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Parmesan Crusted Potatoes make the perfect side dish. They bake open face down in parmesan cheese creating a delicious buttery, cheesy crust.
Parmesan Crusted Baked Potato Halves
I got this recipe from a friend when I was back in college. She insisted that I give it a try because it was a favorite in her family. I was blown away! The potatoes were so much better than I imagined! I now whip up a fresh batch of these potato halves whenever I get the chance. I personally love to eat these with a side of sour cream, as it provides a nice cool balance to the savory, piping hot potatoes.
These Parmesan Crusted Potato Halves are a perfect side dish for all kinds of meals. The outer crust is buttery and cheesy and the inside is tender and flaky and so full of flavor. Try these as an alternative to quick baked potatoes. They cook up fast on a baking sheet and are always tender on the inside, while crisp and buttery on the outside. This is a terrific side to make when you need to use up leftover potatoes. Dress them up with green onions or chives. Delicious!
The Parmesan Cheese
I rarely use the powdery grated parmesan cheese from a canister. When it comes to pastas and other Italian dishes, I always use fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano. It’s just a high-quality choice. However, with this recipe, the powdery kind is the only way to go. It gives the potatoes a nice crispy crust. Fresh parmesan will melt differently and you won’t get the golden crispness these potatoes need. So for this recipe, embrace the plastic container of parmesan. The flavor is great and you will get perfect results every time.
Additions and Substitutions
These potatoes are fantastic as they are, but if you want to incorporate some additional flavors, try sprinkling any of the following on with the parmesan cheese before baking:
- red pepper flakes
- cayenne pepper
- onion powder
- thyme
- rosmary
- basil
- oregano
- fresh parsley
Tips for Parmesan Crusted Potatoes
- You can use parchment paper to cover the sheet pan but I have never needed it. With all the butter, the potatoes don’t stick.
- Place baking pan in the oven with the butter while the oven is pre-heating, until the butter melts.
- Place the potatoes cut side down on the baking dish.
- Sprinkle a little kosher salt over the skin side.
- Use a fork or a sharp knife to test if the potatoes are done before removing from the oven. The bottoms should be golden brown.
- Let the potato halves cool for at least five minutes before removing them from the pan. If you take them off the pan right out of the oven, the parmesan crust on the potato comes right off. Just give it a little time and then take them off – the crust sticks to the potatoes beautifully.
- Serve with a side of sour cream or Ranch Dressing in a bowl. Toss on some fresh chives.
How to Serve Parmesan Crusted Potatoes
Parmesan Crusted Potatoes are great on their own, but I especially love dipping them in a side of sour cream sprinkled with a little dried basil. Ranch dressing is also REALLY good! You can also make these with potatoes other than russets. I have made them with red potatoes and gold potatoes, and both turned out really good. Try these out for yourself and decide how you like them best!
Frequently Asked Questions
No, these cook up perfectly in the oven. No need to pre-boil.
Sure. If cutting potatoes ahead of time, be sure to store them in cold water in the fridge until ready to use- then thoroughly pat dry. This method will also get out some starch and increase crispiness but isn’t necessary.
Yes! No gluten in this recipe.
Store any leftover potatoes in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Re-heat in an air fryer, oven, or microwave.
What To Serve With Parmesan Crusted Potatoes
My husband always requests these crispy Parmesan Potatoes as a side dish to go along with whatever meat he is grilling. It’s nice because I can throw these in the oven while he is grilling and all the food is ready at the same time. Some of our favorite grill recipes that we serve up with the Parmesan Crusted Baked Potato Halves are our New York Steaks and our Kansas City Baby Back Ribs. Both are so yummy. And if you like grilled chicken you should definitely try our Grilled Malibu Chicken, Grilled Balsamic Chicken, and Grilled Coconut Curry Chicken.
The Best Potato Recipes
These Parmesan Crusted Potatoes have been such a huge hit with our readers, that we have included them in our “Best Potato Recipes Straight From Idaho” post! You will find ALL of our top reader favorites in this post as well. Try them all!
More Potato Side Dishes
If you love potatoes as much as we do, you should definitely try some of these other potato sides. Similar to how we make the Parmesan Crusted Potato Halves, we have our Coconut Pecan Sweet Baked Potato Halves. These are loaded with coconut and pecan pieces and have a scrumptious cinnamon marshmallow dip. In the savory potato category we have our Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Potato Skins and Cheesy Bacon Potato Skins. Both are awesome for appetizers and parties! If you like potato wedges and fries we have traditional Potato Wedges, Loaded Potato Wedges and Sweet Potato Fries with a Tangy Chipotle Lime Dip. If you are a potato salad lover, we have you covered! Both our Homestyle Potato Salad and Bacon Gorgonzola Potato Salad are so incredibly good.
Parmesan Crusted Potatoes
Video
Equipment
- Conventional Oven
- 9 X 13 inch Pan
Ingredients
- 6 small potatoes russet potatoes or yellow potatoes
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- garlic powder
- other seasonings to personal preference
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter and pour into a 9×13 inch pan and spread evenly across the bottom.
- Scrub potatoes and cut into halves along the widest part of the potato.
- Generously sprinkle Parmesan cheese and lightly sprinkle other seasonings all over the butter.
- Place potato halves face down on the butter and seasonings. Place in preheated oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.
- Cool for at least a FULL 5 minutes before removing from the pan, otherwise the parmesan crust won't stick to the potato.
- Serve on a plate with a side of sour cream or Ranch dressing for dipping.
These are in the oven right now ~ cannot wait to try them!!
Trying these TONIGHT! I have a particularly picky family but any suggestions for the “extra seasonings?
I just did some italian seasoning, but sometimes I just do some dried basil.
This sounds fantastic, can’t wait to try it. In response to what other seasonings, I use rosemary all the time. It’s a bad day in my kitchen if I’m ever out of it! Thanks for the recipe!!
My kiddos are picky also, but luckily they love potatoes! We used some of the Hidden Valley Ranch powder and it was great! We sprinkled it in the cut half and the skin. A little bit goes a long way though…
I think I’m going to try bacon bits of some kind in the butter and cheese.
Yum!
I have some in the oven right now with real bacon bits and real parmesan cheese and the smell to die for!
Ooooh! I bet the bacon bits were delicious!
I have these baking in the oven as we speak 🙂 I used 1/2 cup of butter and 3 large potatoes (which I cut into 4 even pieces). My kitchen smells insane! Hopefully my husband and so love this. Very excited to try it!
Do you think I could use parmesan reggiano instead of plan parmesan? That is all I ever have in the house. Thanks, Becky
You can try it but in our experience it doesn’t get as good of a “crust”. Let us know if your turns out if you try it!
So I was reading and so u just cut the potatoes in half not like in chip style?
Yes, you just cut them in half, similar as if you were making potato skins.
Ok…so just take the potatoes in half… Can u show ne a example how
to cut them?
Look at the picture, you can see they are cut in half lengthwise…….
You just cut them right in half from end to end. 🙂
I made these tonight….the taste was great and my husband loved them however, my parm crust didn’t stick to the bottom of the potatoes which was irritating :/…i did use a glass casserole dish and shredded parm cheese instead of parm cheese from the shaker….could one of those reasons be why my parm crust didn’t stick?? however….will makes these again:)
If you try to take them off fresh out of the oven, it will stick. If you give it five to ten minutes they should come right off.
I would just stick the butter in the baking dish and put it in the oven while it is preheating. Melts the butter and no extra pan to wash. Delish!!!
That’s a good idea!
That’s exactly what I just did. Can’t wait for these to finish cooking. They smell amazing!
I’ve got to try this for my famy, I know they’ll love it
Thanks Kim!
These look so good!
Do you use fresh parm or the kind in a shaker?
I usually use the kind in a shaker, but fresh parmesan (shredded or shaved) work too.
In my book, there’s only one parmesan, and that’s parmigianno-reggiano imported from Italy. Anything else is substandard, especially the Kraft stuff in the green can.
Once you use the fresh Parmesan/regianno from the refrigerated section, you will NEVER go back to the Kraft in the green can!!!!
This looks cheap, easy and delicious- just our style. Thanks for a great recipe. Will be re-blogging.
Thanks,
Katie
letsgetbasted.com
These look so good I have to make some. Do you think this would work using a yam?
I haven’t tried a yam so I can’t say for sure….. but I bet a yam would be so yummy with butter and brown sugar at the bottom of the pan instead of parmesan cheese.
mmm I just cant wait to try these 🙂 always looking for a new way to make potatoes and sweet potatoes also mmm.. ty 🙂
There is a recipe above for doing it with sweet potatoes. Sounds yummy!
I would love to try these! But, how can you tell that the potato is scrubbed clean enough? I have a potato cleaner– but I’m so paranoid that the potato is not clean enough!
I just scrub it as clean as I can and I am pretty sure anything left that is bad bakes out. I haven’t gotten sick from one yet and we eat these a lot!
I wouldn’t worry about the potatoes being clean enough! I just give them a good rinse and a little scrub…I have never had a problem! If you’re really worried, buy organic
Really???? We eat a peck of dirt in a lifetime a little dirt on the potato wont kill you.
A little dirt didn’t hurt anyone… 🙂
Clean the potatoes with a vegetable brush.
Sweety God made dirt, and dirt don’t hurt.
Live a little! You ate boogers, bugs and dirt when you were a kid!
Do you really cook the potatoes cut side down? My thought is to dip them in the cheese mixture and cook on a sheet cut side up? I’m thinking it will be a cheesy mess on the bottom of the pan. They certainly look good!
You really want to do it cut side down, it makes a nice browned parmesan crust on the cut side of the potato.
If you will line you pan good with foil there won’t be a big mess to clean up. I use the non stick Reynolds aluminum foil for things like this. I have got to try this recipe it looks and sounds delicious.
Besides no mess by using foil, you can scoop up what’s left after picking up the potatoes, and either eating by itself or piling onto the potato tops! We stock and keep all ingredients, and I can’t wait to try this for dinner tonight!
The mess is minimal and cleans up easily in a glass pan. The majority of it sticks to the potato.
Made these last night for dinner. They were AWESOME!!! I did sprinkle salt and a little bit of olive oil over the top of the potatoes. Thanks for the recipe.
Do you have a round-about amount for the Parmesan Cheese? They look fabulous and I want to put them on my menu plan next week!
I would say at least half a cup, you want it really coating the bottom of the pan.
I made these for my mothers day dinner & they turned out AMAZING!!! i absolutely love your blog & thanks for all the great recipes.
I just wanted to thank you for your spectacular blog! I just emailed 8 of your recipes to myself (including this one) and plan to make them over the next 2 weeks. They look simply fabulous. Your instructions are clear and your photos are great, thanks for sharing your talents!
i just made these for lunch! delish!
Yum! You have the best recipes! Great idea.
how smart and easy! I will be trying this! thanks 😉
These look so good, I am definitely going to try to squeeze them into my menu for this week! Thanks so much for sharing!
I will try this sounds great & easy
Sounds great. I’m definitely will try these when the weather is cool enough to turn on the oven 🙂
Do it on the BBQ
I am planning on baked chicken for supper so will give these a try since my oven will be on anyway an we love baked potatoes
I was looking around and saw your potato. Well we just had them with dinner. YUMMMMMMo. Thanx 😉
These are my family’s favorite , my grandkids love these and they are so easy to make.
400 degrees celsius or fahreinhet?
400 Fahrenheit. Not too many home cooks have an oven capable of 400 Celsius, which would be a very impressive 750 Fahrenheit.
yes, 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
I think the person may have been asking about the Fahrenheit and Celsius temps because like me, I live in Australia where we have Celsius.
Making these right now. Can’t wait to try them
Just saw this and made them today…very delicious!
I live in Australia and we use Celsius, so your 400 Fahrenheit here is 200 Celsius for others that may want to know.
Easy and look yummy! Perfect snack for weekend guests..
We made them for the first time for Easter dinner. I added some additional seasonings (rosemary and parsley, mainly), and it was the perfect pairing for out lamb chops. We have made them several times since. They are always a hit…never any leftover.
Oh…and try them with red potatoes…even better! That’s what’s for dinner tonight. <3
I made these last week. They were so good! I will never have baked potatoes any other way!! (By the way making them again tonight.)
Made these tonight with red potatoes and they were great.
Using red potatoes is my favorite way to make them. Add a little rosemary and parsley, and they are even better! Making the for dinner tonight with a side of broccoli and cheese. Yumm!
do you put rosemary nad parsley on top or in the butter and garlic?
You could do either way… I would probably do it in the butter and garlic so the flavor absorbs
You could do either way… I would probably do it in the butter and garlic so the flavor absorbs
how long did you bake the red potatoes?
Has anyone tried to make these on a Pampered chef stoneware bar pan instead of a 13X9? I’m thinking it may be crisper that way.
Let me know if you try it, I was wondering the same thing. 400 degrees is the highest temp for PC stoneware if I remember correctly.
Yes, just tried it. .works perfect in the Bar pan! I doubled the amount of butter.
Sounds like another winner !
My family has put this on our favorites list!
I made them to go with our BBQ grilled chicken and corn on the cob! They came out perfect, delicious and easiest potato I’ve ever made!
I love Family Favorite Recipes!
Thank you so much Rose! 😀 We love you too 😉
Looks yummy….I would just suggest grating your own real parmesan instead of using the canned fake stuff!!
Wonder if a could use other shredded cheeses– 4 cheese mix, or just cheddar
CCN
Don’t use other shredded cheeses, they are too greasy and won’t stick to the potato.
Oh my! I just put them in the oven using shredded parm instead of grated! I’ll see what happens. Learned now to read the comments first!