Chili Baked Potatoes

This easy chili baked potato recipe works for weeknights or family dinners for a crowd! This trick lets you cook the potatoes in half the time.

What’s for dinner? Yes, it’s a struggle for all of us! Alex and I have found it’s especially difficult when feeding a crowd. But here’s a solution that’s a perfect dinner for a crowd: chili baked potatoes! Bake up some potatoes, top them with chili and all the fixin’s, and it’s an easy dinner everyone can enjoy. Chili is a hearty match for fluffy potatoes, and really: who doesn’t love a baked potato bar with all those fun toppings? This recipe is gluten-free and vegan, so it fits a variety of diets around the table. Here’s how we make them: with our trick for baking the potatoes quickly!

How to make chili baked potatoes

Chili baked potatoes is a truly easy concept: make chili, bake potatoes, serve! It’s a great option for entertaining, like a big family dinner. Alex and I served this to a group of 12 people for a dinner party, and it went over very well! Everyone loved the toppings, and it made our pot of chili feed more people! Here are the basic steps:

• Make the chili. Make up a pot of your favorite chili! Here are some of our favorites: Quick Chili Recipe, Ultimate Vegan Chili, Vegetarian Chili, Healthy Chili or Instant Pot Chili.
• Bake the potatoes. Bake them whole, or the trick below lets you bake them in half the time: just 30 minutes!
• Load ’em up! Here’s the fun part: create a loaded baked potato bar with all your favorite toppings like sour cream, cheese, green onions, and more. (See below for more ideas!)

Quick baked potatoes: our trick!

Guess what: we’ve got a trick for baking potatoes in half the time! The classic way to bake potatoes is whole, like our Whole Baked Potato. If you use large potatoes, this can take up to 1 hour or more. Here’s the magic: instead of baking the potatoes whole, cut them in half. That’s it! That simple 1-minute trick saves about half the baking time in the oven. Because the potatoes are half as thick, they bake in half the time. Simple as that!

Here are our recipes for baked potatoes:

• Classic baked potato
• Baked sweet potato
• Quick baked russet potatoes
• Quick baked sweet potatoes

Russet potatoes vs sweet potatoes

These chili baked potatoes are perfect with either russet potatoes or sweet potatoes. I’m partial to the flavor of sweet potatoes because it brings in that sweet and savory combo. But the classic russet potato is always a hit too. If you’re comparing them, which potato is healthier? Here’s a breakdown (source):

• 1 medium sweet potato has 100 calories, 4 grams fiber and 2 grams protein. They’re full of slowly digested carbohydrates for sustained energy, and have four times your daily vitamin A.
• 1 medium white potato has 170 calories, 4 grams fiber and 5 grams protein. It’s rich in potassium (more than a banana) and has resistant starch which keeps you feeling full.
• Which potato is healthier: sweet potato or white potato? Both are a healthy carbohydrate! Sweet potatoes are slightly lower on the glycemic index than white potatoes, so blood glucose will rise a little more gradually with sweet potatoes.

Toppings for chili baked potatoes: a baked potato bar!

These chili baked potatoes are perfect for a baked potato bar! Set out the potatoes and chili, and then lots of toppings for your guests to choose from. There are so many fun things to add! Here are some of our favorite baked potato toppings:

1. Sour cream (or vegan sour cream)
2. Shredded cheese: Mexican blend, cheddar, or smoked cheddar
3. Sliced green onions
4. Pickled jalapeños
5. Tortilla strips
6. Pickled onions
7. Roasted salted pepitas
8. Thinly sliced radishes or pickled radishes
9. Chopped avocado
10. Chopped cilantro

Make ahead instructions

These chili baked potatoes take about 45 minutes to make: the time it takes to make a pot of chili! You can bake the potatoes while the chili simmers. But here are a few tips for making components ahead:

• Make the chili up to 1 day ahead and refrigerate. Chili gets even better as it sits. Make it up to 1 day in advance, then rewarm before serving. (We tested and our vegan chili doesn’t freeze well because of the quinoa, so we’d make a fresh batch.)
• The potatoes are best roasted day of. We’d recommend roasting the potatoes right before serving. If you must, you can roast them in advance and then rewarm them in a 375 degree oven prior to serving.

Sides to go with chili baked potatoes

What to serve with these chili baked potatoes to make a stunning meal for a crowd? Here’s what we served them with at our dinner party:

• Cornbread or corn muffins. Our Best Cornbread, Classic Cornbread Muffins, or Vegan Cornbread are great options. This tender, moist cornbread tastes the Jiffy box, but 100 times tastier.
• Salad. A few we’d recommend that fit the vibe: Mexican Salad, Tossed Salad, Classic Spinach Salad, or Spinach Apple Salad. Or browse our favorite salad recipes.

This chili baked potato recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

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