Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Potatoes

These Buffalo chicken stuffed potatoes are fully loaded with delicious Buffalo chicken and tender, airy potatoes, and it's all cradled in a potato skin. These Buffalo chicken twice baked potatoes are a great way to get in all the flavors we love in one simple package!

Twice baked potatoes are one of my favorite sides. They're loaded with all kinds of great flavor, and you can do so much with them! I've been making them for years, and everyone in my family always loves them.

They look super fancy, but they're actually very simple to make which is another huge bonus for me, as well.

For years, I've made twice baked potatoes in just about the same way. You know the drill. Bake your potatoes, scoop out the middle, add butter seasoning, and cheese - maybe some bacon every so often - then whip it all up and put it back in the skins.

Of course, we love the flavor, and my family is always happy to eat them, but I started to feel like they were getting a bit stale. I wanted to mix things up a bit That's when I decided to try making these Buffalo chicken stuffed potatoes.

They're packed with zesty flavor, they're hearty and delicious, and they're easier to make than they look.

How We Got to This Zesty Recipe

Without Buffalo chicken and baked potatoes, there would be no Buffalo chicken stuffed potatoes recipe. This recipe is the perfect combination of two things that we all know and love, but where did those things come from?

Let's stop and take a second to look at the history of both baked potatoes and Buffalo chicken, shall we?

History of Baked Potatoes

Potatoes were first cultivated by the Inca around 8,000 to 5,000 B.C. After conquering Peru, Spanish conquistadors took this tuber back to Europe in the 1,500s A.D., and the ease of growing and eating them quickly made them a staple in many countries throughout the continent.

Baking potatoes was an incredibly convenient way to cook them because most homes had fires going almost all the time, so it was simple to just throw them into the stove.

No one knows exactly when or where the first person had the idea to bake potatoes, but as placing something on the fire is such a rudimentary way of cooking, food historians agree that the method has likely been around far longer than anyone has ever suspected.

There are baked potato variations all across the globe, but the one that most North Americans are known for are the product of the ingenuity of one American named Hazen Titus.

Believe it or not, Idaho potatoes, the potatoes of choice for baking, were once used as food for hogs. They were considered to be too large and unwieldy for traditional cooking, and so they were relegated to use as hog food.

However, Hazen Titus found them to be delicious when baked for a long period of time. As the Northern Pacific Railroads' dining car superintendent, he began to promote the huge potatoes and put them into the dining menus of the trains.

From there, the popularity of Idaho potatoes spread until what we all know and love as baked potatoes was born.

History of Buffalo Chicken

Buffalo wings were born in 1964 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. There, co-owner, Teressa Bellissimo, cooked leftover chicken wings in hot sauce as a late-night snack for her son and his friends.

It was late, so she simply grabbed what she had on hand – chicken, spices, and hot sauce – and threw them together. They were such a hit with the boys that the Bellissimos put the wings on their menu the very next day. They were an instant hit with the customers, as well.

Dick Winger, the man who sold the bar its hot sauce, went on the road with Dominic Bellissimo, the owner’s son, to promote the wings and sell hot sauce, and it gradually grew in popularity over the years as more and more people tried the new, spicy chicken wings.

It wasn’t until 1990 that buffalo wings really caught on. In 1990, McDonald’s started selling Mighty Wings at select locations. In 1991, Kentucky Fried Chicken released its Hot Wings, and in 1994, Domino’s Pizza introduced its own wings.

Fast forward to today, and you can find buffalo wings at every bar and almost every restaurant you visit. They’ve become a staple across North America and even the world!

Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Potatoes

These Buffalo chicken potatoes are called stuffed for a reason. They are filled to capacity with delicious flavors. Chicken cream cheese, Buffalo sauce, and seasonings combine to create that delicious Buffalo chicken flavor we love, and it's all combined with fluffy mashed potatoes to create a recipe for Buffalo chicken twice baked potatoes that is absolutely out of this world.

I'm confident you've never had twice baked potatoes quite like this before! Perfectly seasoned and delicious, every single bite is an explosion of flavor that no one can resist.

I know whenever I make them, my family comes back again and again for more, and I think your family will, too. They're just so darn good!

Ingredients

It only takes a few ingredients to make these delicious Buffalo chicken stuffed potatoes. The best part is that you probably have most of the ingredients in your kitchen already. Almost everyone keeps potatoes, cheese, sour cream, and cream cheese on hand in their kitchen.

The only things you might have to buy especially for this recipe is the hot sauce and of course, the chicken. But heck, you might already have chicken in your fridge or freezer, come to think of it. Here's what you'll need.

• 4 large baking potatoes
• 2 Tablespoons sea salt
• 1 ½ cup cheddar cheese
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 2 cups shredded chicken
• ½  cup Frank’s buffalo hot sauce
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons green onion

That's all there is to it! Just a few simple ingredients combine to create a dish that is so incredibly packed with flavor, you'd think it took a pantry full of ingredients to make!

Making the Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Potatoes

Making these Buffalo chicken twice baked potatoes is just about as easy as the ingredient list. The most labor intensive part of this recipe is simply scooping out the potatoes and mixing them with the other ingredients. You'll find that everything is exceedingly easy to do, and it all comes together very quickly.

• Preheat the oven to 350° and make sure the rack is on the middle rung of the oven. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil.
• Clean the potatoes with a scrub brush and pat dry.  Rub the potatoes with olive oil all over and sprinkle with salt on all sides.
• With a fork poke the potatoes on all sides 4-6 times each and place them on the cookie sheet.
• Bake for 1 hour or until a fork can be inserted easily.
• Remove potatoes from the oven and with tongs and one at a time place a potato on a cutting board.  With a large sharp knife cut each potato in half.  Use a spoon and scoop out the middle of each potato and place into a bowl.  Replace each scooped out potato back onto the cookie sheet.
• Mash the potato middles and add 1 cup of cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, chicken, buffalo hot sauce, and sour cream. Mix well.
• With a spoon refill each potato skin with heaping amounts of the buffalo chicken mixture. 
• Sprinkle with remaining cheese and place back in the oven.
• Bake for 20 minutes
• Serve with ranch dressing and green onion or additional sour cream.

Tips

This is a very simple recipe. In fact, it's so straightforward, there aren't a lot of tips to be had on this one. I only have two tips for your today, but they're both important.

One will ensure your potatoes bake evenly, and the other will keep you from burning yourself! So, you know, they're important.

• When choosing your potatoes select large potatoes that are uniform in size. This will allow them to bake evenly and give you a nice cavity to place your mixture after you've prepared it.
• When stuffing the potatoes, use tongs to remove the potatoes from the baking sheet and hot mitts to hold them as you stuff them.

Serving Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Potatoes

These delicious potato boats of flavor are a complete meal in and of themselves, so there's no need to pair them with anything. They're an entire meal in one potato skin! To serve them, simply place them on a plate and garnish with a little ranch or sour cream.

That's all there is to it! They make a great weeknight meal or addition to any party or get-together. Everyone always loves them, and they're easy to serve and eat. It doesn't get much better than that!

Storing Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Potatoes

These potatoes will keep well in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for about five days. For longer storage, you can freeze them for up to three months in an air-tight freezer-safe container.

Simply chill them in the refrigerator, then wrap them in plastic wrap and place them in your container.

Buffalo Chicken Twice Baked Potatoes - Easy, Zingy, Delicious

These Buffalo chicken potatoes are easy to make and absolutely overflowing with flavor. That's a great combo if I ever heard one, don't you think? It only takes a little baking and a few minutes of mixing to create these potatoes that are, well, stuffed with deliciousness. That's it.

They taste like they take forever to make, but you'll be in and out of the kitchen in no time! Give this recipe a try, and I guarantee you'll be making them far more often than you might have imagined.