Easy Buffalo Chicken Baked Potatoes Recipe
When you’re looking for the perfect comfort food chicken and potato recipe, this is the ticket! Soft and tender potatoes that are double baked to perfection and filled with buffalo chicken and smothered with two kinds of cheese. Essentially this is an amped up potato skins recipe. It’s all the heat and tang of hot wings tucked into a hot cheesy potato. Shredded rotisserie chicken is mixed with cream cheese and sour cream before being stuffed inside hollowed out baked potatoes. When I say comfort food, I mean it! These easy buffalo chicken stuffed potatoes are the real deal for game days, tailgate parties as a snack or appetizer. Your hungry sports fans will appreciate you. Or make them on busy evenings after work or school as the main dish and serve them with a salad or roasted veggies. If you want the twice-baked experience without the potato skin shell, then have a look at my recipe for Loaded Twice Baked Potato Casserole. It’s a great one to serve at family dinners or holiday meals. And for twice baked sweet potato fans, these Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows (holiday favorite) and Mexican Cheese and Black Bean Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (longtime circa 2014 reader favorite) are both excellent!
Ingredients in Buffalo Chicken Baked Potatoes
Just a handful of very common and easy to find fridge and pantry ingredients are needed to make these double baked buffalo chicken potatoes including the following:
Baking Potatoes – Russet potatoes are the recommended go-to Olive Oil Sea Salt Cheddar Cheese Mozzarella Cheese Cream Cheese Sour Cream Shredded Chicken – To save time, use shredded rotisserie chicken from the chicken breasts, poached chicken, or leftover perfect baked chicken Buffalo Hot Sauce – I use Frank’s Original Hot Sauce but you can use your favorite brand and level of heat intensity Green Onions, for garnishing
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Twice Baked Potatoes Stuffed with Buffalo Chicken
Follow these easy step to make these irresistible potatoes. Note that cook time is about 1 hour 20 minutes of total time, with the first bake time being 1 hour, and the second bake time is 20 minutes. Step 1: Clean the potatoes and pat them dry then rub them with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Step 2: Poke holes all over the potatoes and bake them for 1 hour. Step 3: Remove the potatoes and cut each one in half. Step 4: Scoop out some of the flesh from each and place the scooped out flesh in a medium or large bowl. Step 4: Mash (a potato masher really helps here) and stir the potato flesh with both cheeses (with some cheddar reserved for sprinkling) cream cheese, sour cream, chicken, and buffalo hot sauce. Step 5: Spoon the potato mixture back into the shells, sprinkle with reserved cheddar cheese, and bake for 20 minutes. Step 6: Garnish with green onions and serve!
Garnish Ideas
These potatoes are so versatile that you can easily whip them up for a weeknight dinner, or you can serve them at a casual get-together with friends, or of course for game day parties. They are fabulous fresh and hot from the oven, but to jazz them up a bit more, I like to:
garnish with green onions serve with extra sour cream drizzles of ranch dressing (or blue cheese dressing or blue cheese crumbles)
What to Serve with Buffalo Chicken Twice Baked Potatoes
It depends on if you’re serving these as a dinner main or for a party or event where you’ll serve other snacky foods and appetizers. But here are some ideas and you can select what appeals to you for your situation and occasion:
Buffalo Chicken Wings Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings Chicken Tenders Macaroni and Cheese Beef Chili Classic House Salad Broccoli Salad Macaroni Salad
What To Do With Leftover Buffalo Chicken Potatoes
I doubt you’re going to have a big problem with “leftovers on your hands”, but if you do, you won’t let these stuffed buffalo chicken potatoes go to waste. Here are some creative and mouthwatering ways to give them a second lease on life:
Stuffed Potato Hash: Sauté the leftover potato stuffing with some bell peppers, onions, and a touch of olive oil. Once everything is nicely browned, crack a few eggs into the mix and let them cook to your desired level of doneness. Top with a sprinkle of cheese and green onions.
Potato-Stuffed Quesadillas: Spread a layer of your buffalo chicken potato mixture onto a tortilla, sprinkle with extra cheese, and fold it in half. Cook it on a griddle or in a skillet until the tortilla is crispy and the cheese is melted. Serve with salsa, guacamole, or sour cream for a quick and satisfying meal.
Potato Stuffed Bell Peppers: Get creative and stuff bell peppers with your leftover buffalo chicken potato mixture. Cut the tops off the peppers, remove the seeds and membranes, and stuff them generously with the leftover buffalo chicken potato filling. Bake them in the oven until the peppers are tender and the filling is heated through.
Buffalo Chicken Potato Pizza: Spread some pizza dough with a layer of buffalo sauce, then spread on your buffalo chicken potato mixture. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and any other pizza toppings you love. Bake until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted.
Storage and Reheating Instructions
Like any potato, French fry, or hash browns recipe, these double baked buffalo chicken potatoes are best hot and fresh from the oven. If you do have extra potatoes, you can keep them airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can reheat them gently in the microwave, but the crispy skins won’t be the same. It may be better to try some of the creative leftovers suggestions I mentioned above. I haven’t tried freezing them and don’t know how (or if) things would work if they spent time in the freezer.
Can I Double The Recipe?
You sure can. Double all ingredients and make sure you have a big enough baking sheet to hold 16 potato halves. Even baking: Be sure to choose uniform sizes of potatoes so that they are all finished baking at the same time. Full fat dairy: As always, I recommend full fat cream cheese, sour cream, and shredded cheeses. Cream cheese in particular that’s lite is more water than fat, and that doesn’t bode well for this recipe because the filling will be watery. Reduced fat cheese doesn’t melt well so again, go with full fat cheese. Room temp dairy: Specifically the cream cheese (most importantly) should be at room temp so you can easily mix it together with everything else. Cold cream cheese is a beast to deal with and just creates more work than you need. Take all dairy products – the cream cheese, sour cream, and shredded cheese – out of the fridge at the start of baking for the potatoes. That way they have an hour on the counter to soften up, which will make part 2 of the recipe after baking that much quicker and easier. Handle with care: After baking (and before you sliced them) let your potatoes cool for a few minutes before you handle them. Tongs and hot mitts are key here and rubber gloves for dishwashing also work. You don’t want any burnt fingers from those literal hot potatoes! Scoop, but not too deep: Scooping out the potato flesh allows both the scooped-out portion to be mixed with cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, and buffalo chicken. But it also creates the area where you can mound the doctored up flesh back into. Don’t go too deep or too close to the sides. Make sure you leave enough space that the potato has some stability and structure. Crispy cheese top: Give your potatoes a very quick broil (2-3 minutes) at the end of baking to give them a golden browned cheesy top. However, if you’re not a broiler pro and you don’t know how to use it, better to just skip broiling on this one since it’s not essential and you don’t want to accidentally burn your precious taters! Baking time may increase when you are baking 8 potatoes rather than 4, but not by more than 10 minutes or so. And for the second bake, maybe an extra couple of minutes but that’s about it.
More Easy Potato Side Dish Recipes:
Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes – Learn how to make soft, fluffy, tender baked potatoes with super delicious skin in your slow cooker! Use this method when you want to free up oven space for a holiday meal or when you don’t want to turn your oven on and heat up your house. Foolproof, perfect potatoes every time! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes! BEST Mashed Potatoes Recipe — Buttery, creamy, PERFECT mashed potatoes that rival your favorite restaurant’s version but EASY and ready in 45 minutes! Loaded Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes – If you like loaded baked potatoes, you’ll LOVE these mashed potatoes with bacon, cheddar cheese, butter, sour cream, and more! A family-favorite side dish that’s perfect for weeknight dinners or holiday celebrations. Irresistible, EASY comfort food! Crispy Parmesan Ranch Roasted Potatoes – The BEST roasted potatoes you’ll ever eat! Tender potatoes seasoned with ranch mix and topped with a CRISPY Parmesan breadcrumb topping! So DELICIOUS you don’t even need a main course! Parmesan and Herb Roasted Potatoes — These herb roasted potatoes are sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and are made with seasonings you already have on hand. So easy to prep, and crazy delicious! Slow Cooker Browned Butter Mashed Potatoes – Creamy and decadent from the herbed browned butter, these EASY mashed potatoes are a family favorite side dish! Made in the slow cooker to free up stove and oven space. No one will be able to resist these comforting buttery mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or your next family gathering! Three Cheese Scalloped Potatoes – These scalloped potatoes are EXTRA cheesy thanks to three cheeses used as well as super rich and CREAMY!! Loaded Twice Baked Potato Casserole — Tender potatoes mixed with butter, cheese, sour cream, bacon, and green onions for the ultimate in LOADED baked potatoes! Honey-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Honey-Cinnamon Dip – The honey glaze and the creamy cinnamon dip make these potatoes irresistible!! Baked Thick-Cut Seasoned Oven Fries – Learn the secrets to creating restaurant-style oven fries! They’re baked rather than fried so you can have extra! Honey Butter Smashed Sweet Potatoes — Soft, tender potatoes with crispy skin and the most HEAVENLY melted honey butter on top!! EASY comfort food that’s a perfect side dish anytime!!
