The Logistics of Hosting a Baked Potato Bar

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that I’m always looking for good ways to feed large groups of people. A baked potato bar has been on my list for a while and I finally got the chance to do one this fall. I learned a few things along the way I wanted to share with you all – and to share a few quantities of things to buy.

What to Buy

There were so many websites that told me exactly what I should buy for my baked potato bar, but none of them told me how much I should buy. Here’s what I ended up purchasing:

• 1 large russet potato per person (17 total for this party)

• 1 container 16-ounce sour cream

• 2 16-ounce bags frozen broccoli

• 2 8-oz. bags of shredded cheddar cheese

• 1 package diced pancetta

• 1 bunch chives

• 2 cans vegetarian chili

• 1 onion

In addition to those I had butter, hot sauce, salt, and pepper ready to go as toppings. Fun fact. My total bill from Trader Joe’s was less than $60.

We also made roasted chicken so that there would be a meat option, and salad.

How to Cook a Baked Potato

Cooking baked potatoes in the oven is pretty easy. First, you wash them in case anybody wants to eat the skin. (I actually ended up buying a fancy potato scrubber just to make sure I got all the dirt. Necessary? Probably not. But I felt pretty swanky about it.) Then you use a fork to make a bunch of holes in each potato. Then you rip a piece of foil big enough for the potato; put the potato on it; add olive oil, salt, and pepper; and wrap it up. Then you bake them in the oven until they’re soft inside.

The only complicated part here is making sure that they’re in the oven long enough to actually get soft. I cooked almost 20 potatoes at the same time and they took well over an hour to cook. My guests waited patiently, but I definitely didn’t feel great about it. There’s no harm in putting them in the oven earlier than you expect, they will stay warm in their tin foil until you need them for the party. (It also helps when you have a working oven, but that’s a different type of problem.)

The pros and cons of a baked potato bar

I figure I’ll break it down for you.

The pros of a baked potato bar are that it is easy. The prep was easy, and almost everything can come straight out of a package and into a bowl to be used. We complicated things by frying up the pancetta on the stove to heat it and caramelizing onions. Definitely not necessary. They’re also really filling.

The cons of a baked potato bar were that I still felt like I needed a meat option and there are a heck of a lot of dishes to do when the party is over because everything was in a bowl.

I would definitely try doing this again though, especially now that my oven is fixed. I also think that I would try doing a crock-pot pulled pork option as the meat to keep it simple, but as an option to folks who were looking for some protein. (That said, Heather’s rosemary garlic chicken option was definitely a hit.)

Have you ever done a baked potato bar? I’d love to hear about any additional toppings to consider in the comments below.