Ways To Repurpose Your Leftover Baked Potatoes For The Grill

Grilling potatoes can certainly enhance the flavor, and cooking them alongside your entree can be fuel-efficient since you won't have to heat up a second appliance. The main drawback to this method is that it can take a raw potato an hour or so to cook on the grill, so some recipes suggest jump-starting the process by parboiling or microwaving them first. If you've got leftover baked potatoes, though, you're already halfway home — a potato that's soft inside can be finished off with just 10 minutes on the grill.

Robbie Shoults, the chef-owner of Bear Creek Smokehouse, High Horse 1898, and Marshall Mercantile in Marshall, Texas, has an idea for re-purposing your leftover spuds. As he tells us, "I would make another dish out of the cooked baked potato." One suggestion he has is to slice open the potatoes, scoop out the flesh, and mash it up with sour cream, shredded cheese, bacon bits, green onions, or anything else you might stuff into a twice-baked potato. (With twice-baked sweet potatoes, try topping them with brown sugar for a crème brûlée-ish effect.) Coat the skins with oil, mayonnaise, or butter, then cook them on the grill until they're warm inside and out and the cheese or sugar has melted.

Not only does Robbie Shoults suggest using the grill for twice-baked potatoes (well, technically they're once baked, once grilled), but he also endorses using leftover potatoes in grilled hash. His idea involves chopping up pre-baked potatoes, seasoning them, and mixing them with smoked sausage. A different protein like ham, bacon, pulled pork, corned beef, or leftover rotisserie chicken would also work. A layer of grated cheese would make another tasty addition. Once you've made your hash, wrap it in a foil packet, or leave the top open to form a foil basket if you want some extra smoke flavor. You can also cook the hash in a cast-iron skillet as these heavy pans are safe to use on the grill. Heat the hash for 15 to 20 minutes until it's warm and the cheese (if you used it) is bubbly.

Alternatively, you could mash your leftover potatoes (with or without skins) and use them to make potato cakes. You can grill those, although you might want to use a sheet of aluminum foil to keep them from sticking to or slipping between the grates. These will cook fairly quickly, requiring just three or four minutes per side to turn them crispy and brown.