Traeger Smoked Twice Baked Potatoes

These twice baked potatoes are stuffed with a creamy blend of Traeger smoked bacon and roasted garlic, cheddar jack cheese, and smoked potato filling. Thanks to ingredients like fat free Greek yogurt and center cut bacon, this recipe is a slightly healthier spin on classic twice baked potatoes. But have no fear, you can easily pack all the full fat ingredients you want inside in case you’re showing off for guests!

Traeger Baked Potatoes, Smoked Bacon, and Roasted Garlic

The beauty of these Traeger twice baked potatoes is that everything can go straight on the grill together. You’ll need 8 russet potatoes, 12 slices of center cut bacon (or your choice of bacon), and a bulb or two of garlic with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

If you’ve not roasted garlic yet, you’re in for a treat. I use it in everything from garlic butter for Traeger baked sweet potatoes to smoked bison chili.

The process is simple but in case you need a more in depth walkthrough, you’ll like this video with Sammy Moniz from Feeding the Frasers.

You can also slow the cook down and cook the garlic unwrapped for a few hours to pick up some smoky flavor before roasting. Check out my full post on how to make smoked garlic to learn how to make it in bulk, temperature recommendations, how to store it, and creative ways to use it.

If I had to choose one way to cook bacon for the rest of my life, this would be it. It gets super crispy without too much color and is evenly cooked throughout the entire strip of bacon. Not to mention, it picks up just enough smoke in the cook.

You might be tempted to cook the bacon at a higher temperature since the recipe calls for increasing the temperature after the bacon comes off. Don’t do it!

Pro tip: As you pull the smoked bacon from the Traeger, use tongs to rub some of the bacon slices over the potatoes. It will pass on some flavor and help with creating crispy potato skins.

The Twice Baked Potato Filling

While the smoked potatoes cool, you can start mixing up the rest of your twice baked potatoes filling. You’ll need to chop up the bacon and add all but a pinch or two to a bowl along with the roasted garlic cloves, parsley or chives, shredded cheese, salt and pepper, and fat free Greek yogurt.

That last ingredient is the secret to having low fat, high protein twice baked potatoes. You’ll never miss an ingredient like sour cream thanks to the cheese inside the filling, but you’re more than welcome to use full fat sour cream or something like the cream cheese in our Traeger smoked mashed potatoes.

You can play around with the filling ingredients for your twice baked potatoes. If you wanted more garlic, go right ahead with a second roasted bulb. Want a more ranch like flavor profile? Incorporate some dill and onion powder.

How about spicy twice baked potatoes? You could smoke some jalapeño peppers and work those in along with some chili powder. Have fun!

Filling and Smoking the Twice Baked Potatoes

Once the potatoes have cooled enough to handle, slice them in half and use a spoon to work around the edges and scoop the potatoes into the filling bowl. Stir everything together while the potatoes are still warm to evenly incorporate everything. If you have an extra pair of hands in the kitchen, that really helps speed things up at this stage.

There’s no magic number for the amount of filling that goes in each potato skin, as they’re all different sizes. I like to make sure I completely fill every potato skin and then make a second passthrough to pile some extra on top of those that can handle it.

Once filled, hit your twice baked potatoes with a little shredded cheese and pop them back on the Traeger.

Be sure you leave them on the grill long enough to start developing some color on the cheese. It creates a crust-like exterior, perfectly enclosing the soft and creamy potato filling.

What to Serve with Twice Baked Potatoes

These twice baked potatoes would be perfect for throwing on the grill while your main protein rests. Big hunks of smoked meat come to mind. Things like:

• reverse seared ribeye steaks
• smoked pork loin or smoked pork tenderloin
• smoked chuck roast (I used this recipe to make Texas chili that was *chef’s kiss*)
• Traeger smoked brisket
• Traeger New York strip steak or Traeger Filet Mignon (cooked after the potatoes come off the grill)

Whatever you end up serving your Traeger twice baked potatoes with, I’d love to hear about it. Let me know in a comment or recipe review. And if you have a recipe question I forgot to cover, you can leave that in the comments as well. Otherwise, have fun and enjoy your taters!

Oh, and if you’re a potato lover like me, be sure to try my smoked smashed potatoes and loaded Traeger mashed potatoes recipes as well.