The Best Topping For Baked Potatoes Isn't Butter Or Sour Cream

Pretty much any home cook worth their salt has a personalized list of their favorite ingredients for elevating baked potatoes because, let's face it, the toppings are what make this style of spud exciting. The addition of flavorful (typically creamy) toppings is a must for elevating your tater's texture as well as its taste. That starchy interior is that much more delicious when it's swirled together with a dollop of butter, sour cream, or (better still) herby, pungent Boursin cheese.

Boursin is well known for producing a variety of Gournay cow's milk cheese that's soft, crumbly, beautifully melty, and infused with a wide array of seasonings and flavor profiles. It's the perfect pairing for potatoes of all types: Use it as the perfect swap for mayo in potato salad, stir into mashed spuds, or crumble it over a steaming-hot baked potato. Simply crumble it over the fluffed interior and lightly stir it in with a fork to help it melt.

It's fairly rich and fatty in addition to being tangy, salty, and beautifully cheesy, allowing you to skip the butter and sour cream. The best part of embracing it for your baked potato, however, is trying the variety of flavors Boursin has to offer (though some are admittedly better than others). The brand's Garlic & Fine Herbs flavor is its most popular, and it's both deliciously herby and garlicky, but don't sleep on its other rich, savory flavors, especially when it comes to matching your spud with other components of your meal.

In addition to its most iconic flavor, Boursin's Caramelized Onion & Herbs and Rosemary & Black Garlic also ranked high on our list, with Cracked Black Pepper taking the cake (or potato, as it were) as our favorite. However, this shouldn't deter you from trying its other savory offerings, as there were no real losers, just winners that wowed at different levels. For instance, Shallot & Chive ranked last, but would be decadent melted into a baked potato, especially with a sprinkling of freshly minced green chives and shallots.

You can also use this idea to enhance any of the other flavors you try, such as topping a Cracked Black Pepper Boursin potato with freshly cracked peppercorns, or adding golden and sweet caramelized onions to a cheesy spud infused with its Caramelized Onion & Herbs. This seasoning technique is fairly risk-free for those unused to experimenting with flavors, while also reinforcing the flavors already in the cheese, ensuring your potato is fully saturated with deliciousness.

If you're more comfortable experimenting, you might try mixing and matching different Boursin flavors, such as Cracked Black Pepper with Rosemary & Black Garlic, or Basil & Chive with Hot Honey & Garlic. Either of these options would be delicious garnished with something crispy, such as French-fried onions, bacon bits, or some crumbled fried sage for a touch of caramelized herbiness.