When my brother was here for Thanksgiving, he bought three bags of cheese curds to make poutine. He only used one and left the other two behind for me to experiment with. And that’s how this Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes recipe was born.

Now, let me get this out of the way first.

These are technically cooked twice potatoes rather than baked twice. But “twice cooked potatoes” is not the name of anything.

Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe

We’ll get into more about poutine below the recipe, but a quick summary: Poutine is a Canadian recipe where French fries are covered in brown gravy and cheese curds.

Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes Ingredients:

• 3 pounds baby Dutch yellow potatoes
• 7 oz. cheese curds
• 3 pieces of bacon
• 2 pieces of green onion
• Sour cream
• Salt
• Garlic powder
• 1 packet brown gravy mix

How To Make Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes:

Pre-heat the oven to 350.

Wash the skin of the potatoes and soak them in water for 30 minutes. Soaking the potatoes will help remove some of the starch from the potatoes.

Boil a pot of water. Add the potatoes and boil for 15 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and run them under cold water. Let them sit in the cold water until they’re cool to the touch.

Cut off the top of the potato and carefully scoop out the middle.

Place the potato, cut side up, in a 9- x 13-inch cake pan. Generously season each potato with salt and garlic powder.

Chop the cheese curds and fill the middles of the potatoes with the curds.

Make the brown gravy according to the package.

Pour a spoonful onto each potato.

Bake for 10 minutes.

While that’s baking, make three pieces of bacon and chop the bacon into crumbles.

Remove the potatoes from the oven. Top each one with a dollop of sour cream.

Add some of the crushed bacon.

Finish with the chopped green onion.

Serve warm.

What is poutine?

Poutine is Canada’s (unofficial) National Dish and can trace its roots back to 1950’s Quebec. Poutine is fries, topped with brown gravy and cheese curds.

You can find poutine topped with additional ingredients. Like, lots of toppings. La Banquise in Montreal, which I have on good authority has fantastic poutine, has over 20 varieties of poutine.

There’s everything from La Trois Viandes (ground beef, pepperoni, and bacon) to La Véganomane (vegan cheese and vegan sauce). And in between are ones like La Sud-Ouest (bacon, red onions, guacamole, onion rings, and Chipotle sauce) and La Bonheur (vege sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, and onion).

Is poutine the same as disco fries?

If you’ve spent any time at the Jersey shore, you know exactly what disco fries. And if you’ve never spent summer days at “the shore” (as we all called it), disco fries may sound completely foreign.

Disco fries are very, very similar to poutine. They’re fries topped with brown gravy and mozzarella cheese.

But, the cheese the big difference between poutine and disco fries. Poutine has clumps of room temperature cheese curds that warm (but don’t melt) when covered in hot (not boiling) brown gravy.

Disco fries are known for really melty cheese that has that elasticity when you pull it. You know that cheese pull. Disco fries need that.

Also, poutine uses cheddar cheese curds while disco fries use mozzarella. And disco fries have a thicker gravy than poutine.

What’s the difference between poutine and loaded fries?

If you live outside the radius of driving to the Jersey shore for the day, you may have never come across disco fries.

You may, however, seen cheese fries or loaded fries on the menu. They’re kind of the same thing, but not really.

So cheese fries are, quite literally, cheese and fries. The cheese really varies based on whatever that diner, pizza parlor, bar, etc. feel like serving. There’s no concrete definition of what cheese must be used. And there’s no gravy.

Poutine needs gravy and requires cheese curds, so poutine is not cheese fries.

Poutine is also not loaded fries because even though loaded fries are topped with tasty bits (usually cheese, sour cream or ranch dressing, bacon, and something green), poutine doesn’t have to have toppings other than cheese curds and gravy to be poutine.

What are cheese curds?

Now that we’ve established that poutine requires cheese curds, let’s talk about what cheese curds are.

Cheese curds are curds that haven’t been cheddarised. Okay, that might not be a word. But they’re curds that haven’t been through the cheddaring process.

So, milk is heated and acidified, and the acid causes the separation from the curds and whey. Those curds are cheese curds.

Cheddar cheese curds then go through a process of cheddaring, which involves heating, removing more whey, forming into slabs, lots of slapping around, and then shaped and aged.

Cheese curds are really popular in the midwest, particularly Wisconsin. If you live outside of that area, you might not be able to find cheese curds in your local grocery store.

We can’t find them at any of our grocery stores except ALDI.

If you can’t find cheese curds, you can use mozzarella cheese when you make this Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes recipe. Just make sure you use a block of mozzarella cheese, not shredded mozzarella.

I know. Cheese curds are, traditionally, cheddar cheese, but American cheddar cheese has more of a bite to it than mozzarella does. And American cheddar cheese will kind of fight the flavor of the brown gravy.

Since mozzarella is more mild, and the moisture in it feels similar to cheese curds, mozzarella cheese is the best substitution for cheese curds.

Do you need to peel the potatoes?

Definitely don’t peel the baby Dutch yellow potatoes. The skin of these potatoes are paper thin, unlike the thicker skin on an Idaho potato.

Baby Dutch yellow potatoes are really good at holding their shape, which is exactly what you want when you’re making these. You want people to be able to pick them up by hand and pop them into their mouths without the potato crumbling.

Do you have to bake these in a cake pan?

The high sides of the cake pan is really helpful when you’re making these Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes. You’ll be able to lean the potatoes against the walls of the cake pan, then lean the other potatoes against those potatoes. Pack the pan completely so none of them can shift when you move the pan.

You can make this on a cookie sheet in theory, but the potatoes won’t have any walls to lean on and will end up falling over when you try to move the tray. When the potatoes fall, all their fillings and toppings will fall as well.

How can you reheat Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes?

If — and this is a big if — you have any leftover Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes, you can easily reheat them.

You can reheat them in an air fryer on 370 to 2 to 3 minutes. Just put them in one layer in the air fryer basket.

You can reheat them in the oven by putting them in a single layer on a cake pan. Then, heat them for about 10 minutes on 350.

What can you serve with Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes?

Loaded Poutine Twice Baked Potatoes are the perfect one bite appetizer. So, if you’re hosting a party where you’re looking for really good finger foods, this cheese curds stuffed potatoes recipe is the best. And in that case, serve it with other appetizers.

If you’re making these for dinner, I suggest serving them with something like our cheesy bacon and mushroom chicken or a good steak and a side salad.