Loaded Smashed Potatoes With Ranch Sour Cream

These potatoes are the absolute perfect bite. They're crispy on the outside. They're fluffy on the inside. They're topped with crispy bacon and gooey cheese. And, they're topped with a cooling homemade ranch sauce. Could it possibly get any better than that?

Let's start with our ranch sour cream. All we need is a few dried spices and some rich sour cream to make a cool and delicious topping for our potatoes. So, we'll use everything from chives to parsley to dill to garlic plus a couple other spices to make the most perfect ranch drizzle, in my opinion. And bonus, since we're using dried herbs for our sauce, the shelf life will be extended a little longer since we don't have to worry about spoilage from using fresh herbs. So make a double or triple batch, and put this sour cream on everything. Trust me!

Next, let's talk potatoes. We're going to use some baby yukon gold potatoes as the base of our recipe. Yukon golds are my absolute favorite potato, because they're buttery and creamy and they just have the best flavor and texture in my opinion. If you don't have yukon golds, you could substitute red potatoes here in a pinch. If you have to swap potatoes, I would stay away from the super starchy potatoes like a russet. They're a little too mealy for what we're trying to accomplish with these potatoes.

We're going to precook our potatoes in some salted water first to soften them up and get them nice and smashable. So, we'll cook them for about 15ish minutes until they're nice and fork tender, and we'll dry them off really well. Then, it's time to smash!

To get these potatoes nice and crispy, we're going to line our baking sheet with a layer of olive oil before we add our potatoes. Then we'll add our potatoes to the tray, and we'll use the bottom of a drinking glass to apply pressure to the center of the potatoes to give them a little smash. We want to be gentle when smashing our potato, because we don't want to completely destroy our potatoes. We just want a little of the flesh to be exposed while still keeping the skin mostly in tact. Finally, we'll give the potatoes another drizzle of olive oil over the top side of the potatoes, we'll give it a good pinch of salt and pepper, and into the oven they go!

When the potatoes are finished roasting, we'll have pure magic in front of us. Because we added olive oil to the top and bottom sides of our potatoes, they almost fry in the olive oil while they roast away in the oven. So, the crispy factor on the edges of the potatoes can't be beat. But that creamy potato flesh stays soft and fluffy, so there's lot of texture in just that one little bite.

But wait, there's more! These potatoes would be perfect, as is, straight from the oven. But, this recipe is for loaded potatoes! So, we're going to top our potatoes with some crispy bacon and shredded cheddar, then throw them back into the oven for just a few minutes so the cheese can melt all over our crispy potatoes. When they come out of the oven the second time, we'll finish these babies by topping them with some sliced scallions and giving them a good drizzle of our ranch sour cream.

These potatoes...wow. They're so salty and savory thanks to the bacon, cheese, and all of the olive oil. Then, the ranch sour cream comes in with this cooling effect while adding lots of herbaceous flavor. And, those scallions on top add that perfect pop of color and freshness to cut some of the richness from all of the other components.

These potatoes are going to be the perfect addition to any new year's table. And no matter what happens when the clock strikes midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning, I know that at least I'll have the happiest belly in the world thanks to these little bites!

Alright, everyone. This is the last case of the Mondays that we'll have in 2020, and honestly...good riddance!

But for now, enjoy! And, let's eat!