A few weeks ago a friend and I got talking about egg recipes (since she has chickens, and therefore fresh eggs in abundance!) She mentioned she had made egg stuffed potatoes and they sounded so super yummy. I love baked potatoes. There has been a phase during all three of my pregnancies where the only thing I want to eat is a big baked potato with sour cream, chives, and lots of black pepper. And I always scarf them down wishing they were also protein packed so I could feel somewhat justified in eating them so often. This is my answer! These are hollowed out baked potatoes filled with cheese and toppings with an egg cracked right in there. It kind of all cooks together like a yummy omelet. Think of it like hash browns and eggs all in one portioned edible container. This is a fabulous meal for one, or for a whole crew. You’ll need fully baked potatoes for this recipe. This is a great use for leftovers! You can bake them ahead of time, or right before you need them. Slice a layer right off the top like this:
and then take a spoon and gently scoop out the insides. You’ll want to leave a layer of potato in there so don’t go too crazy. Save those insides for another meal! You can make mashed potatoes (have you all tried the Mashed Roasted Garlic and Parmesan Potatoes in our book? One of my favorites) or toss them in Baked Potato Soup.
You certainly don’t have to do this next step, but I think it adds extra yuminess and flavor. Take a little melted butter and brush the inside of the potato all over. You could also just toss a little pat of butter in there, but I like to coat the whole thing. Sprinkle in a little salt and pepper as well.
Now add some cheese. You can be creative; cheddar is always a great pick, or go with something like Fontina, Gruyere, or Muenster.
Choose any fillings you like; think of an omelet or a quiche and what you would like in something like that. Cheddar and diced ham, or maybe sauteed mushrooms with Gruyere. Or you could go southwest with sauteed bell peppers and onions with pepperjack cheese. I’m going for a classic bacon and cheddar- can’t go wrong there.
Fill it up about 3/4 full, and then crack an egg right on top.
Sprinkle on a little more salt and pepper
and a few more toppings if you want. I’m doing more cheese and bacon and some green onions.
and pop the potatoes in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes.
Now, even if you generally don’t like your eggs cooked over easy, you’ll want to keep them pretty soft in this recipe. The eggs will blend in with the cheese and butter and create all kinds of flavor, but what you don’t want is a yummy baked potato with a hard boiled egg inside! It’s helpful to not load the very top of your potatoes with so many toppings that you can’t see the egg. The only way to really know how it’s cooked is to keep an eye on it and touch it for softness after about 20 minutes.
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I actually left mine in the oven about 2 minutes too long. I blame my 1 year old who decided to unroll an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet and try to flush it right as my timer was going off. Grgh… but at least they are still soft in this picture; I wouldn’t cook them any longer than this, and preferably a little less. They’ll taste best when the yolks are at least soft, and best when they’re just a little runny (and that’s coming from a girl who doesn’t eat runny eggs!)
I think the best thing about this recipe is that it’s totally appropriate for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. If you want to round it out a bit, serve it with a side of fresh fruit for breakfast or brunch and a simple green salad with lunch or dinner.
When I was looking at recipes like this around the web, most of them are traced back to The Village Cook, who mentioned she got the recipe from her mother and that it was based on a recipe from “The Supper Book” by Marion Cunningham. She referred to it as an “Idaho Sunrise”, and as an Idaho girl myself, I can’t help but love that!
Egg-Stuffed Baked Potatoes
Recipe inspired by The Village Cook
Ingredients
baked potatoes, slightly cooled
melted butter
kosher salt and black pepper
shredded cheese (cheddar, gruyere, fontina, pepperjack, or other of your choice)
eggs
additional fillings of your choice: sauteed vegetables, bacon or ham, etc.
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice a layer off the top of each potato. Use a spoon to gently scoop out insides, leaving a thin layer of potato against the skin and avoiding puncturing the bottom. Reserve scooped potato for another use.
Brush inside of each potato with melted butter and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Sprinkle a layer of shredded cheese into each potato and add fillings as desired (vegetables, diced meat, etc.) Fill each potato about 3/4 full. Crack one egg into each potato. Sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper. Top with additional cheese and toppings if desired.
Place potatoes on a baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes. Egg whites should be set and yolks soft.
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Questions & Reviews
I didn’t read all the posts so don’t know if someone already mentioned this, but if you butter or use olive oil on the skin and throw them in the toaster oven for a bit, skin side up, you’ll get a crispier skin! Of course, that’s before you fill them. Yummy!
@LAURA HALL, I TOOK MY CANOLA SPRAY AND SPRAYED INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THE POTATOES WHILE THEY WERE ON THE COOKING SHEET….WHICH GAVE ME A LITTLE CRISP TO MY SKINS WITHOUT THE EXTRA STEEP. BUT GREAT IDEA FOR THOSE THAT LIKE CRISPY SKINS.
Made these tonight and at 15 minutes the whites were not cooking. Microwaved them for 30 seconds and perfect. Delicious. Definitely will have these at my next brunch.
@LISA, I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM SO I JUST STUCK THEM BACK IN THE OVEN AND WATCHED CLOSELY TIL THEY WERE DONE. THEY CAME OUT FINE…BUT NEVER THOUGHT OF PUTTING THEM IN THE MICRO WAVE. THANKS
Clarisa: You can microwave the potatoes for about 3 minutes each and that will shorten the time to bake them in the oven to get the results you want.
Just so ya know, I stumbled upon this recipe on Pinterest. Have it in the oven right now only I put a Red Flannel Hash type mixture in it; potato chunks, cubed beets, some home-smoked pork shoulder, red onion. I’m hungry right now and typing it out makes me even hungrier. Later in the fall after the pigs are slaughtered and we have our own bacon and ham, won’t this be good on a cold night. Bon appetite!
Has anyone tried these over a fire/grill? I’m going camping this weekend, and these would be great! However, not sure about the logistics with the egg and open flame….Maybe wrapped in foil? Thoughts?
Yup, wrap in foil. That will work.
I WOULD FOIL THEM OPENING ON THE BOTTOM TO KEEP THE EGG IN THE POTATO….BUT A GREAT IDEA FOR SUMMER. THANKS
Hello!!
I found your site by chance because I get a newletter/blog from “Recipe For A Simple Life.” They did a “Menu Plan Monday” and the Egg Stuffed Baked Potatoes was on the menu. I’m glad I clicked my link because it brought me to this interesting recipe and then I discovered many more!! Myself and my older son are picky eaters but I found several recipes on this site that I can’t wait to try. Oh, did I also mention that I don’t like to cook…at all? I tell everyone I cook to survive…well, your website may have me looking for a new “motto.”
Thank you again!!
A Former Hater of Cooking!!
What time should I be there for brunch? I’ll bring the Mimosas and my very own fork/knife/spoon/plate….
What a tasty treat!
CHEERS, CC
Do you think these could be frozen ahead of time?
@KELSEY, I BAKED UP A BUNCH OF THEM TODAY AND PLAN ON FREEZING THE LEFT OVERS. HOPE IT WORKS……
Yes!! This breakfast has everything and it’s so clean and compact! I can definitely do without the 3-4 dirty pans and 12″ plate sprawl. Oh yeah, and it looks unbelievably good..haha. Thank you!
I made these tonight and my family liked them. I cooked them at least 30 minutes trying to get the whites to firm up. Then I realized that with the butter and oil from the toppings, things were going to stay loose even after the whites were cooked. Maybe that’s the same problem others were having. Anyway, my yolks were still fairly soft, but now that I realize the whites were actually cooked earlier than I realized I would cook for less time to keep my yolks a little more runny. And I think I might top it with a chopped avocado after it comes out of the oven. 🙂
Ok, after attempting to bake something else tonight I realized that my oven is on the frits and that’s why the cooking time was off for me. Dang, I really hope I can figure out what’s wrong.
I made these last week. We have 6 chickens so we had quite the fridge full of eggs I needed to use. WOW these are absolutely AMAZING. Please folks do not scramble them, that gorgeous soft egg, pooling onto your cheese and bacon….. WOW!!!
I LOVE baked potatoes! And I especially like cheese on baked potatoes. Thanx so much for this recipe.
I made these and they turned out great — EXCEPT… Either I didn’t scoop out enough of the potato, or my potatoes were too small. The egg overflowed! I just wiped off the outside and popped them in the oven and they were still great and super cute. 🙂
Loved these, but I was thinking they’d be even better with the eggs, bacon, veggies and cheese all mixed up THEN poured in the shelled-out potatoes. Kinda life a quiche.
MMM – can’t wait to try this one out for dinner tonight! Now, what to put with it? Salad maybe? Suggestions anyone?
I love this idea — any chance I could scramble the eggs before baking? We’re exclusively scrambled egg people; I’m sure that’s why the Lord brought us together. 🙂
I’ll just refer you to comment #41 🙂
My family (even the tiny kids)all loved the Idaho Sunrise–thanks for the recipe. I do need some help with it though…it took about 35-40 min. to cook to even get the whites of the eggs done and then by that time, the yolk was mostly done. Any advice? It definitely needs the yolk runny. Not sure what I did wrong…should I wrap the potatoes up, or cook at a higher temp?
thanks so much!
That’s weird Emily- did you have ginormous eggs or something? lol The whites should definitely cook faster than the yolk so I’m not sure what to tell ya!
Emily – I had the same problem. I think it’ll be better to cook it at a lower temperature for longer – because my egg whites were under cooked but by the time they were fully set the yolk was no longer runny. I’m not sure what the higher temperature will do, but if you try it again, let me know what worked. My other idea is to not put any toppings on top of the egg, that way it can cook more evenly…
I am trying these tonight…they look fantastic! Question though…do you eat the skins? I don’t usually eat the skins, but it seems that with all of the scooping of the potatoes, you’re not left with much other than the toppings and eggs. No?
Definitely eat the skin!
Awesome! Thanks for the reply 🙂
The thought of eating a runny egg gives me the willies. As in, I’m slightly afraid of it! But these look SO good!
Have you had them with the egg cooked all the way through? I’m wondering if it affects the flavor, or just the texture?
The eggs in my photo are cooked all the way through and they tasted great; just make sure they’re soft. They don’t have to be *runny* but you want to still keep them soft.
Like Amanda V, I was wondering about scrambling the eggs ahead of time. What are your thoughts on that? 🙂
Personally that doesn’t sound good to me, but you could try it if you want. I think whole, unscrambled eggs work much better here both taste and texture-wise.
Just saw this recipe which was shared by The Root Cellar’s Garden on FB and decided to try it out for lunch. It was totally yummy although my 3 year old opted to just eat the salad instead 🙂 This isn’t a recipe I would have come up with on my own but it’s really tasty and I can see myself making it often for lunch!
Oh, I’m so glad I decided to check my spam mailbox tonight. For some weird reason this post went there and I would have missed it! This looks delicious and would be easy enough to prepare mostly the night before and just add the egg and cook in the morning. As another Idaho girl, I’m pinning this right now so we can have it for breakfast or dinner next week.
Hmmm – I love potatoes and I love eggs and I was raised on a farm in Idaho, but these don’t look a bit appealing. Something about the raw egg on top of a baked potato just turns my stomach even though I know it will be cooked before it’s eaten.
We loved this for breakfast this morning! You are a genius! I didn’t realize how frugal this meal would be. For 5 potatoes, I used 2 slices of bacon, 2 or 3 oz of cheese, and just 1 mushroom! Everybody got to have theirs topped with only the nibbles that pleased them. I topped mine with a tiny bit of sour cream, and it was phenomenal. This is being added permanently to my vacation menus.
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I made these last night. They were a hit with the entire family. Ours were fairly set all the way through in order to get the whites set. Any tricks to keep the yolks soft, even runny, without the whites being runny, too?
I’m killing myself for having used up my potatoes last night for plain jane baked.
I must try this as soon as possible!
Mmmm… what about ham in the bottom and a little Hollandaise on top? Mmmm…
Wow, have to try these out for the hubby who loves potatoes and eggs! Thanks!