Do you remember when KFC started doing bowl meals? I don’t know if they still make them, I just remember a few (?) years back seeing advertisements for a bowl full of mashed potatoes, fried chicken pieces, and some cheese. Despite being an incredibly beige looking bowl of food, I liked the concept. I’ve wanted to throw my own colorful twist on those bowls for years. Well, today I finally did it with these Loaded Mashed Potato Bowls. Yay!
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that we make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
Toppings, toppings, and MORE toppings!
I decided to make my Loaded Mashed Potato Bowls vegetarian, with a mixture of fire roasted corn and black beans as the main topper. I added the requisite cheddar cheese (because cheeeeeese) and then jazzed it up with a few SUPER thin slices of jalapeño, green onion for freshness, and a light drizzle of BBQ sauce. Yes, BBQ sauce. Trust me.
And yes, chicken would still be awesome with this if you don’t want to do vegetarian (try our Honey Chipotle Chicken). I’d go with diced grilled chicken pieces to keep with that smoky theme.
Use Your Favorite Mashed Potatoes
I’m going to leave it to you to prepare your mashed potato base using your favorite recipe, but the more flavorful they are the better your bowl will be. I made some quick Instant Pot mashed potatoes because it’s my favorite and easiest way to make them, and I used vegetable broth this time instead of chicken broth to keep the bowl vegetarian. You can find my recipe for Instant Pot mashed Potatoes in this Apple Spice Pork Chop Meal Prep blog post. That said, my classic mashed potatoes recipe will always hold a special place in my heart. Two other delicious options are my dairy-free Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes or my Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes.
Loaded Mashed Potato Bowls
Servings 4Ingredients
- 6 cups prepared mashed potatoes ($2.17)
- 2 cups frozen corn kernels* ($1.49)
- 1 15oz. can can black beans ($0.79)
- 1/2 tsp chili powder** ($0.10)
- 4 oz. cheddar, shredded ($1.00)
- 1/2 cup BBQ sauce ($0.68)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.22)
- 1 jalapeño, thinly sliced (optional) ($0.33)
Instructions
- Allow the corn kernels to thaw, or heat them through if you plan to eat the bowls immediately. Rinse and drain the black beans, then add them to a bowl along with the chili powder and stir until the beans are coated.
- To build the bowls, place about 1.5 cups mashed potatoes in each bowl, then top with about 1/2 cup corn kernels, 1/3 cup black beans, about 1/4 cup shredded cheddar, 2 Tbsp BBQ sauce, and a sprinkle of sliced green onions and jalapeño.
- Serve the bowls immediately, or refrigerate until ready to eat. To reheat, simply microwave until the mashed potatoes are hot and the cheese is melted.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!
How to Make Loaded Mashed Potato Bowls – Step by Step Photos
I’m going to assume you have 6 cups of your favorite mashed potatoes made already. Take 2 cups frozen corn kernels out of the freezer to thaw (or heat them through if you plan to eat your Loaded Mashed Potato Bowls right away). Rinse and drain one 15oz. can of black beans, add 1/2 tsp chili powder to the beans and stir to coat.
Prep the rest of your toppings. Shred about 4 oz. cheddar cheese, thinly slice one jalapeño, and slice two green onions.
I ate one of my bowls for lunch today, and prepped these other three for meals later this week. To build each bowl, start with 1.5 cups of mashed potatoes.
Add about 1/4 of the shredded cheese to each bowl.
Add about 1/2 cup of the corn kernels and about 1/3 cup of the black beans to each of the bowls.
Finally, drizzle a couple tablespoons of BBQ sauce over each bowl and top with some sliced green onion and sliced jalapeño (optional). Either refrigerate, or dig in! If you want your cheese more melty, just microwave for a minute or so.
Yessss. There’s nothing beige about this bowl.
Hits the spot!
This was sooo good! Instead of chili powder I used garlic powder and no bbq sauce. I also added slices of avocado. My picky eater loved it!
This is stupid good for how simple it is. Kudos Beth! Even if you aren’t a spicy person, DO NOT skip the jalapeno! It completely elevates the dish with a fresh balance to the other heavy ingredients. I did chop mine in case a whole slice proved too much.
I used the slow cooker mashed potatoes recipe with cream cheese. I had canned corn so I roasted it in a cast iron to get it a little charred. Yum.
Love. I roasted my corn with spices, shallots, green pepper. Tge dish was amazing, ty.
I make ground turkey with it and cook a couple of slices of jalapeno with the ground turkey. It’s so good!!!! My entire family loves it. This is the second time I’ve made it and can’t wait for dinner tonight!!! Perfect for the rainy weather in Miami. Thanks SO much for this wonderful recipe that’s brought big smiles to our faces and bellies.
Absolutely perfect for meal prep. I cooked this meal several times during sumer to take with me to work. It’s filling, super tasty and really fast to make.
Hi Beth, I just made this for lunch and it was so delicious! Thank you for your recipes.
So my plan for tonight was your BBQ beef stuffed potatoes. I made the beef a few weeks ago and took it out the freezer this morn.
But today was stinking hard and I needed some comfort food. I was even craving fast food (which NEVER happens!). I ended up doing this and using that beef (with BBQ sauce) instead of the beans. So we had BBQ beef mashed potato bowls. All else was the same except for the ranch seasoning I threw in the mashed potatoes. :l
Needless to say, my soul was comforted (and my wallet was saved!!). :)
Absolutely delicious! One of my kids favorite meals :)
I made this tonight. Delicious!
I used my usual mashed potato recipe mashed with roasted garlic. Everything else was the same as above. Great call on the BBQ sauce too. This is in our regular dinner rotation.
OK, my boyfriend made this and even though we made a bunch of substitutions (Beth’s recipes are forgiving!) IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE!!! We used cheese curds and melted them into the potatoes, added veggie sausage and portobello mushrooms (cause that’s what we had), skipped the beans (because we forgot to soak them the night before…lol). I couldn’t wait til lunch the next day for my leftovers. They were gone by 10am :P
Yummy confort food. I’m sad it’s gone!
Wasn’t sure about this going in, but looked through my canned beans and found great value mixed chili beans on hand. Mixture of kidney beans, pinto beans and black beans in a chili sauce and only 48 cents a can. Turned out delicious, but unfortunately Mr. Picky loved it too, so we have only 1 lunch serving left. I plan to be making this more frequently from now on.
Delicious! I am not familiar with the KFC version (I don’t think the UK ever had this) but I really liked the idea of these for a cheap, filling lunch. I used less cheese cause I wasn’t sure how I feel about cheese in this and it turned out nice. I think in future though I might leave out the green onion as the random onion flavour every few mouthfuls didn’t work for me. Made for four full lunches but we wont’ speak about the smashed lunchbox at the bottom of my works fridge this morning. I’m sure plastic was not part of your original recipe!!!
Sounds like a weird combination but it’s SO GOOD. Seriously amazing flavor combo. I’m vegan and this is super easy to veganize also with some Daiya cheese. Has totally become a staple recipe in my house. Thanks!!
I substituted black beans for kidney beans, as they’d run out of black beans in the store I went to; it turned out very okay, I made it with red onion mashed potatoes; a bit too much BBQ sauce and corn for my taste (I will cut both in half next time), but overall 👍.