Description
Think potato skins. Think nachos. Load them anyway you want, but stack these crispy loaded potato skins and you have yourself one heck of an appetizer (or meal)!
Ingredients
- 4 pounds Russet Potatoes, Cleaned
- 3 cups Canola Oil, For Frying
- ½ teaspoons Salt To Taste
- 4 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- 2 cups Nueske’s Smoked Duck Breast, Cubed (or Substitute Bacon), And Fried Until Slightly Crisp
- 1 whole Shallot, Thinly Sliced
- 2 whole Green Onions, Thinly Sliced
- 1 whole Avocado, Sliced (optional)
- ½ cups Cilantro, Roughly Chopped
- 1 whole Jalapeno Or Serrano Chili, Thinly Sliced, Optional
- 2 ounces, weight Canned Black Olives, Drained
- 1 bottle Your Favorite Hot Sauce
- ½ cups Sour Cream (optional)
Preparation
Note: You can build your nachos however you want. Add beans and tomatoes if you desire. Load these up!
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Add whole potatoes to a baking sheet. Use a fork to poke a few holes into each potato to allow steam to release while baking. Bake potatoes for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove from oven and let completely cool.
Once potatoes have cooled, sliced in half lengthwise. Use a spoon and gently scoop out all of the potato into a bowl. Reserve for another use. (To the scooped potatoes, you can add a bit of butter, salt, and milk and whip them up to mashed potatoes for another meal.)
Once you have all of your skins ready, heat up a pot with the canola oil. Get oil to 350ºF on medium-high heat. When oil is hot, drop in about 7 to 8 potato skins, or however many can easily fit into the pot without crowding. Cook for about 5–10 minutes or until you begin to see the interior of the skins get golden and nicely crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove potato skins and place on a paper-towel-lined plate to release any excess oil. Immediately season by showering the skins with salt. Taters need salt. Repeat with remaining potato skins.
Place skins in a oven safe baking pan and begin adding cheese into each skin as you go. When all of the skins have finished cooking, excess oil is removed and they are nicely salted, layer the potato skins onto the baking pan and continue adding cheese into each shell.
Keep the oil on the stove and cook cubed smoked duck breast. Get them lightly crisp, then remove with a slotted spoon and place onto the paper-lined plate.
Place a couple of duck lardons into each shell. If you are using bacon, cook until slightly crisp, then crumble and add that into each shell. Add shallots into each shell, then place back into the 400ºF oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is nicely melted.
Remove potato skins from the oven (do not devour), then garnish with green onions, avocado, cilantro, serrano chilies, olives, hot sauce, and sour cream (or whatever you desire).
Plate and serve.
