Stuffed Baked Potatoes with Sausage, Apples and Cranberries

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Stuffed Baked Potatoes with Sausage, Apples and Cranberries is a delicious, exciting meal that celebrates fall and winter foods and coziness. This recipe is also versatile because it allows you to use the ground meat of your choice!

Perfect for Gluten-free, Paleo, Whole30, VAD and most real food diets, enjoy this dinner with the meal prep option to make ahead.

For AIP and nightshade-free, see the Notes section below the recipe, as this recipe has an easy nightshade-free variation.

Ingredients in Stuffed Baked Potatoes with Sausage, Apples and Cranberries

Ground meat of choice

I actually love making this recipe with ground beef or ground turkey! So even though this recipe’s title says sausage, that doesn’t necessarily mean pork.

Sausage is made from any ground meat mixed with herbs and spices.

Personally, I believe that beef and turkey are healthier options, and they taste great in this recipe. In the photos on this page, you see the version made with beef. Also feel free to use ground chicken or even ground wild game.

Cranberries and apples

From everyone I serve this recipe to, the resounding comments I get are always about the cranberries, and how good they are in the recipe. So be sure not to skip them!

The apples and cranberries both taste so good and just welcome this season of fall and winter fruits beautifully.

The beautiful seasonal ingredients in these stuffed baked potatoes are:

• russet potatoes
• olive oil, or avocado oil
• apple and celery
  
• ground beef, or other ground meat of choice such as turkey, chicken or buffalo (also fine to use ground pork or wild game)
• sea salt
• dried rosemary powder (If you don’t have rosemary powder [find it here], you can place dried rosemary into a coffee or spice grinder, or similar, to powder it.)
• ginger powder
• cranberries, fresh or frozen

How to make

The wonderful thing about this recipe is: You bake the potatoes first. While they bake, you’ll have more than enough time to make the filling, which cooks up really fast, actually! So, it’s a very relaxing dinner prep.

And then after you stuff the potatoes, they just get a quick broil, and you’re ready to serve!

The details:

1. Preheat oven to 400℉. Brush potatoes lightly with olive or avocado oil. Place on dry cookie sheet. Bake potatoes until very soft inside, about 1 hour, depending on size.
2. While potatoes bake, cook filling.
3. To hot sauté pan, add 1 Tablespoon oil. Cook celery about 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat. Add apple and cook another two minutes. Add beef, sea salt, rosemary powder and ginger. Turn heat to medium high. Cook about 6 minutes, breaking up beef in the pan as you cook, into small pieces. Add cranberries and cook another 2 minutes, until softened slightly, fragrant, and beef’s cooked all the way through. Keep warm on stove top’s lowest setting.
4. When potatoes are done baking, remove from oven. Keep oven on.
5. Use a knife to cut a deep (halfway down the potato) long slice down the center and length of each potato. (See Recipe below for how to stuff potatoes.)
6. Stuff each potato cavity with 5 to 6 ounces of filling, and place onto cookie sheet. Place into preheated oven, but as soon as you put the baking sheet back in oven, turn Bake off, and turn on Broil.
   • (To make this recipe ahead of time [meal prep], stop before broiling, and see Notes section below.)
7. Broil for just a few minutes, keeping your eyes on the tops of the potatoes. Brown and crisp the top of the filling. How long this takes depends on your broiler and how close the potatoes are to the heat source, about 3 to 5 minutes.
8. Remove from oven. Serve!

Print Recipe

5 from 5 votes

Stuffed Baked Potatoes with Sausage, Apples and Cranberries

Stuffed Baked Potatoes with Sausage, Apples and Cranberries is a delicious, exciting meal that celebrates fall and winter foods and coziness. This recipe is also versatile because it allows you to use the ground meat of your choice!

Perfect for Gluten-free, Paleo, Whole30, VAD and most real food diets, enjoy this dinner with the option to make ahead.

For AIP and nightshade-free, see the Notes section below the recipe, as this recipe has an easy nightshade-free variation.

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course: DInner, Main Course, Main Dish

Cuisine: American, European

Keyword: apples, baked potatoes, cranberries, gluten-free, low vitamin A, paleo, sausage, stuffed, whole30

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 649kcal

Author: Megan

Cost: $10

Equipment

• baking sheet
• large sauté pan
• 2 ounce scoop optional (helpful when filling the potatoes)

Ingredients

• 4 large russet potatoes
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil plus more for brushing potato skins
• 1 stalk celery cut in half lengthwise and diced
• 1 large apple peeled and diced
• 1 pound ground beef or other ground meat of choice such as turkey, chicken or buffalo (also fine to use ground pork or wild game)
• 1-¼ teaspoons sea salt
• ½ teaspoon dried rosemary powder If you don't have rosemary powder, you can place dried rosemary into a coffee or spice grinder, or similar, to powder it.
• ½ teaspoon ginger powder
• ⅔ cup cranberries fresh or frozen, cut in half

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400℉. Brush potatoes lightly with olive or avocado oil. Place on dry cookie sheet. Bake potatoes until very soft inside, about 1 hour, depending on size. Insert a fork or knife into the center of the potato; (it should slide in easily). If it's not soft enough, bake another 10 to 15 minutes.
• While potatoes bake, cook filling.
• To hot sauté pan, add 1 Tablespoon oil. Cook celery about 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat. Add apple and cook another two minutes. Add beef, sea salt, rosemary powder and ginger. Turn heat to medium high. Cook about 6 minutes, breaking up beef in the pan as you cook, into small pieces.
  
• Add cranberries and cook another 2 minutes, until softened slightly, fragrant, and beef's cooked all the way through.

  Keep filling warm in pan on Warm burner until potatoes are ready.
  
• When potatoes are done baking, remove from oven. Keep oven on.
• Use a knife to cut a deep (halfway down the potato) long slice down the center and length of each potato. Use a dish towel to cover and squeeze the ends of the potatoes toward each other so each potato's filling becomes soft, fluffy and begins to spill up and out. (See photo below.) Use a spoon to remove about 2 to 4 Tablespoons smashed potato from each.
  
• Stuff each potato cavity with 5 to 6 ounces of filling, and replace onto cookie sheet. Place in preheated oven, but as soon as putting baking sheet back into oven, turn Bake off, and turn on Broil.

  (To make this recipe ahead of time [meal prep], stop before broiling, and see Notes section below.)
  
• Broil for just a few minutes, keeping your eyes on the tops of the potatoes. Brown and crisp the top of the filling. How long this takes depends on your broiler and how close the potatoes are to the heat source, but 3 to 5 minutes usually.
  
• Remove from oven. Serve. I like to serve this meal with both forks and spoons, to allow easier scooping of some of the potato flesh. (We don't personally eat the skins.)
  

Notes

Nightshade-free, AIP version

To make this recipe nightshade-free, for AIP or otherwise:

Pre-bake acorn squash instead of potatoes. The rest of the recipe stays the same.

MEAL PREP: MAKE AHEAD INSTRUCTIONS

1. To make this recipe ahead of time (meal prep), stop at Step 7 before broiling.
2. Refrigerate stuffed potatoes, covered well, until you're ready to make dinner. Fine to do this a day or two ahead of time.
3. Then preheat oven to 325℉.
4. Place potatoes in casserole dish with lid. Cover, and reheat until warmed through, about 30 minutes.
5. Then resume recipe with broiling step (8). Be sure to place potatoes on broil-safe pan first if your casserole dish is not.

Nutrition

Calories: 649kcal | Carbohydrates: 77g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 216mg | Potassium: 1947mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 12IU | Vitamin C: 26mg | Calcium: 77mg | Iron: 6mg

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