Make Baked Potatoes Pizza-Style For Extra Crispy Edges

We recently saw a TikTok hack for making a unique take on a classic loaded twice-baked potato (which we have a pretty good recipe for, BTW) with infinitely more texture and crispiness than the standard model. It's honestly so basic that we can't believe we never tried it before — and, yet, at the same time, it's completely revolutionary. Basically, you flatten your cooked baked potato like a pizza crust and load it with toppings on the top side. When broiled in the oven, you get a baked tot with much more surface area for crisping up, which increases the parts we love most ... the crunchy, charred edges.

This notion starts with a regular cooked baked potato. Keep in mind that not washing your baked potatoes is a common mistake when cooking with spuds, so scrub that jacket! You can bake it in the oven, certainly, but this might be a moment for nuking your potato, since cooking it thoroughly is only the first step. 

The TikToker used their fist to flatten the potato, which is undoubtedly dramatic and satisfying on camera, but you might use a potato masher or a heavy-bottomed skillet for less mess. Once your potato is properly flattened, depending on its starting size, it will be about half an inch thick and as wide in circumference as a tortilla. After this, your creativity really comes into play. Top your potato with your choice of toppings and then broil it up to get that vaunted texture on your 'tater. Cheese should be considered a must, of course, because we don't want to imagine a baked potato without it, but we're up for a whole panoply of wildcard condiments.

Given that a pizza-style baked potato is not your average dinner, we'd advise you to consider getting creative with what you cover it in. The TikTok user chose some conventional options: ranch, bacon, cheese, and grilled chicken. All great choices, to be sure. But why stop there? Remember when we made the case for adding an egg to a baked potato for protein and noms? We can imagine making a whole breakfast pizza potato with some wafer-thin slivers of honey ham, crispy bacon, a fried egg, and Hollandaise sauce. If you'd serve it over hash browns, why not a baked potato? Consider your flattened baked potato as an alternative to a rice bowl or a flatbread, and you're starting to get the idea.

Here's a notion: it's a pizza-style baked potato, so why not have it live up to the name? A generous scattering of seasoned cooked ground beef, a drizzle of savory tomato sauce, and dollops of ricotta cheese topped with melty mozzarella cheese will give you a potato with gooey, herby Italian savor. When those edges get all crispy under the broiler ... mamma mia! Or, in a different direction inspired by a takeout fave, put some carnitas-style pork in your slow cooker and pile it on your potato with guac, pinto beans, sweet corn, and cotija cheese. This isn't the moment to shy away from unique ideas. When you have a flattened, crispy potato as your basis, we're telling you that the sky is the limit.