GrillinFools
I’ll admit, I haven’t done a great job adding side dish options to the website lately. It was something that had been weighing on my mind recently and when I saw a recipe for potato volcanos I had to do my version. See, I LOVE baked potatoes with all the fixin’s, and love them even more when they are smoked on the grill, whether as hasselback potatos or not. A potato volcano is basically a twice baked potato, stood on end with some cheese melting down the side (to look like lava). I decided to take these spuds to the next level by grilling them and wrapping them in bacon for Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Potato Volcanos.
Grilled bacon-wrapped potato volcanoes Ingredients:
- 6 Potatoes (russet and Yukon gold’s work very well) – 7 potatoes shown
- Olive oil
- Granulated garlic (or garlic powder)
- Bourbon smoked sea salt (substitute any coarse salt, if it’s flavored, even better)
- Melon baller
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (we prefer fresh grated)
- 2 sticks (half pound) softened salted butter
- 1 cup whole milk (for extra juicy potatoes like these, drop to 1/2 cup)
- 1 tbsp favorite barbecue rub
- Potato pulp – will be obtained after first cook
- 1 gallon zipper bag
- 6 slices of Farmland Applewood Smoked Classic Cut Bacon
- 6 toothpicks
- 6 slices of cheddar cheese
- 4 green onions, sliced
On top of making delicious bacon products, Farmland also has a great initiative to give back to communities across the Midwest. Its Honoring the Heartland Tour is focused on supporting localized farming and agriculture through providing meals and monetary donations as a way to say thanks for everything they do. We too are big believers in supporting local in general and local farmers in particular and many of the ingredients used in this recipe we picked up at a nearby farmer’s market.
Here’s about all we need to get started plus some bacon and green onions for color:
How to prepare a potato volcano
Start by washing the potatoes and poking holes in each one multiple times with a fork:
In the ingredients I recommend to cut down on the milk in the recipe by half if the potatoes you use are extra juicy. I’ve done this fork thing on hundreds of potatoes. Never have I had this much liquid come out:
More on the juiciness of the potatoes later. Once they are rinsed and poked, it’s time to drizzle some olive oil over the taters so place them on a platter or a rimmed cookie sheet because we are going to use a good amount of oil here:
Next up, the seasoning.
Try some flavored salts
I used a bourbon smoked salt, but any coarse salt will work. Garlic infused smoked salt would be fantastic too:
Always oil the taters first
Once the oil has been drizzled all over potatoes we have something for the seasoning to stick to. Season with the coarse salt first:
Because the granulated garlic/garlic powder is so fine, if you put it on first, it will completely coat the potatoes and not leave much for the salt to stick to, so always go with the salt first, followed by the garlic:
Here are our seasoned spuds:
These taters are only seasoned on the one side, so flip them over and repeat the process:
How to make grilled bacon-wrapped potato volcanoes
Now, prepare the grill for two zone or indirect grilling with coals on one side and nothing on the other. The target temp inside of the grill is between 350F-425F:
You can place the potatoes directly on the grill grates or on a cookie sheet lined with foil as we did here:
Place a chunk of mild smoke wood on the coals and close the lid. Let the heat and smoke work their magic.
Also, don’t throw away the oil and seasoning mixture that are on the platter or cookie sheet that was used to oil and season the potatoes. More on that in a little while.
After an hour, the potatoes have darkened up but still have a ways to go:
We need these potatoes to soften up. These took 2.5 hours at approximately 360-375F because these Yukon golds were really thick. Russets are thinner and don’t take nearly as long, but we sourced ours through the farmers market and the Russets weren’t in season yet. We prefer russets as the skin gets crispier than the Yukon golds
After the potatoes had been on for about 90 minutes, it’s time to make use of that seasoned oil:
Don’t dump this ticket to Flavortown. Drizzle it over the potatoes midway through the cook:
Close the lid and let them keep baking/smoking.
When they are good and soft, they are usually brown too:
Remember me saying how juicy these potatoes were? Check out the bubbles (the white dots) on the outside of these taters:
More Potato Prep
I would recommend putting these straight into the fridge for about 30 minutes or you’re risking playing hot potato with one hand with a melon baller in the other. Once they’ve cooled enough to handle, slice off the ends of the potatoes:
Then get the melon baller and scoop out a bunch of the potato pulp in the middle, making sure not to go too close to the wall of the potato or too close to the bottom:
Create the volcano filling
Dump all of the potato pulp into a large mixing bowl and add the butter, sour cream, milk and shredded cheese:
Use a spatula to fold all the ingredients together and then grab the potato masher:
If the potato mixture is too thin, hit the ends of those potatoes with the melon baller and add more potato. It’s OK if it is a little thin because the goal is to dump all of that into a gallon zipper bag and then cut off the corner, creating a large homemade piping bag to pipe the concoction into the potatoes. I can’t recommend this enough. It saved us a TON of time:
Then bust out that Farmland Applewood Smoked Classic Cut Bacon:
One slice should do it for the shorter, stouter Yukon Gold’s. For the longer, skinnier, Russet’s, two slices will be needed:
Now place the stuffed and smoked, bacon-wrapped potatoes back on the foil-wrapped cookie sheet:
Now time to get back on the grill
Once the bacon browns up a bit, it’s time to add the cheese which will complete our smoked potato volcanoes:
I put on a slice and a half of cheese, but felt like it was a bit too much cheese so I would suggest just one slice:
Close the lid and once the cheese melts, the bacon wrapped potatoes with cheese are done (make sure to dice your green onions while that cheese melts):
Sprinkle with the green onions and serve:
Slice the BBQ volcano potatoes in half to make one batch feed twice as many:
Grilled bacon-wrapped potato volcanos run down:
The garlicky, salty outer potatoes marry so well with warm and creamy inner potato, which is all enveloped in either wonderful bacon, melty cheese, or both. This dish may take some time to prepare, but it is soooo worth it!
Did I mention that the potatoes and the stuffing can be prepared the night before and finished up on the grill the next day to save some time?
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.
I’m extremely proud to partner with Farmland Foods on this promotion and to get behind their Honoring the Heartland Tour.
Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page, Instagram, and YouTube feeds
Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Potato Volcanos
Equipment
- melon baller
- 1 gallon zipper bag
- 6 toothpicks
Ingredients
- 6 potato (russet and Yukon gold's work very well)
- olive oil
- Granulated garlic or garlic powder
- Bourbon smoked sea salt (substitute any coarse salt, if it's flavored, even better)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded (we prefer fresh grated)
- ½ lb salted butter (2 sticks), softened
- 1 cup whole milk (for extra juicy potatoes like these, drop to 1/2 cup)
- 1 tbsp your favorite BBQ rub
- potato pulp (will be obtained after first cook)
- 6 slice Farmland Applewood Smoked Classic Cut Bacon
- 6 slice cheddar cheese
- 4 green onion sliced
Instructions
- Wash the potatoes and poke deep holes all the way around each spud with a fork
- Place the potatoes on a platter or a rimmed cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil before sprinkling with salt and the garlic
- Flip the potatoes over and repeat the process
- Prepare the grill for two zone or indirect grilling with charcoal on one side and nothing on the other
- Place the potatoes on a foil lined cookie sheet and put them on the side with no heat and drop a chunk of mild smoke wood on the coals
- Close the lid
- After 60 minutes for russets or 90 minutes for these Yukon Gold's, drizzle the seasoned olive oil from the platter over the potatoes
- Keep smoking until the potatoes are soft
- Remove them from the grill and place them in the fridge for 30 minutes
- Slice the end off the potatoes and then core them out with a melon baller making sure not to go too close to the sides or the bottom
- Place the potato pulp in a mixing bowl and add the butter, milk, grated cheese and BBQ rub
- Using a spatula, fold the ingredients together and then mash with a potato masher
- Pour the ingredients into a gallon zipper bag
- Cut off the corner and pipe the stuffing mixture into the cored out potatoes
- Wrap with a slice of bacon and affix in place with a toothpick
- Put the potatoes back on the grill until the bacon browns a bit
- Place a folded up slice of cheddar on top of each and close the lid
- While the cheese melts, chop the green onions for garnish
- Once the cheese melts place each potato on a plate (or cut in half and double the number served) and sprinkle with the sliced green onions
More pics of the grilled bacon-wrapped potato volcanos process
Scott Thomas
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