this recipe. Pre-shredded cheese tends to have a caking agent in it which prevents it from melting into a luscious, creamy texture. Pro tip: make your life easier by getting the shredding attachment for your food processor!)
Boursin Cheese: Well if you've never had this melt-in-your-mouth herbed cheese, it's time! The addition of this cheese is what takes these potatoes over the top.
Butter: You can't have mashed potatoes without butter! Use unsalted butter here, because the rest of the ingredients are fairly savory on their own!
Green Onions: This light touch of green onion really goes a long way to adding a balance of freshness to these rich twice baked mashed potatoes.
Garlic: More is more, right? I love garlic in mashed potatoes and using freshly pressed garlic really makes the dish stand out from any normal mashed potato recipe. Which makes me think, maybe I need to just make these twice baked garlic mashed potatoes? hah!
Milk: Use any milk you like, I used 2% because these potatoes are already so rich, but you can use whole milk too!
Salt and Pepper
Substitutions
Russet potatoes work great but you can swap in Yukon Gold if you like.
Cheddar cheese is absolutely delicious, however white cheddar or pepper jack would be a fun way to switch it up!
I used 2% milk but you can use whole milk or skim milk. This recipe is very rich with the other ingredients so don't worry too much about the milk choice!
If you don't have green onions you could use finely diced shallots instead.
While you can't beat the taste of real bacon, swapping in turkey bacon or bacon bits would work here as well if you want something with a little less prep!
How to Make Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes
So as the recipe name suggests, these potatoes are double baked. It is a twist on classic twice baked potatoes!
- To begin I like to scrub and dry my russet potatoes and place them on a baking sheet.
- In a preheated oven, I place the potatoes and bake for 40 minutes until fork tender.
- Prepare the bacon according to the package and set aside to cool.
- Once the potatoes are done I dice the potatoes into quarters and add to a large mixing bowl. I like to leave the skin on!
- Use a potato masher to roughly mash these up.
- Pour in the cheese, milk, yogurt, ½ of the crumbled bacon, ½ of the green onions, salt and pepper and continue to mash until creamy.
- Add this mixture to a baking dish and top with the remaining bacon, an extra sprinkle of cheese and return it to the oven.
- Bake until the cheese on top is nice and melty, about 5-10 minutes.
- Top with the remaining green onions and enjoy!
The preparation of these heavenly mashed potatoes couldn't be easier! & Like I said above, prep these ahead of time and do the final bake right before serving your holiday dinner.
Pro Tips!
While the potatoes are baking the first time, I take all of the rest of my ingredients out of the fridge, for me it works better when the milk and cheeses are closer to room temperature.
Use a potato masher, it will save you a lot of hard work mashing them up any other way. But, to be honest, I have also been known to throw this in my kitchen aid mixing bowl and "mash" the potatoes that way....
Making This Twice Baked Mashed Potato Casserole Ahead of Time:
This has to be one of the main reasons I keep coming back to serving this dish. It really lends itself well to prepping ahead of time. The best part is that this side dish even freezes well!
Follow the instructions above for preparing the potatoes until you are just about to bake it for the second time, 1 hour before serving remove the dish from the fridge.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake until the cheese on top is bubbly! For about 10 minutes.
& while it's great to prep ahead of time for a party or holiday dinner, this makes for INCREDIBLE leftovers as well.
Reheat on a microwave safe dish or pop the whole casserole back in the oven to re-heat and re-live every delicious bite of mashed potatoes.
FAQ
How do I store baked potato mashed potatoes? I simply put the lid on the entire casserole dish if it has one, if I'm prepping for a party the day before. For leftovers I scoop this into an airtight glass container, perfect for reheating the next day.
Can you freeze twice baked mashed potatoes? The large quantity of dairy in this dish helps to hold up the consistency extremely well when it comes to freezing it. I like to put it in a large Tupperware and freeze the leftovers.
To reheat frozen mashed potatoes: Simply remove from the freezer 1-2 hours before you'd like to serve them and reheat in an oven safe dish at 350 for 10-15 minutes and enjoy.
You could also reheat them straight from the freezer by popping the frozen potatoes into an oven safe dish and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
Helpful tools needed for this recipe. There are a few tools that will make this recipe a breeze!
Need More Holiday Side Dish Inspiration?
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Fried Polenta with Goat Cheese
Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes with Boursin Cheese
Equipment
- 1 Food Processor
- 1 potato masher
- 1 sheet tray
- 1 mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 8-10 russet potatoes
- 1 cup greek yogurt
- 4 oz Boursin cheese
- 8 oz block cheddar cheese shred this yourself!
- 4 cloves of garlic finely minced or pressed
- 1 cup 2 % milk
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 teaspoon salt add more if necessary to taste
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 8 slices bacon
- 4 green onions sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Scrub and dry the russet potatoes and place them on a baking sheet.
- Drizzle with olive oil and salt, bake for 40 minutes or until fork tender.
- Prepare the bacon according to the package and set aside to cool.
- While the potatoes bake, remove the remaining ingredients from the fridge to come to room temperature.
- Once the potatoes are done, dice the potatoes into quarters (4 large pieces) and add to a large mixing bowl
- I like to leave the skin on!
- Use a potato masher to roughly mash these up.
- Pour in the shredded cheese, Boursin cheese, milk, yogurt, ½ of the crumbled bacon, ½ of the green onions, salt and pepper and continue to mash until creamy.
- Add this mixture to a baking dish and top with the remaining bacon, an extra sprinkle of cheese, and return it to the oven.
- Bake until the cheese on top is nice and melty, about 5-10 minutes.
- Top with the remaining green onions and enjoy!
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