I realized lately, after noticing that I let two sweet potatoes rot, that I have forgotten all about the delicious orange tuber. How is that even possible? I got so wrapped up in other foods (mostly fruits, whoops) that I forgot about my favorite veggie. So I tossed the rotten ones (so sad) and got some pretty new ones. But those pretty new spuds didn't deserve the same 'ol treatment, they needed to be turned into something new and different.
Enter the twice baked potato. Typically, the twice baked potato is something you imagine being all white and starchy, smothered in bacon, cheese, and sour cream. Try to stop drooling right now. I was talking to me. But white potatoes are actually boring and sweet ones are not. Not debatable, it's a fact. So twice baked potatoes with made sweet potatoes have got to be good, right? But what do you do when you cut out the cheese and sour cream? You don't cry about it and you make it way more awesome.
That's what I did tonight. But since us paleo folk love meat, I had to put some sort of animal on the potatoes, and chicken is what I had on hand. Chicken has the tendency to be boring and BBQ sauce was just the solution for that. I'm a sucker for good BBQ. It's definitely one of my favorite non-paleo treats.
Oh, and before I forget, let me tell you one of the best parts about this meal. It can actually turn into THREE different meals! Yeah, crazy right? The actual recipe below only accounts for two, so let me tell you how to add the third meal. You just double the chicken. The recipe calls for only 3/4 lb of chicken, but if you bump that up to 1-1/2 lbs, or even 2 lbs, you can have everything ready for lunch and dinner the next day, with hardly any prep. Ok, so now I should explain the "how".
Make the recipe as written below. Since you'll be doubling the chicken, only use half of it for this recipe. Store the other half in a tupperware in the fridge. The next day, mix the shredded chicken with some Paleo Lime Mayo, chopped dill pickles, some salt and pepper, and enjoy a delicious chicken salad for lunch.
For a family of 4-5, you may only wind up consuming half of this recipe. That's what we did, so there will be 4 potato skins leftover. Scoop all the potato out of the skins, mix it all together, and store in a tupperware in the fridge for dinner the next day. There will be a little prep needed for dinner.
For dinner the next day, you'll need about 4 chicken breasts. Butterfly the chicken breasts and stuff them with the leftover sweet potato mixture saved from the night before. Close the chicken breasts, salt and pepper them, and secure with toothpicks. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.
There you have it, two dinners and one lunch. I'm all about making my job easier here folks, and if that translates into easier meals for you too, then that's just gravy. Paleo gravy, of course.
Scrub the sweet potatoes to clean the skins and pat dry. Place them on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until fork-tender.
Remove potatoes from the oven and cut in half lengthwise. Let them cool about 10-15 minutes.
Scoop out some of the sweet potato and place in a large bowl, leaving some potato flesh on the skins. Mash the scooped out flesh.
While the potatoes are baking, add the chopped bacon to a large, cold skillet. Turn it on to medium heat and cook the bacon, stirring frequently, until you have crispy bacon bits. Strain the bacon out of the pain onto a paper towel, leaving the bacon grease in the pan.
Add the shallots to the pan with the bacon grease and saute until translucent, then add the spinach and saute another 2-3 minutes. Remove from the skillet and mix it into the mashed sweet potatoes.
In the same skillet, heat the ghee. Add the chicken breast chunks and cook until no longer pink. Remove from skillet (don't overcook, chicken will be tough).
(1) Blendtec (our preferred method): Place cooked chicken in the Blendtec, secure the lid, and press the pulse button a few times until the chicken is evenly shredded/chopped.
(2) Food Processor: Place cooked chicken in the food processor bowl, secure the lid, and pulse until the chicken is evenly shredded/chopped.
(3) Stand Mixer: Place the cooked chicken in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Turn on medium speed and mix until the chicken is evenly shredded.
(4) By Hand: Shred the cooked chicken pieces by hand with two forks.
Once the chicken is shredded, add the BBQ sauce to the chicken and stir until combined. Combine the chicken mixture with the potato mixture and mix it all together.
Drizzle the potato skins with a little olive oil and place them back on the baking sheet (skin side up) and bake for 5 minutes to get them crispier.
Remove skins from the oven. Spoon the potato/chicken mixture into each potato skin, dividing it evenly. Place filled skins back in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
Remove skins for the oven, slice in half on the diagonal, and sprinkle with the bacon bits. Serve hot.
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Made this tonight with broccoli instead of spinach. It was super yummy and all my kids gobbled it up! It was a little time consuming, but worth it!
I have extra stuffing.. anyideas on what i should do with it? Love this btw!
Hmmmmmm…. what about stuffing these with your chicken with bacon and Ranch recipe? That just sounds TOOOOOOOOOOOOO yummy!!!
Just made these and just put the the mixture in a big bowl for my kids to heat up after sports when they want something healthy but don't want to wait for me to make them something!