Turn Baked Potatoes Into The Ultimate Comfort Meal With This Shepherd's Pie Twist

There are some home cooking zigs, zags, and adaptations that, when learned, just seem so obvious that you'll wonder how you've never tried them before. And once you have tried them for the first time, you'll wonder whether you'll ever be able to stop. The brilliantly happy marriage between a baked potato and a shepherd's pie is squarely in that category. 

Once a baked potato's jacket becomes wonderfully crisp, it is essentially just a delicious vehicle for all manner of fillings. A standard shepherd's pie recipe also famously layers meat with the same fluffy carb that already fills said jacket. It's actually kind of amazing that civilization somehow skipped that naturally occurring shepherd's pie container and ever reached for a baking dish to begin with. But now you can rewrite this and start giving your baked potatoes the shepherd's pie treatment. Simply scoop out a baked potato's flesh and mash it, fill the hollow jacket with shepherd's pie filling, and top it the mashed innards.

Baked potato shepherd's pies work so well because they combine two classic comfort foods into one super-soother for the ages. They're also successful for the same reason a traditional shepherd's pie alone is successful: the fluffy spuds offset the richness of what's often beef, lamb, or some combination of both. And while nobody's going to try to tell you that baked potato shepherd's pies are as quick as stuffing a more typical spud, they are more easily made than the usual pie. A couple of straightforward steps keep it all on the simple side.

Being that baked potatoes take an hour or so in the oven to make, you'll have plenty of time to prepare the meat. You can do so just as you would for an ordinary shepherd's pie, by sauteing your preferred protein, veggies, and any binders and flavoring agents together on the stovetop. You may just want to halve your standard proportions depending on how many baked potato shepherd's pies you're making, as each one will only require about a cup of the meat mixture, max.

Your biggest challenge comes once the potatoes are finally finished baking, as you'll have to wait until they've cooled enough to touch. Then, you'll shave off the tops and scoop the insides into a bowl until each potato is more or less hollow. You'll mash all that starch together with a touch of butter, salt, and cream to taste. You can then fill each potato with the meat mix up to just below the surface, and cover that with an inch or so of the mash. Being that they will have largely dropped to room temperature or worse by now, you'll want to pop your loaded baked potatoes back in the oven for around 20 more minutes to warm up. You can even use your favorite cheesy baked potato toppings to add a bit of decadence to the comforting dish.