Baked Potato Bacon Pizza
Baked Potato Pizza is the most delicious pub-style dinner that’s easy to make at home. This family-friendly recipe is a great way to use up those few extra potatoes you have in your pantry.
Loaded Potato Pizza
I generally buy potatoes by the bag because it’s more economical versus buying individual potatoes. So, with just three people in my family, I’ve become an expert in cooking with potatoes, so I can use them all up before they grow sprouts.
This Baked Potato Pizza is the most delicious way that I’ve found to use up a few extra potatoes. It uses up over a pound of potatoes, and you can use baby yellow potatoes, redskins, russets, or just about any type of potato you have on hand.
This pub-style pizza loaded with bacon and cheese will be a hit with the whole family, or the fans on game day!
Why you’ll love this Potato Pizza Recipe
- It tastes like a fancy restaurant-style pizza, but it’s so easy to make at home.
- It’s a great way to use up a few slices of cooked bacon, or a handful of potatoes that you’re not sure what to do with.
- This family-friendly dinner appeals to all ages. Simply leave the jalapenos off for younger eaters.
Baked Potato Pizza Recipe Ingredients
- pizza dough – one ball of store bought or use my recipe for homemade pizza dough. Judgement free zone here – my fav thing to use is a frozen ball of dough from a local brand carried at area grocery stores.
- garlic – you’ll need three cloves for this loaded potato pizza.
- potatoes – I used baby gold potatoes here, but if you have russets on hand for mini shepherd’s pies, or fingerlings left over from mini Hasselback potatoes, those work too. Whatever you have!
- bacon – use my easy method for cooking bacon in the oven, either right before you make the potato bacon pizza, or the day before (save the grease for bacon grease gravy). If turkey bacon is more your speed, check out my tutorials on how to cook turkey bacon in the oven and turkey bacon in the air fryer!
- cheddar cheese – I know from my experience making cheddar mashed potatoes that the sharp flavor of cheddar cheese is a great pairing for the blank canvas of a potato.
- ranch dressing – you can use bottled ranch dressing, prepare it from a packet of seasoning mix, or really amp up the flavor with my pesto ranch!
- jalapeños – buy a jar of pickled jalapeños, follow my tutorial for how to pickle jalapenos, or simply used thinly sliced fresh jalapeño.
- green onions – I love the flavor of green onion on a loaded baked potato (and in mashed potato cakes). Chives work great, too!
How to Make Spud Pizza
- PREHEAT. Place the pizza stone in the oven while the oven preheats.
- CRUST AND POTATOES. Stretch the pizza dough into a large circle and carefully place it on the hot pizza stone. Arrange the potato slices over the dough and bake 8 minutes.
- BACON AND CHEESE. Remove the pizza from the oven and sprinkle the potatoes with salt and pepper. Then, top the pizza with the garlic, bacon and cheese and bake until the potatoes are tender and the crust is golden brown.
- GARNISH. Finish the pizza by sprinkling with the onions and jalapeno peppers and drizzling with the ranch dressing.
Spud Pizza Home Chef Tips
- You’ll want to cook just the pizza crust, topped with the sliced potatoes, for 8 minutes before adding any of the other toppings. This allows the potatoes to cook long enough to become tender.
- I like to buy a block of cheese and shred it myself vs. buying pre-shredded cheese for this baked potato pizza. I think cheese that you shred yourself melts better!
- Make sure you season the potatoes with salt and pepper in step 3. You don’t want to salt them in step 2, because the salt will bring all the moisture out of the potatoes too soon, and you’ll end up with a wet pizza crust. But once the potatoes have had a chance to cook a little, you’ll want to season them well in step 3, for the best flavor.
If you can, use a pizza stone for this potato bacon pizza recipe!
Pizza stones are a wonderful tool to have if you’re a pizza lover because they help to achieve a crispy crust on this baked potato pizza without shelling out a few thousand dollars for an actual pizza oven.
You simply throw the pizza stone in the oven as it preheats (usually to a high temperature like 400 degrees F) and once the oven comes up to temp you put the freshly stretched dough down on the stone and stick the stone back in the oven to crisp up.
P.S. Make sure you brush up on how to clean a pizza stone to ensure it lasts a long time!
How to serve Potato Bacon Pizza
Consider serving your potato pizza with extra ranch dressing for dipping the crusts into (that’s how we’d do it in the Midwest for sure).
It’s also nice accompanied with a nice green salad tossed with miso dressing.
Spud Pizza storage
Cool any leftover slices of baked potato pizza to room temperature, and then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Reheat in the oven until warmed through for best texture and taste.
Loaded Baked Potato Pizza FAQs
The easiest thing about this potato pizza is that NO, you DON’T need to cook the potatoes first!
As long as you thinly slice them, the potatoes will cook through in the same amount of time that it takes the pizza dough to cook.
However, as I mentioned above, you will need pre-cooked bacon for this baked potato pizza, so don’t forget about that.
I usually make 3 extra slices when I’m cooking weekend breakfast, and save it in the fridge until I’m ready to make this loaded potato pizza.
It is generally recommended to prebake pizza crust for a few minutes before adding most of the toppings. This helps ensure that the crust cooks evenly and prevents a soggy bottom. In the case of this potato pizza, we also get started on cooking the potato slices on top of the crust at this time.
If you skip prebaking your pizza crust, you might end up with a softer texture, especially in the center of the pie. Consider extending the overall baking time (without burning the pizza) to compensate for lack of prebaking.
Loaded Baked Potato Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ball homemade pizza dough, or store-bought 1 pound
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 7 baby gold potatoes about 1-1/4 pounds, thinly sliced (1 large russet potato will also work)
- Kosher salt and ground black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 3 slices oven baked bacon roughly chopped
- 4 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese shredded
- 3 green onions thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons sliced jalapeño peppers fresh or jarred
- ¼ cup ranch dressing
Instructions
- Place pizza stone in oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Toss and stretch pizza dough into a 14-inch circle. Once oven is preheated, carefully remove pizza stone from oven and spray with cooking spray. Carefully place dough on stone. Place potato slices on top of dough in a circular pattern. Transfer to oven and bake 8 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Season potatoes with salt and pepper. Evenly distribute garlic, bacon and cheese over potatoes. Return to oven for 6 minutes or until potatoes are tender and bottom of crust is golden brown.
- Top pizza with onions and jalapeño peppers and drizzle with ranch. Cut and serve immediately.
Notes
- You’ll want to cook just the pizza crust, topped with the sliced potatoes, for 8 minutes before adding any of the other toppings. This allows the potatoes to cook long enough to become tender.
- I like to buy a block of cheese and shred it myself vs. buying pre-shredded cheese for this baked potato pizza. I think cheese that you shred yourself melts better!
- Make sure you season the potatoes with salt and pepper in step 3. You don’t want to salt them in step 2, because the salt will bring all the moisture out of the potatoes too soon, and you’ll end up with a wet pizza crust. But once the potatoes have had a chance to cook a little, you’ll want to season them well in step 3, for the best flavor.
I love the sound of this one, but given the carb load it won’t be happening in my house. I am reminded that one time when I was in Rome, my girlfriend and I looked in the window of a pizza shop and they had a potato pizza – long, rectangular, really interesting looking. We didn’t try any of their pizzas but now I wish we had.
What are the odds? A potato pizza was my first meal in Rome! Truthfully, it was just OK, but we were so ravenous that it didn’t matter. We found better pizza later on in the trip 🙂
I’ve had potato pizzas before (one of my favorites!), but never with ranch and bacon – this looks irresistible! All the different components make for a beautiful presentation as well. My stomach is already growling!
Thanks so much, Mara! I really it.