Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside—these air fryer baked potatoes are the perfect easy side dish! Ready in 40 minutes with just potatoes, oil, and salt. No oven required!
I’m in love with my air fryer. There, I admit it!
As a single mama with three ravenous boys, sometimes it’s hard getting a hearty meal on the table that will fill them up and allow me to use my energy standing over the stove.
Many a night over the past few years, I have come home completely exhausted and dumped these potatoes in the air fryer. We would eat them with whatever we could scrounge out of the fridge or just loaded with copious amounts of butter with a glass of wine (no shame here).
It’s an easy meal prep item that requires nearly no braincells that can be cooking while I’m cleaning the kitchen so that they are ready to go for quick dinner or brunch skillets.
They work fantastic as a side dish or the star of the meal loaded up with chili and cheese. I hope you enjoy them as much as our little family does!
Ingredients You Need
- Potatoes – Look for potatoes about the same size for even cooking.
- Olive oil – Extra virgin olive oil is what I use, but avocado oil will also work.
- Salt – Kosher salt! Using a coarse salt like kosher salt adds to the crunch on the crispy potato skins. I also love Redmond salt and pink Himalayan salt and often use that as it’s what I have out for every day cooking.
- Black pepper – Course ground black pepper or fresh ground is best.
- Fresh parsley – optional but adds lovely color and taste
- Butter – for serving (not pictured)
How To Make Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
Making these amazing baked potatoes is stupid simple and fast. It’s hardly a recipe but here are a few tips to take it up a notch.
- Dry your potatoes well; after washing properly, dry potatoes before placing them in the air fryer. The dry skin will help the potatoes to get more crispy.
- Pick equal-sized potatoes; it will help all the potatoes cook evenly within the same time.
- Do not overcrowd the air fryer tray; if overcrowded, the circulation of air becomes difficult, and you will not get as crispy potatoes or even cooking.
- Use your hands. Coat the potatoes evenly with oil and spices using your hands for best application!
That’s it!
Step By Step Instructions
Toppings for Delicious Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
Everyone in my family has their favorite toppings, and they love mixing and matching. Here are our favorite toppings:
- Sprinkle sea salt – Baked potatoes need salt and fat, and sea salt is perfect. Go minimalist with just a sprinkle of your best salt.
- Butter – Use salted butter! See point #1 – baked potatoes need salt. Kerrygold or an equally good grassfed butter is best.
- Sour cream – A dollop of tangy sour cream not only cools the potatoes down so you can dig in faster, but it also helps hold other toppings on.
- Chives – Fresh or dried. No chives? Try finely sliced green onions instead.
- Bacon – Crispy chopped bacon bits and air-fried baked potatoes are a perfect match!
- Cheese – Enough said.
- Chili – Pile on the protein and make this a complete meal.
Want it all? Set up a baked potato bar and let your family or guests pick and choose to build the ultimate fully-loaded baked potato!
Recipes You Can Make With Leftover Baked Potatoes
Leftover air-fried baked potatoes can be used a million ways, and I think I may have just tried them all! My favorites include:
- Air fry them once then turn them into twice-baked potatoes
- Turn the leftover potatoes into a breakfast hash or fried potatoes
- Make potato skins with the crispy skins
Frequently Asked Questions
I like to reheat them in my air fryer. I cut them in half, so they warm up more quickly, rub with a bit of olive oil and then set the air fryer at 325-F. They’ll take 5-6 minutes to warm back up.
You can but I prefer not too. The air fryer makes amazingly crispy skins on the potatoes and you lose that when you wrap them in foil. That being said you can do it, reduce time by 5-10 minutes depending on size of potatoes, especially if you plan to leave them in foil for a while as they will continue to cook as they rest.
That really depends on the size of the baked potato. Big spuds can take the full 40 minutes, while more medium-sized potatoes could be done in about 30 minutes. A lot can also depend on your air fryer. Cook them until they are fork-tender.
This recipe is for russet potatoes which is the most common spud for baked potatoes. That being said check out our recipes for red potatoes and yellow potatoes, they are both delicious in the air fryer!
Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 medium russet potatoes
- 2 tsp olive oil
- ½ tsp coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Wash potatoes thoroughly. Pat until they are very dry.
- Rub the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt.
- Place the potatoes in the air fryer basket (do not overcrowd them) and allow to cook for 35-40 minutes at 400 degrees.
- When the timer beeps poke a fork in the middle of one of the potatoes. If the fork comes out easily then your potatoes are ready. If not, add five more minutes to the timer and repeat the process till the potatoes are done.
- When done carefully remove potatoes out of the air fryer and cut them down the center. Run a spoon along the skin to separate the interior from the skin and fluff with a fork.
- Top with butter, salt and pepper and parsley or any desired toppings.
Why 40 minutes?
Slice open,not poke, the potatoes on top length wise and 5 minutes in the microwave.
20 minutes in the air fryer, voila!
Because that requires too many steps for my brain some days haha. But you can totally do that if you are in a rush! 😉
Warmly,
Dani
Do you need to poke holes in the potatoes before cooking?
Nope! Great question. Really only need to do that when you microwave potatoes. Otherwise you are solid.
Warmly,
Dani
Well, that couldn’t be any easier! I think there will be a lot more baked potatoes in our lives now. Great recipe!
We love to make baked potatoes in the air fryer, especially during summer when we’re trying to keep the kitchen cool. Love this method! Thanks for sharing!
Simple and perfect. Just what I needed. The texture is SO great when you air fry the potatoes!
Yay! It really is right? So crispy!