TikTok Recipe Review: Bacon-Wrapped Volcano Potatoes

I’m not a professional cook, just a professional eater. That’s my caveat with any of these food posts. However, I do my best to help share the household burden of food preparation by periodically surprising my wife with dinner.

And my latest phase is trying out TikTok recipes that look yummy.

Take this one from @theshabakitchen. It’s a bacon-wrapped volcano potato recipe, and she makes it look very easy.

@theshabakitchen
Where has this been all my life 🤯😍
♬ original sound – The Shaba Kitchen

After watching the video, I went to the store to pick up some spuds and other basics. Because she doesn’t specify what her ‘seasoning’ is, I came up with my own: a mix of thyme, cumin, garlic salt, Lulu’s ‘Salty Pepper’ seasoning (Lulu’s as in the restaurants in the southern United States) and a dab of chili powder.

Here’s what we’re working with:

The first part of the recipe was really easy. You poke some holes in the potatoes. I did this only on one side because that’s what she showed in the video. Then I covered the spuds in olive oil and sprinkled with salt. The instructions in the TikTok call for the potatoes to be cooked at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

That wasn’t nearly enough. Not nearly. I could have had them in there for 60-70 minutes.

The next part of the recipe calls for you to use a hollower, which I did not have, to hollow out the potato. After cutting off the top. In my case, following the TikTok to a ‘t,’ not only was the potato not really done on the inside, it fell apart like the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.

Normally, this is where my ‘nice surprise’ for the wife turns into a “**** it, I’ll go get pizza.”

Nope. Not tonight, satan. I decided to make the best of it.

So, I took other parts of @theshabakitchen‘s and improvised.

Wrapped the potato in bacon
Stuck it with toothpicks (this is important)
Brushed more olive oil on the potato
Cooked for another 35 minutes at 400 degrees (recipe called for 20 at 400 degrees, for this phase)
Took it out of the oven
Brushed Head Country barbecue sauce all over it
Put shredded sharp cheddar cheese all over it
Broiled for 5 minutes

Voila. Fini!

We plated it and added the usual: sour cream, cheese, more seasoning (to taste) and a side salad.

If I could do this recipe all over again, I’d forego the entire volcano concept. First of all, how do you get the potato to ‘stand up’ on its own anyway? I’m not seeing that happen with the spuds I had to pick from. But the whole ‘wrap in bacon’ part: that works. The whole ‘brush it with barbecue sauce’: that really works.

So, all in all, I’m glad I found @theshabakitchen’s channel and this recipe. The most fun part about cooking is stumbling upon something you can go back to over and over. If any of you have done volcano potatoes and have tips for me – again, I’m not a pro by any means; I’m a food hack – post them in the comments and follow for more!