Wake Up Boring Baked Potatoes With This Canned Soup

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Baked potatoes can be an easy side accompaniment to almost any savory dish — or become the centerpiece, a full meal unto themselves. There are a number of ways to get your baked potatoes just right at home — even if they technically taste better at a restaurant. And when you want them nice and airy, not only are russet potatoes the best for fluffy mashed potatoes, but their extra starch makes them ideal for soft and pillowy baked potatoes that will pick up any kind of flavor you may want to throw down. You can keep it simple with butter and salt, or go fully-loaded. But one easy add-on that you may not have considered is condensed cheddar cheese soup. It makes a simple upgrade with minimal effort — Campbell's Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup is a solid choice, but really any brand will work.

The simplest way to use condensed cheddar soup on your baked potato is to add a couple spoonfuls of unheated, undiluted cheese soup right out of the can. It will melt into the hot potato and give it a big hit of cheddar flavor. Or you can heat it in the microwave (in a microwave-safe bowl, of course) to make a nice and melty pour-over. Using only a few dollops of condensed soup will bring an intense, sharp, and salty flavor. But you can expand on the taste with some tricks for cooking and some added accouterments to add a bit of nuance.

You can simply reconstitute the soup and have a thin, velvety topping, but ideally, what you're going for here is more of a sauce than a soup. While the directions call for a full can of milk to make the regular soup, to make a full-bodied cheese topping, you'll only need to use about a quarter of a can of milk. Heat it in the microwave or over the stovetop, and add some shredded cheddar if you want an even thicker and gooier cheesy covering that will hold its form on your fork. Once you've created the sauce, you can add on more flavor with chopped cooked bacon, some scallions, sour cream, or even sliced steak to turn it into a whole meal.

If you want to give your sauce a hit of green goodness, you can mix in broccoli as you heat the milk and soup base on the stove. To keep it simple, chop up thawed frozen broccoli into pieces small enough to easily blend into the sauce, but fresh, lightly steamed broccoli works great for a bright crunch. The broccoli will bring some earthy undertones and balance out the creamy, salty cheddar. To go in a spicy direction, pour in diced fresh or pickled jalapeños as it cooks. And for more tang, you can mix sour cream right into the sauce. The consistency will be amazingly smooth and silky, creating a restaurant-level presentation on the plate. Canned condensed cheddar soup makes a super simple base for a sauce that you can experiment with in countless directions, and beyond baked potatoes, it's delicious served over steamed veggies, french fries and tater tots, or even pasta.