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There’s nothing like a warm plate of pancakes in the morning. The Pioneer Woman demonstrated how to make loaded potato pancakes. Here’s Ree Drummond’s secret for a perfect plate.

Ree Drummond’s loaded potato pancakes

The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond does a cooking demonstration on the Today show.
The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond | Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Drummond says loaded potato pancakes are a side, but you can eat them as a main course. “I’m not here to judge you,” jokes Drummond during The Pioneer Woman show. This recipe has a bit of a twist. Drummond makes loaded potato pancakes using refrigerated hash browns.

Preparing the potato pancakes

Drummond starts by placing the hash browns in a bowl and adding seasoned salt. She then takes a portion of the hash brown mixture and places it in a skillet that she fried bacon in.

“I’m putting [the hash browns] into a skillet that I used to fry some bacon,” says Drummond. “I cooked some bacon, removed it from the skillet, chopped it, but I left the grease in the skillet, so we’re basically frying potatoes in bacon grease.”

Drummond’s son-in-law, Mauricio, loved that part of the recipe. He expressed his joy during the show by saying, “Come on!”

The finishing touches

Drummond says you can make small potato pancakes, but she prefers to make hers “unapologetically huge.” After cooking them in a pan for a few minutes, Drummond removes them and places them on a plate.

“They’re kind of like loaded baked potatoes, but they’re loaded potato pancakes,” she says. For the finishing touches, Drummond adds sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, green onions, sea salt, pepper, and bacon.

Ree Drummond revealed a secret about Ladd’s pancakes

During The Pioneer Woman show, Drummond revealed one thing about Ladd she wishes she knew before they were married. Drummond spoke about her husband’s preferences when it comes to pancakes. She says he prefers for them to be “paper-thin.”

“When a couple gets married, it’s blissful and wonderful, but it’s also like figuring stuff out about each other,” says Drummond. “And boy, was there a long list with Ladd Drummond. There were several times I was like, ‘I really wish you would have told me this.’ And one of them is he likes paper-thin pancakes, which is strange. I grew up eating really thick, fluffy pancakes. So, what I would usually do is make the mix and then fry a batch of thick pancakes and then I’d splash in more milk and make them thinner.”

Ree Drummond says she’s ‘obsessed’ with pancakes

Drummond is a big fan of pancakes. She told her fans that she spent time trying to create a “perfect” pancake. “I happen to be obsessed with pancakes, and decided not to rest until I came up with the perfect pancake recipe,” she says on her website.

Although Drummond loves the way pancakes taste, she says she hates what it does to her “bottom.” Says the Accidental Country Girl, “I eat them, it grows.” Drummond says homemade pancakes are best, but it can be tough to get them just right.

“Making pancakes from scratch is the only way to go,” says Drummond. “But there’s only one problem: pancakes made from scratch often don’t taste as good as those made from good box mixes, let alone those in pancake houses. Pancakes at home are often either too eggy, or too chewy and tough, or just too blah.”

RELATED: ‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond Describes the First Time She Cooked for Ladd

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