A baked potato with cheese and bacon for one is an easy, hot and filling meal that requires very little hands on time. Pop a few extra potatoes in the oven to use for future meals like hashbrowns, home fries or potato salad for one!

Baked Potato with Cheese on Bacon

A baked potato (or jacket potatoes depending on where you’re from!) is one of the absolute easiest things you can make in the kitchen. There’s no peeling, chopping, dicing, or sauteeing… It’s simply a potato baked in an oven for an hour.

And while a baked potato on its own may sound pretty boring, it’s the toppings that turn it into a meal. Top with your favourite proteins and serve it up with a side salad or some crudites (aka raw veggies with dip!) and you have a filling meal with very little effort.

In this version we’re making a baked potato with cheese and bacon, which is extremely simple.

Prep Work For A Cheese and Bacon Baked Potato

While this is a very simple recipe it does take some time. The potato needs to bake for one hour and it will take a while for your oven to preheat to 425F – so plan accordingly
clean (but don’t peel) your potato, rub it with a light coat of oil and pierce it a few times with a fork, grate the cheese and chop the green onion or chives while you wait for the oven to heat up
you can skip the step of rubbing the potato with oil but the skin gets so much crispier and tastier when you take the extra minute to do so.
while your potato is cooking, read a book, do some laundry, watch an episode of your favourite Netflix show – whatever floats your boat. Just be sure to cook the bacon up when your potato has about 10 minutes left to cook.

Hot Tip For A Perfect Baked Potato with Cheese and Bacon For One

To make this really delicious make sure you split and fluff up the potato when it’s hot! Sprinkle half the cheddar on right away so that the steam from the potato makes it melt and get ooey and gooey. After it’s melted then add on the sour cream, extra cheese, bacon and onions or chives.

Make Yours Vegan

No meat or animal products? No problem. You can swap out the sour cream for cashew cream, or try one of the many vegan cheeses or bacon substitutes available in place of the cheddar and bacon.

Other Topping Ideas For A Baked Potato For One

Baked Potatoes are a blank canvas for toppings – particularly leftover bits of protein.

leftover chili and cheddar cheese with some shredded ice berg lettuce
diced chicken or turkey with ranch or Caesar dressing
leftover pulled pork
gravy and cheese curds (a poutine potato!)
taco seasoned protein of your choice with diced tomatoes and shredded lettuce (and more sour cream!)

Think Ahead and Make More Than One Baked Potato

If turning on your oven for an hour just for a potato seems like too much, throw in an extra couple of potatoes. They won’t go to waste – you can use the extra potatoes for future meals like:

breakfast hash browns
home fries
an easy potato salad for one

Print Recipe

Baked Potato with Cheese and Bacon For One

An easy entree for one that can be customized based on your diet or topping preferences

Cook Time1 hr

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bacon, baked potato, cheddar cheese

Servings: 1

Author: Melissa

Ingredients

1 large potato russets work best
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 slices bacon
1 green onion or a few chive stalks
sour cream (optional)

Instructions

preheat the oven to 425F
clean your potato but don't peel it. You just want to scrub off any dirt, trim any eyes or cut out any significant blemishes. Thaen rub a little olive oil over the whole potato. I just use my hands for this but if you don't want oily hands just use a brush like you would if you were brushing BBQ sauce onto something.
pierce the potato with a fork in a couple of spots so steam can escape. You can also season it with little salt and pepper if you like but I don't usually bother. Place the potato directly onto the middle rack of the oven (or place it on a baking tray if you like - but that makes for an extra dish to clean up) and let it bake for 50-60 minutes or until it's soft when you pierce it with a fork and the skin is feeling a little crispy
while the potato is baking grate up your cheddar, chop your green onion or chive stems. Fix yourself a drink, turn on some music and dance around the kitchen for a while, read a book or play a video game.
When the potatoes have about 10 minutes left to go, cook up your two slices of bacon to your desired level of crispiness - either in a frying pan or with 2-3 minutes in the microwave. When they're done give them a few minutes to cool and then roughly chop them up into small bits.
When your potato is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit for a minute to give the steam a chance to escape. You don't want to burn yourself when you slice it open!
Slice open the top of the potato and push the sides in so that the potato insides fluff up and push out. Immediately put your grated cheese in so that the heat from the potato makes it melt. Sprinkle on half of the bacon and then spoon on a tablespoon of sour cream if you wish (I always do!) and then sprinkle with the remaining bacon, chives or green onion and a bit more grated cheese if you like! There you go - dig in!

Notes

Toss a couple of extra potatoes into the oven to cook. You can use these later for breakfast hash browns or home fries or you can make a quick and easy potato salad for one. You can also reheat already baked potatoes by putting them in the oven at 350F for 20 minutes until they've warmed through.