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Amazing! The best Air Fryer Baked Potatoes have fluffy centers, crisp skin, and are topped with your faves: butter, chives, sour cream, bacon, and more! 5 min prep, less oil and faster cook time than regular baked potatoes.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Fluffy centers: Featuring crisp edges and mashed potato-like centers, this will be your go-to recipe for guaranteed perfect air fryer baked potatoes!
- Short Prep Time: With less than 5 minutes of prep, this recipe goes into the air fryer so fast!
- Budget-Friendly: Potatoes and toppings—that’s all you have to worry about. This recipe is easy on the wallet, like: air fryer potato wedges, air fryer french fries, and air fryer tater tots!
What is it about a baked potato that is so darn good? It’s simple, delicious, and now thanks to an air fryer, so much quicker to make. I love the crispy skin, fluffy centers, and loading these guys with all of the toppings: butter, bacon, cheese, and more. I’m sharing this incredible and easy air fryer baked potatoes recipe so you can have this tasty dish tonight!
Air Fryer Baked Potato Ingredients
- Russet Potatoes – 4 medium-sized potatoes are good, but you can make smaller ones (and use a lower cook time) or bigger ones (with a higher cook time).
- Oil – you can use olive oil spray or olive oil.
- Salt & Pepper – use the amount to your liking, or the amount I suggest.
How to Bake a Potato in an Air Fryer
It’s super easy to get those creamy, soft, mashed-potato-like centers, crisp exterior, and perfect for adding toppings base that is air fryer baked potatoes!
- Poke holes all over the potatoes—yes, even the bottom! Then, coat all over in oil or cooking spray.
- Lay the potatoes in a single, spaced-out layer in your air fryer basket. Sprinkle with salt.
- Bake for about 30-45 minutes, until you can easily pierce through the center of the potato.
How Long to Cook Baked Potatoes in an Air Fryer
Depending on size, here are some guidelines on how long to cook baked potatoes in an air fryer.
- Small potatoes: about 30 minutes
- Medium potatoes: about 40 minutes
- Larger potatoes: about 45 minutes
- Keep in mind, cook times vary based on your specific air fryer. Cook until the centers are soft and easy to poke through (try poking with one chopstick, not something sharp like a knife).
Air Fryer Baked Potato Toppings
- Sour Cream: regular sour cream, low-fat, or even a healthier option—Greek yogurt—for that creamy tanginess. Erik loves putting our homemade ranch dressing (or sometimes tartar sauce) on baked potatoes.
- Bacon: one of my favorite toppings! Also try any kind of meat or even plant-based meats like sausage crumbles.
- Chives
- Butter: you can use salted or unsalted, dairy-free and more.
- Seasonings: seasoned salt or garlic salt, spicy cajun seasoning, or plain ol’ salt & pepper.
- Cheese: top with shredded cheddar cheese or even a dollop of cream cheese (when it melts and softens, it’s soooo good!).
- Sauces: top with zesty onion ring sauce or chipotle aioli, creamy roasted garlic aioli, or for a sweet twist: Asian salad dressing (why do I love sweet ‘n savory so much??).
- Don’t forget to make it a meal by pairing it with some Air Fryer Salmon Bites.
How to Cut a Baked Potato
Otherwise known as how to pop a potato, or how to split one open. No matter how you phrase it, here’s the best and tastiest way to do so.
Using a fork, slice down the length of the potato. Then, make a perpendicular cut—this will result in a cross shape.
Pinch the corners of the potato and push inward and up—this will make the fluffy centers “pop” up. You can see my finger divots in the photos—this is where I pushed the potato in from four different corners.
Once split, use a fork to mash and fluff up the centers. This is how I got the baked potato to look like it does in my photos.
Our Favorite Air Fryers
Try these top rated, feature-packed air fryers to bring your cooking to the next level!
Sending you all my love and maybe even a dove, xo Demeter ❤️
More Air Fryer & Potato Recipes
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Homemade Air Fryer French Fries
Air Fryer Baked Potatoes {So Easy!}
Equipment
Ingredients
Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
- 4 medium russet potatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, or olive oil spray
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- Black pepper, to taste
Optional Toppings
- Butter
- Chives, chopped
- Sour cream or Greek yogurt
- Cheese or bacon
Instructions
- Wash and scrub potatoes. Pat with a towel to dry.
- Using a fork, poke holes all over the potatoes. Coat with cooking spray or drizzle and rub with oil to evenly coat potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
- Preheat air fryer to 400°F. Cook for 30-45 minutes, or until you can easily pierce the center of the potato, flipping halfway through. Cook on the higher end for larger potatoes.
- Carefully transfer to serving plate. Cut a slit through the top half of the potato. Learn how to pop a potato in the post with instructional photos
- Add Optional Toppings as desired. Enjoy!
- ★ Last Step: If you made this recipe, leave a comment and review. It truly helps our small business keep running and it helps readers like you!
This was one of the best baked potatoes I’ve ever had. Much better than microwaving. And I got to make it all pretty thanks to your instructions on opening it!
Oh I know, microwaving has it’s whole own set of challenged. I’m so glad that you found the instructions helpful!