These air fryer baked potatoes have a super-crispy skin with a fluffy, moist interior that’s ready for your favorite toppings.
Baked potatoes are an easy and filling side dish that pairs well with any meat or vegetarian entrees. And when you make them in an air fryer, they’re ultra-crisp on the outside without drying out inside.
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe: These baked potatoes cook quickly in an air fryer and have the classic steakhouse crispy skin. You can pile them high with any of your favorite toppings for a fun DIY family-friendly dinner.
What is a Steakhouse Baked Potato?
A steakhouse baked potato is a baked potato but the skin is generously salted. As the potatoes air-fry the salt causes the skin to crisp up.
There are two ways to make a Steakhouse Air-fryer Baked Potato: with oil and without.
- With oil: The oil causes the skin to turn golden brown and crisp up.
- Without oil: Using water to wet the potato skin causes the skin to crisp up in thin layers. The salt absorbs the moisture in the skin so it gets crispy as it bakes. This is the crispier of the two options.
How to Make Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
Since the skin can be the best part of a baked potato, be sure to wash your potatoes well to remove all the dirt. Make sure to get in any crevices and use a soft bristle brush if necessary. Be careful not to puncture the skin.
You can use nearly any kind of finely-ground salt for the baked potatoes. I use finely ground sea salt. However, table salt, pink Himalayan or Kosher salt will work. Whichever you choose, make sure it is finely ground.
When sprinkling the salt on potato skin, be generous. The salt is what will act to crisp up the potato skin.
The best way to check if your potatoes are done is with an instant-read thermometer. The potatoes are perfectly cooked at 205°F.
Short Cut Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
If you are short on time, you can microwave or pressure cook the potato before air-frying for the crispy skin.
For the microwave, start with 3 minutes and add time until you can easily pierce the potato with a knife. Note that the potato will be hot so you may need to hold it with a fork or tongs to salt it.
To pressure cook your potatoes, see our recipe on Pressure Cooking Today for Instant Pot Baked Potatoes. They take 20 minutes at high pressure, but you can also get a nice crispy skin with an air-fryer lid.
Once you’ve cooked your potatoes, you can proceed with salting the skin and pop it in the air-fryer until the skin is crispy.
Topping Ideas for Baked Potatoes
Have fun with your toppings! Here are some of my family’s favorite baked potato fillings and flavorings:
- Butter. This crispy, salty skin combined with creamy butter is a match made in heaven.
- Pepper. Fresh black pepper balances the salt on the potato skins.
- Sour cream is a classic creamy and cool topping. To get the perfect little scoops, use a 1 ½ inch cookie scoop.
- Cheese. We like cheddar but any favorite cheese will do, including parmesan, Colby jack, and other melty cheeses.
- Chives bring a fresh and bright balance to all the creaminess.
- Green onions provide a fresh hit of flavor.
- Chili. In cold weather, chili is a wonderful topping for these potatoes. Plus, it makes a complete meal.
More Air Fryer Recipes
Put your air fryer to good use with these other delicious, crispy recipes:
- Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies are crisp on the outside and gooey and soft in the center: the perfect texture.
- Air Fryer Chicken Tenders are the crispiest dunkable chicken nuggets you can make.
- Air Fryer Pizza Pockets are easy to make with flaky, buttery puff pastry and your favorite pizza toppings.
Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 med/large Idaho potatoes washed thoroughly
- Water
- Spray oil optional
- 3-4 tsp sea salt finely ground
- Butter and pepper for serving
- Optional toppings: green onions cheese, sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat your air-fryer for 5 minutes at 375 ºF.
- Spray basket with cooking oil but do not put basket into air-fryer while pre-heating.
- Rinse each potato under water to wet the skin completely. Then sprinkle with generous serving of salt. We find it best to work one potato at a time.
- Set potatoes on air-fryer rack. If using the oil, spray each potato on each side.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until potato is done* and skin is crispy.
- Once done remove potatoes with tongs, they will be very hot.
- Garnish with desired toppings.
Patty
Why do they have so much fat?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Patty – the nutrition information was incorrect and I’ve updated it. If you don’t top the potato with butter or cheese, there is no fat in a baked potato. Enjoy!
Suzy Q
7053 mg. of Sodium….that’s horrible!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Suzy – that amount is incorrect – I’ll change it. It’s a computer program that figures it. A potato only has 13 mg of salt, so if you’re watching your salt intake, just omit the salt on the outside of the potato. Thanks!
Linda
If you pressure cook the potatoes, then how long do you air fry them? How do you know when they are done/crispy enough?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Linda – you’ll air fry the potatoes for about 8 minutes after pressure cooking https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-baked-potatoes/ Cook them just until the potato skin crisps up and the salt adheres to the skin.