Skillet Baked Potato

I'm a sucker for a perfectly baked potato loaded with, oh...., whatever I'm in the mood for at the time, or maybe it's really whatever I happen to have available in the kitchen to load it with at the time. Either way, I love 'em, and here's how I enjoy them the most:

Bake the potato until it reaches the ultimate, perfect level of smushiness. Ok, smushiness isn't a word found in the dictionary, but I bet you know exactly what I mean.  For me, that means when I grab it with a potholder to remove it from the oven, I can easily dent the sides in by gently squeezing it.

Now, I've always been one to prefer my loaded potato built in an organized fashion, layering the good stuff from the bottom up and I never mix it all together when I eat it, but I know there are those that prefer to mix everything all up, and since variety is the spice of life, that's fine with me!  Build yours however you want!!

Here we go:

Leave the oven on (400 degrees) after you remove the potato from the oven.
Spray a 7 inch cast iron skillet lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
Put the baked potato right into the middle of the skillet. Oh, I forgot to mention, this is a BIG ole potato, and it's the whole meal, and we're not having anything else with it, so...... yeah.

Cut the potato into quarters, then break the quarters up into pieces to cover the entire bottom of the skillet.  Then, add the layers....

Salt and pepper it to your liking.
Put pats of softened butter all around it and spread it around.
Dollop some sour cream over the butter, spread it around.
Sprinkle crispy crumbled bacon pieces over the sour cream (as much as you want!!).
Add a thin layer of grated cheese over the bacon.
Add a nice layer of chopped, smoked brisket over the cheese. (yay for left over brisket)
Top the brisket layer with lots of grated cheese.
Return to the oven.
Bake for 18 - 20 minutes, or until the cheese is all bubbly/melty.


Now, if I had had some fresh chopped chives, I would have thrown some in, but I didn't.

The glorious thing about this skillet potato is how many different ways you can make it.
It's the magical, ever-changeable, do it anyway you want kinda thing.  Just like a regular baked potato, only somehow, the cast iron skillet transforms it into something beyond regular.

Give it a try sometime, see how you like it, and hey.... mix all the stuff up together if you want instead of being picky like me and building it up in layers!!  You can bake multiple potatoes and put them in a larger skillet for more servings.  This serves two people or one really hungry person.

It slides right out of the skillet into a bowl, piping hot .... don't burn your mouth!!!