5 French-Style Toppings That'll Level Up Your Baked Potato

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Basic baked potatoes don't need much help in becoming tasty, filling meal components. While toppings such as butter, sour cream, cheese, and bacon are comfortable classic companions, that fluffy flesh inside the jacket holds a lot of unrealized potential. It serves as a blank culinary canvas for a plethora of flavors and textures, especially when graced with French-style toppings.

French cuisine provides plenty of inspiration, with some of its most familiar dishes already combining ingredients compatible with baked potatoes: slowly cooked onions with melted cheese; mushrooms transformed into intensely savory mixtures; or ham layered with creamy sauces. Other French specialties that are equally suitable for spuds lean into briny olives and salty anchovies, or brilliantly hued vegetables cooked with garlic and olive oil.

Fortunately, it's not necessary to recreate entire recipes when infusing those flavors into jacket potatoes. The following topping ideas draw from five recognizable French dishes and preparations, ranging from veggie-centric to rich and cheesy. Most require a bit of cooking before hitting the table, while some can be simply assembled on demand. Either way, they'll transform sidekick spuds into French-bistro mains, any day of the week.

Classic French onion soup already harbors several components that jive with baked potatoes: sweet-savory caramelized onions, butter, herbs, and lots of melted cheese. Most versions get finished with bread and the cheese, traditionally Gruyère or Comté, which are semi-hard Alpine cheeses from eastern France known for their complex, slightly sweet and nutty flavors. Take away the broth and bread from the soup version, and those same flavors translate beautifully to baked potatoes.

Start by slowly cooking thinly sliced yellow onions in butter until they're soft, deeply browned, and almost jammy, adding a pinch of thyme for subtle flavor. Then just split open the baked potato, plop in some butter, pile on the aromatic cooked onions, finish with the cheese, and broil briefly in the oven until the cheese melts and browns slightly.

Inject an earthier, richer persona by making compound butter using your favorite herbs and any butter with a high butterfat percentage. For even deeper flavor complexity, spoon a tablespoon or two of beef broth over the jacket potato before adding on the cheese. You'll end up with the sweet-and-savory appeal of French onion soup, but with enough substance to call it a complete dinner.

If your ideal potato topping involves woodsy mushrooms, then skip the simple sauteed version and make duxelles instead. Duxelles is a classic preparation in which mushrooms are very finely chopped, then slow-cooked with ingredients such as shallots or onions, minced garlic, butter, and fresh herbs until forming a thick spread, leaving the mixture concentrated and deeply savory. It's often used as a filling or in sauces and gravies, but its consistency makes it very well-suited to spooning over a hot baked potato.

You don't need fancy or obscure mushrooms to make the magic happen; wild mushrooms, cremini, or ordinary white buttons work perfectly well. Chop them by hand or in a food processor, then cook some minced shallot in butter before adding in the mushrooms. Season with sea salt, black pepper, and fresh thyme or tarragon, then continue cooking until the mushrooms have released their liquid and the pan is nearly dry.

Spoon the warm duxelles generously over a split baked potato and call it done, or jazz things up with a little extra butter or a splash of rich crème fraîche. Chopped parsley adds an herbal finale — unless, of course, you want to grate some French Comté or Gruyère cheese over the top. Duxelles is an easy topping to prepare ahead, refrigerate, and then warm when baked potatoes emerge from the oven.

A croque monsieur sounds fancy, and in some ways, it certainly is. But that doesn't mean it's hard to make or that it doesn't work brilliantly with a baked potato. The French staple is essentially a toasted sandwich that features ham, cheese (such as Emmental or Comté), and a creamy béchamel sauce. The thing is, those ingredients are just as happy sitting on an American baked potato as they are tucked between slices of French baked bread.

You can get creative with your own ideas, but a simple approach is to start with some high-quality, cooked ham cut into strips or bite-sized pieces. After splitting and fluffing the hot baked potato, scatter the ham over the top, and spoon on a light coating of warm béchamel. You don't want to completely smother the potato — use just enough sauce to give it that creamy, croque-monsieur character you're seeking to evoke. Then comes the best part: Cover it all with with shredded Comté or Emmental, and place the potato under an oven broiler until the cheese melts and develops some light browning. 

A traditional croque monsieur can also include mustard for a little sharpness, so make a small swipe of Dijon if desired, before adding the ham. For a fun final twist, top with a fried egg in the style of croque madame, the counterpart to croque monsieur.

Not every French-inspired potato topping needs a blanket of melted cheese. For something a bit punchier, turn toward the Mediterranean coast and reach for a spoonful of tapenade. Traditional tapenade is an olive-based spread that combines chopped olives with ingredients such as capers, garlic, lemon, herbs, olive oil, and sometimes anchovies. It's a wonderful burst of distinct flavors, from saltiness to acidity to richness, and it offers a huge amount of complexity in just a small spoonful. To shake awake a plain baked potato, this topping is a definite contender.

Make a simple tapenade yourself following our five-ingredient olive tapenade recipe, or just buy a prepared version, like this Kouzini Kalamata Olive Tapenade. The spread brings a bold and briny addition to baked potatoes, so it's best to use it more like an accentuating condiment rather than leave spuds swimming in sauce. Start with a modest spoonful over the fluffy potato, and add more if your tastebuds agree. Crumbled or softened goat cheese creates a creamy contrast to the salty olive mixture, while a scattering of chopped parsley or other herbs brighten up the palate.

To keep the Mediterranean theme going, try tossing in eggplant, halved cherry tomatoes, roasted bell peppers, or sun-dried tomatoes for a splash of color. Otherwise, experiment to create your own signature tapenade potatoes. This topping veers the furthest on our list from conventional American loaded baked potatoes, which is why you might want to try it at least once.

A scoop of ratatouille, the traditional French vegetable stew, may be the easiest way to turn baked potatoes into nutritious, delicious meals with an unmistakable French connection. Ratatouille comes from the South of France, particularly around Nice, and it typically bubbles up a party of veggies and herbs including eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, bell peppers, squash, garlic, basil, thyme, and any number of fresh Provençal herbs.

The vegetables get cooked until tender and sweet, resulting in a thick, saucy mixture that sits solidly atop a baked potato for a complete meal without needing meat or cheese. If you've already made ratatouille for dinner one night, this is a super-easy way to repurpose leftovers. Just reheat a portion while your potato bakes, then spilt the cooked potato, fluff the insides, and spoon the ratatouille vegetables straight over the top. Juices from the tomatoes and vegetables soak into the potato, seasoning it to perfection as you eat.

Some variations include adding extra herbal accents with a bouquet garni — learn what a bouquet garni is, and whether it's actually worth your time, here. You could also boost the richness of a typical ratatouille by finishing the potato with a dollop of crème fraîche, crumbled goat cheese, or some melted raclette or Comté cheese.