Baked Potatoes Are A Truly Underrated Vessel For Eggs

There aren't many foods out there quite as versatile as a baked potato. From cheese and sour cream to chili and salsa, they're a prime vessel for toppings of all types; their starchy, mild flavor allows them to serve as a neutral base for countless concoctions. Eggs are a similar sort of food — a platform for ingredients of many kinds. Various omelet styles abound, as well as everything you could possibly put into a scramble, fold into a quiche, or add to a frittata.

If you've never combined the power of baked potatoes and eggs, you're missing out on something delicious. Eggs and potatoes go together beautifully — there's a reason why there are so many varieties of breakfast potatoes. And, the shape of a scooped-out baked potato half is the perfect cradle for cooking a nice, oven-baked runny egg. The drippy, fatty egg yolk serves as a decadent topping for a fluffy baked potato interior. Eggs naturally go well with many of the traditional baked potato toppings, such as cheese and bacon. It's a pairing that just makes sense.

Eggs are particularly good when paired with twice-baked potatoes as opposed to their singular-baked counterparts. Twice-baked potatoes are the upscaled, slightly more decadent version of a baked potato and they involve an extra step or two to really pack in the flavor. Rather than simply baking the potato in the oven, fluffing up the insides, topping it with your preferred ingredients, and calling it a day, twice-baked potatoes require you to scoop out the interior of the potato fully. That fluff then gets mixed with a variety of ingredients — typically ingredients you might find in a mashed potato recipe — until it's a paste. It's then filled back into the potato skin and baked a second time until the cheese gets melty and everything melds in the heat of the oven.

When the potato goes back into the oven, you can press a little divot into the paste and crack an egg into it. The egg will set during the short extra time in the oven. This dish is sometimes called an "Idaho Sunrise," and if you'd prefer to get a little different, frying or poaching an egg separately and topping the potato with it after the fact always works.

If you're on a creative kick with your morning eggs, baked potatoes are only the beginning of the list of unique ways you can cook an egg in an edible vessel. Egg in the hole, or egg cooked in bread with a circular cutout, is a classic. Avocado egg boats are a popular and fun way to eat eggs without the carbs of potatoes or bread. Pitted avocados come with a natural, egg-shaped hole in the center that can cradle a cracked egg for a short stint in the oven. You can enjoy this as a creamy and rich breakfast treat with a little sprinkling of seasoning and herbs on top.

Prefer something a little lower in calorie count? Bell pepper halves also work perfectly as egg cups, and they're as colorful as they are delicious. Add a touch of cheese if you're looking for a pop of additional flavor.