This Canned Ingredient Will Transform A Boring Baked Potato

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A baked spud is a study in elegant simplicity, a versatile side dish for proteins that oink, moo, squawk, or bleat. And, yet, with a little effort, you can transform a humble baked potato into a delicious, hearty main dish that fills you up like a complex meal. All you need is a can of chicken pot pie soup.

Canned foods are often maligned, but if you are choosy and use them right, we've discovered that they offer unparalleled convenience and great flavor — just look at the list of canned foods you should eat for breakfast. Canned soup can (pun fully intended) be a worthy repast by itself, but we love using it as an ingredient to zhuzh up home cooking. Cream of mushroom soup elevates mac and cheese when you stir it in, for example, and we're here to tell you that canned chicken pot pie soup, like the highly-rated Campbell's Chunky variety, is an amazing topper to a baked potato that takes all the guesswork out of dinner.

There's almost no effort required: just nuke, bake, or air fry your potatoes until they are soft and fluffy, split them open, and drench them in heated soup. The abundant protein and veggies in chicken pot pie soup are all the heft you need for a belly-filling dinner, and the creamy soup component adds silkiness that coats every ridge of your 'tater. Best of all, this dish is endlessly customizable, even within the same meal, so that you can satisfy everyone gathered around your table.

Your sumptuous soup potato can be as simple or as complicated as you'd like. It's pretty darn tasty as a two-ingredient entrée, but you need not stop there. Chicken pot pie soup is our favorite canned item to top potatoes with, but you can sub any chunky soup that sounds good with potatoes, like chicken corn chowder, BBQ bacon burger, chili mac, or chicken broccoli cheese. What you're looking for is lots of chunk in the soup and a thick, creamy base. If you make a different potato for everyone in your family, it's not much extra work!

These soup-topped potatoes are an excellent vessel for tossing in any leftovers from your fridge that augment the can(s) you chose. Leftover cooked veggies are a natural accompaniment, along with the dregs of a bag of crumbled bacon, spare taco meat, or the last bits of a rotisserie chicken. For bonus points, throw a handful of shredded cheese on top and send your (oven-safe) plate for a trip under the broiler. There's at least one fast food restaurant that offers a baked potato side; for the ultimate in speedy dinners that feel homemade, pick up several ready-made hot potatoes from the Wendy's drive-thru, and then all you have to do is heat up your soup.