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Parmesan Baked Potato Halves make the perfect side dish. They bake open face down in parmesan cheese creating a delicious buttery, cheesy crust.

Parmesan Baked Potato Halves
These Parmesan Baked Potato Halves are a favorite side dish for all kinds of meals. The outer crust is buttery and cheesy and the inside is tender and flaky and so full of flavor. Try these as an alternative to quick baked potatoes. They cook up fast on a baking sheet and are always tender inside, crisp and buttery on the outside. This is a terrific side to make when you need to use up leftover potatoes. Dress them up with green onions or chives. Delicious!
Ingredients for Parmesan Baked Potato Halves
The beauty of this potato recipe is how simple they are to make! No complicated ingredients or time consuming steps. Here’s all you need:
- Potatoes – I like to use small russet potatoes for this recipe. Scrub potatoes and then cut them in half.
- Butter – use whatever butter you have on hand.
- Grated Parmesan cheese – You can find fresh parmesan at any grocery store.
- Garlic powder – if you have garlic salt, you can use that too.
- Salt and pepper – to taste

Tips for Parmesan Baked Potatoes
- Use parchment paper to cover the sheet pan so the potatoes don’t stick.
- Place the potatoes cut side down on the sheet.
- Use a fork or a sharp knife to test if the potatoes are done before removing from the oven.
- Let the potato halves cool for at least five minutes before removing them from the pan. If you take them off the pan right out of the oven, the parmesan crust on the potato comes right off. But if you give it time and then take them off, the crust sticks to the potatoes beautifully.
How to Serve Parmesan Potatoes
These Parmesan Baked Potato Halves are great on their own, but we especially love dipping them in a side of sour cream sprinkled with a little dried basil. Ranch dressing is also REALLY good! You can make these with potatoes other than russets. We have made them with red potatoes and gold potatoes, and both were really good too. Try them for yourself and decide how you like them best!

What Goes Well With Parmesan Potato Halves
My husband always request these Parmesan Baked Potato Halves as a side dish to go along with when we are cooking meat on the grill. It’s nice because I can throw these in the oven while he is grilling and all the food is ready at the same time. Some of our favorite grill recipes that we serve up with the Parmesan Baked Potato Halves are our New York Steaks and our Kansas City Baby Back Ribs. Both are so yummy. And if you like grilled chicken you should definitely try our Grilled Malibu Chicken, Grilled Balsamic Chicken, and Grilled Coconut Curry Chicken.
More Potato Side Dishes
If you love potatoes as much as we do you should definitely try some of these other potato sides. Similar to how we make the Parmesan Baked Potato Halves, we have our Coconut Pecan Sweet Baked Potato Halves. These are loaded with a coconut and pecan pieces and have a yummy cinnamon marshmallow dip. In the savory potato category we have our Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Potato Skins and Cheesy Bacon Potato Skins, both are awesome for appetizers and parties! If you like potato wedges and fries we have traditional Potato Wedges and Loaded Potato Wedges and Sweet Potato Fries with a Tangy Chipotle Lime Dip. If you are a potato salad lover, we have you covered! Both our Homestyle Potato Salad and Bacon Gorgonzola Potato Salad are so incredibly good.
The Best Potato Recipes
These Parmesan baked potato halves have been such a huge hit with our readers, we have included them in our “Best Potato Recipes Straight From Idaho” post! You will find ALL of our top reader favorites in this post as well. Try them all!
How to make Parmesan Baked Potato Halves

Parmesan Baked Potato Halves
Video
Equipment
- Conventional Oven
- 9 X 13 inch Pan
Ingredients
- 6 small potatoes scrubbed and cut in half
- 1/4 cup butter
- grated Parmesan cheese
- garlic powder
- other seasonings to personal preference
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt butter and pour into a 9×13 inch pan and spread evenly across the bottom.
- Generously sprinkle Parmesan cheese and lightly sprinkle other seasonings all over the butter.
- Place potato halves face down on the butter and seasonings. Place in preheated oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool for at least a FULL 5 minutes before removing from the pan, otherwise the parmesan crust won't stick to the potato.
- Serve on a plate with a side of sour cream or Ranch dressing for dipping.
Nutrition Information
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I’m not sure what went wrong but the butter burned. I used fresh grated parmesan.
Oh no! I am so sorry it burned. We usually use the grated parmesan from the green can for this recipe. Maybe that’s what it was?
I love these potatoes but 3 minutes to let them cool is plenty. 5 minutes and they will be glued to pan
Your tip for using parchment paper is confusing, as it’s not mentioned in the recipe itself. If one uses butter and parmesan and waits 5 or more minutes after baking as directed, wouldn’t using the parchment paper be redundant? I’m going to try these tonight, without the paper.
Thanks.
Oh my goodness are these good. If only I had know about doing baked potatoes like this years ago! I saw conflicting reviews about using fresh grated or store-bought grated Parmesan; I used fresh grated and it was awesome.
Best potato I have ever had and I am 64. Highly recommend.
That is a very high compliment! Thank you so much!
These were excellent!! I added a little garlic salt, minced onion, chives, and salt and pepper. When they were done I topped them with sour cream and they were amazing!!!
Love this recipe! I have made it so many times and it comes out perfect every time except once. I always grate a block of Parmesan which turns out great. Got lazy one night and I got a tub of pre-grated Parmesan. It burned in half the cooking time. Don’t be lazy. Grate a block of Parmesan for this recipe
I made these for my grandchildren and they loved them. However, the butter & cheese splattered all over my convection oven. Can I cover them with foil, or will that ruin them???
I think covering them with foil would be okay! The skin might not be as crispy, but they would still taste great!
I made these delicious potatos again last night. I added a little garlic powder to the pan, placed the potatos cut side down as suggested, then brushed the skins with a little olive oil and sprinkled Kosher salt on top. Once again, they were yummy!
These baked potatos were a big hit and very easy to make!
Thank you.
I’m a caregiver for 6 hungry men. Would this turn out well using a cookie sheet? Thank you.
I think that will work!
Love this !!!
We love these & have made them several times. I have rushed the removal process & highly recommend following 5 minute wait before removal. Making these again today to go along with grilled ribeye & fresh corn!!
how would you recommend reheating the potatoes?
I would actually just stick them back in the oven to reheat! That will give you the best texture, I think.
These were very delicious. So easy to make. They were very tasty and are so nice as a side with any meal. These are one of those recipes we can’t wait to make again! Thank you!
Do you use parmessan and grate yourself, or is the canned variety ( ex. Kraft) OK to use??
This recipe won’t work with fresh – it will make a mess of the pan. Use the Kraft (or generic) parmesan cheese. Thanks for asking!
Love, love, love,love this recipe. Doesnt last when I make it. I’ve shared with both my daughters and they absolutely love it also. 💖👍👍