Happy Friday and welcome back! This week I am excited to bring you an easy weeknight meal that is sure to please the entire family — something that I like to call an Overloaded Baked Potato. So, pour a drink and pull up a chair because you’re going to love this one.
At our house, we always like to take a normal recipe and give it a little funk, so I thought what better way to spice up a baked potato than to add pulled pork, broccoli and cheese — lots of cheese.
For this recipe you will need:
• 6-8 medium to large potatoes — Russets are best in my opinion
• Pork shoulder butt roast
• BBQ sauce of your choice
• 1 large bag of frozen broccoli florets
• Nacho cheese
• 8-10 green onions
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Paprika
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Butter
First, you want to start with your roast. I use a grocery pick-up service, so I didn’t know how large my roast was going to be until I got it home. Needless to say, it was large enough I was able to cut it in half and freeze half, but you probably want about a 3-pound roast.
I used the instant pot to cook the pork. I coated the pork roast with some salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and onion powder on all sides. Put ¾ cup water in the instant pot with the roast and cook for 2 hours and let it slow release.
If you don’t have an instant pot, you can use a crockpot and cook it low and slow for about 6 hours, be sure to put some water in there and keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom.
While your roast is cooking let’s get ready to bake the potatoes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees then scrub and wash your potatoes and pat dry with paper towels. I poked holes in each potato with a fork all over, then rubbed olive oil on each one – just a little – then sprinkled with salt and pepper.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place your potatoes on the baking sheet with plenty of space between them. You want enough air to get to them so they have crispy skin and not soggy skin.
Cook the potatoes for 1 hour flipping every 20 minutes.
While the roast and potatoes are cooking put your frozen broccoli florets in a microwave-safe dish with a ¼ cup of water and cook for 3 minutes at a time until cooked but not soggy; this shouldn’t take more than 6-9 minutes total. Once the broccoli is done it’s time to focus on the nacho cheese.
For the cheese I use Rico’s – it’s cheap and comes in a can and is so good, so don’t judge me — haha!
I pour a can or two in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for one minute at a time, stirring in between each minute. Slice the green onions while the cheese is cooking.
Once the roast is ready it should be so tender you can shred it with two forks. After all the roast is shredded, I add about ½ cup to ¾ cup BBQ sauce — I use Sweet Baby Ray’s original. Mix the sauce in the pulled pork — It should not be overloaded with sauce, but should simply have some good BBQ flavor.
Now it’s time to assemble the Overloaded Baked Potato!!
Place your potato on the plate and cut down the center and mash it down and open. I cut mine two to three times the opposite way so the potato just falls open. Put a little butter on the potato while it is hot so it melts quickly. Next place some broccoli on the potato, top with the BBQ pulled pork, then top that with cheese and onions and you have dinner!
This makes for excellent leftovers too — just assemble and put in the microwave and you have lunch or dinner for the next day.
There are several ways you could make this your own — make pulled chicken instead of pork, season whatever meat you use with taco seasoning and swap out broccoli for black beans, or you could use sweet potatoes instead of russets.
Whatever you do to change it up make it fun and make it your own. I really hope you and your family enjoy this as much as my family did, and as always, I am sending love from my kitchen to yours.
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