Modern Taco Stuffed Potatoes

Baked potatoes topped with taco meat and seasoned beans, then smothered in chipotle cheese sauce and sprinkled with fresh tomato, sweet peppers, onion, avocado, a drizzle of Sriracha ranch, plus a few crushed nacho cheese Doritos on top for crunch. Who could resist?

Not I, for one. Once I’d finished topping my potato with all these luscious toppings, I couldn’t WAIT to dig in! Both the drizzly sauces looked so tempting, I knew the taco meat and beans were hiding underneath, and those juicy red tomatoes, crunchy onion and creamy avocado beaming proudly at me from the top.

I wondered what it would taste like. Would I like it? The idea of putting taco toppings on a potato was profoundly new to me, introduced by my friend Mary, when she posted her Taco Loaded Baked Potatoes. I was really intrigued by that recipe and told her I HAD to try it. But of course I had to put my own spin on it. I had some cheese sauce in my fridge after making that Copycat Wendy’s Broccoli Cheese Potato and thought that all I needed was to give my cheese sauce a little Mexican spin to make this whole thing work (and help me use up my cheese sauce!)

Sriracha ranch is just one of those things I keep in my fridge, you know, just in case I need it for drizzling on a salad (or something else), as a creamy spicy dipping sauce for various things, and sometimes I use it for dredging things in before covering them with a crunchy coating, like I did with my baked Sriracha Ranch Asparagus Fries. I felt like it was an essential ingredient for a taco stuffed potato.

And so then, I had to make this, complete with both cheese sauce AND Sriracha ranch. And not just taco meat, but beans too! And loads of extra fun things on top.

I freaking LOVED it. I was kind of surprised how MUCH I loved it, but I should have known. I mean, Modern Taco Salads are pretty dang amazing … but potatoes! Oh, the juices from the meat and the beans soak into the potato so there’s not a speck of dry anywhere. The sauces further that thought and the toppings well, they’re just the “cherry on top” so to speak. I SO want to make these again and again and again. I confess, I’ve taken the shortcut on multiple times, nuking my potato instead of baking it, you know, so I could have Modern Taco Stuffed Potatoes ready to stuff in my face faster.

But now I’m out of cheese sauce, so I guess I need to make more so I can have me some more Modern Taco Stuffed Potatoes!

What’s up with the “Modern Taco” name? It comes from one of my very favorite restaurant salads of all time: one that has since been removed from the menu (much to the dismay of all of us who loved it!), but I re-created it at home (and on many occasions for many, many friends). Their salad was named the “Modern Taco Salad” and it was that salad that got me hooked on Sriracha Ranch dressing, so along that same vein, then, this potato must be the Modern Taco Stuffed Potato. (BTW, I re-created the Modern Taco Salad at home, and upgraded it a bit and personally I think my version is better. If I ever open a restaurant, you KNOW that salad will be on the menu, permanently!)

But back to the potato. Make this. You’re going to love it. I promise.

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