Pimento Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

An option to microwave the potatoes instead of an initial bake shaves nearly an hour off of the total cooking time with little to no impact on the finished dish.
Crisping up the potatoes with indirect heat in a charcoal grill adds a hint of smokiness.
Enriching the mashed potato-pimento cheese filling with a combination of sour cream and butter results in a tangy, well-rounded flavor.

It was a gradual, creeping change. Year by year, one by one, I took over every dish of the Thanksgiving dinner, save the out-of-season asparagus my Mother insists on. At this point, I've settled into a menu that adorns the holiday table each year, a series of dishes I think of as family tradition. So it came as some surprise when there was a request to alter this comforting and familiar spread into something new this year.

Being a man of tradition, it comes with a little trepidation that sweet glazed ham will replace the roast turkey, macaroni and cheese will take the place of the cornbread and sausage stuffing, and Brussels sprouts with bacon will stand in for my green bean casserole. When I asked what we should do instead of mashed potatoes, my sister made it explicitly clear that those are to go nowhere. Still, I couldn't help but wonder how I would replace them, and thought thesepimento cheese twice-baked potatoeswould fit nicely.

For the Initial "Bake": Oven or Microwave?

Pimento Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe (1)

It would seem a prerequisite that a twice-baked potato requires a first baking. Of course it needs to be cooked to a point where the flesh can be easily scooped out, but I've been getting my potatoes to this point for some time by employing the microwave. Whenever I mention this publicly, it seems to come with some shock and awe—how can you use that machine and still get a spud that's got the crisped exterior you get from the oven?

It's true that microwaved potatoes come out with a rather undesirably soft skin, but if they're going to be baked again, that flab will turn into crunch with just a little time.

To prove I'm not misleading anyone (or myself), I cooked two batches of potatoes—one batch roasted in a 400°F (200°C) oven and the other done in the microwave until they both had little to no resistance when pierced with a paring knife. (A third option I omitted from this comparison: the potatoes can also be cooked over indirect high heat on the grill.) This took 60 minutes in the oven, and about 10 minutes in the microwave.

Pimento Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe (2)

As expected, the oven roasted taters had a slightly shriveled and crisped skin, while the microwaved ones still retained their original shape and were comparatively soft. The interior of both had the right consistency to be easily scooped out with a melon baller or spoon. Next, it was off the grill to see if a second baking could level out this uneven playing field.

Getting Baked

At this point, I brushed all the potatoes with butter, seasoned them, and stuck them on the grill over indirect high heat. I found this second baking to be a necessary step for both iterations of potato, giving them a crackingly crispness that turns the spuds from run-of-the-mill to irresistible.

After 10 minutes on the grill, all of the potatoes had a ring of golden color around their tops, paired with a wrinkled and crunchy exterior that made the once-soft microwaved spuds almost indistinguishable from their more traditionally baked brothers. If you split hairs, you could probably be able to point out the slightly dryer oven-roasted potatoes, but for 50 minutes less time and spare oven space, I'd argue that the microwave is a perfectly fine way to get them jump started.

Getting Stuffed

Pimento Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe (3)

With a set of now beautifully crisp potatoes, it was time to turn my sights on the filling. It would seem to be an easy formula—add pimento cheese to the potato innards and mash. For some reason, though, the thought of loading my potatoes with mayonnaise seemed inherently wrong. So I tried out a few different combos to find the best results.

For the first, I mixedmy favorite pimento cheesewith the potatoes, plus a little extra seasoning. Next, I stuffed the cheese-laden mixture back into its parent potato shells and cooked it again on the grill until warmed through, making sure my extra sprinkling of cheese on top was completely melted. This certainly tasted right on point with the sharp cheddar bite and roasted pimento flavor, but it was also overly dense, lacking that fluffy texture and extra richness of really good twice-baked potatoes.

For the second round, I mixed together the potato flesh with cheddar, pimentos, sour cream, and seasoning. Subbing in sour cream for mayo was definitely a great choice—this version was lighter and tangier, making a much more pleasing potato. Still, it lacked some body.

To round out the flavor, I turned to butter, which I mixed in along with all the previous ingredients for my final batch. They turned out just right—the creamy and fluffy potato filling had all the rich flavor of pimento cheese, with a little added tang that struck a nice balance with the sharpness of the cheddar. There's no doubt I would happily replace mashed potatoes with these twice-baked spuds on my Thanksgiving table—if those mashers weren't the sole holdover of a tradition I've long been developing.

November 2013

Recipe Details

Pimento Cheese Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe

Prep5 mins

Cook65 mins

Active25 mins

Cooling Time15 mins

Total85 mins

Serves4 servings

Ingredients

1 medium red bell pepper
4 russet potatoes, scrubbed
6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup sour cream
6 tablespoons butter, melted, divided
2 teaspoons paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup finely sliced chives, for garnish

Directions

Roast pepper over gas stove, grill, or broiler until skin is completely charred. Place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit until cool enough to handle, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the charred outer skin, cut in half and remove the seeds and core. Finely chop pepper.
To bake potatoes in oven or grill: Preheat oven or grill to 400°F (200°C). Place potatoes directly on cooking rack and bake until a paring knife can be inserted into middle of potato with little to no resistance, about 60 minutes. Transfer to plate and let rest until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes.
To bake potatoes in microwave: Place potatoes on a microwave safe plate and microwave on high for 9 to 12 minutes, rotating potatoes every 3 minutes, until a paring knife can be inserted into middle of potato with little to no resistance. Remove from microwave let and rest until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes.
Slice tops off potatoes lengthwise. Using a spoon or mellonballer, scoop out flesh into a medium bowl, leaving about 1/4-inch of flesh remaining in potato.
Add all but 1/2 cup of cheese into bowl with potato flesh along with roasted pepper, sour cream, 3 tablespoons melted butter, paprika, and cayenne. Mash ingredients together until mixture is cohesive.
Light one chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate. Brush potatoes all over with remaining butter and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place on cool side of grill, cover, and cook until potato skins start to brown around the edges and slightly crisp, about 10 minutes.
Remove potatoes from grill. Spoon filling into potatoes and top with remaining cheese. Place potatoes back on the cool side of the grill, cover, and cook until cheese has melted, about 10 minutes. Remove from grill, let cool for 5 minutes, garnish with chives, then serve immediately.