Air Fryer Baby Potatoes

Crisp on the outside and fluffy within, these Air Fryer Baby Potatoes are my favourite way to eat new potatoes. They are the perfect side dish to accompany so many different meals.

WHY USE AN AIR FRYER AND NOT AN OVEN?

Air fryers cook food quicker than a standard convection oven which is great for saving energy and pennies but also for busy families that want to be able to cook food quickly.

Another advantage is that air fryers are smaller than ovens and grills so you’re not heating up a full-sized oven and instead a smaller air fryer. This means you’re using less energy because you’re heating up a smaller appliance as well as cooking the food faster.

Which potatoes are best to use for air fryer baby potatoes?

As the name probably suggests, this recipe is for any small potatoes. There are lots of different names for potatoes in the supermarkets these days. Quite often the names you will see aren’t actually the variety of potato.

Keep a look out for baby, salad and miniature potatoes as generic terms for what are new potatoes. These are potatoes which have been picked earlier so they are smaller.

Here are some types of new potatoes that would work well for these Air Fryer Baby Potatoes:

• Jersey Royals – some of the most well known new potatoes in the UK. They are a unique potato with a subtle nutty flavour grown on the Island of Jersey in the English Channel. 
• Charlotte – these are another popular new potato in the UK often used for making potato salad
• Anya – another nutty flavoured potato with a longer, more knobbly appearance 
• Baby – this is a generic name given to small new potatoes. As the name suggests these are quite small so you may decide to leave them whole
• Salad – another generic term for new potatoes. Charlotte potatoes are often labelled as salad potatoes 
• Fingerling – these are varieties of potatoes more commonly found in the US. They are longer and knobbly similar to Anya potatoes

Depending on which variety of potato you use, you might decide to cut the potatoes into smaller pieces, or not cut them at all. Use your own judgement.

Adding extra flavours to your potatoes

I have deliberately kept the flavours really simple for these baby potatoes. This is so they can be eaten with practically anything without having to worry about the flavours clashing.

You could absolutely add different flavours depending on what you were serving them with.

Some of my favourite flavour options are:

• Herby potato seasoning
• Garlic
• Cajun seasoning
• Peri peri seasoning
• Chinese salt & pepper
• Lightly spiced potato seasoning

Do you need to parboil the potatoes?

Apart from when I’m making my air fryer roast potatoes, I don’t see the need to par boil my potatoes.

Parboiling is an extra step that I don’t like to do unless it is necessary and benefits the potatoes I am air frying.

You could absolutely par boil your baby potatoes if you want to. Just be careful that you don’t cook them too much because you don’t want them to start disintegrating.

If you do par boil them, you will need to adjust the air frying time.

do you need to preheat an air fryer?

That depends on your air fryer, some require preheating whilst others don’t. I have a Ninja 7-in-1 multicooker and I have never preheated mine.

If your air fryer does require preheating, check the potatoes a few minutes sooner than the recipe states. If your air fryer is warm, food is likely to cook a few minutes faster.

can you use an air fryer liner?

Air fryer liners are a great time saving addition because they are usually easier to wash than the basket of your air fryer.

Most reusable air fryer liners are silicone and although they are handy to have, I wouldn’t recommend using them for all recipes.

These baby potatoes would take longer to crisp up if you use a liner but you could use one if you really wanted.

I’ve written a whole post on whether you should use an air fryer liner, check it out for more information.

How to serve air fryer Baby Potatoes

As I said previously, I intentionally kept these potatoes simple in flavour so they will make the perfect side dish for most meals.

I like to serve them as the potato accompaniment to lots of stews and casseroles. They are delicious served with my Beef & Ale Stew, Pork & Mustard Stew and Chicken Casserole.

They also make a great alternative to roast potatoes alongside a roast chicken or honey glazed ham.

You could serve them instead of chips alongside a bacon cheese burger, turkey burger or halloumi burger.

Another way to serve them is as part of a barbeque spread. They need very little hands on time so you can spend your time tending to the barbeque while these look after themselves.

how to store & reheat baby potatoes

If you have any leftover potatoes, they will keep in an airtight container for 2 days.

You can absolutely eat any leftover potatoes cold. I prefer them to come up to room temperature rather than fridge cold however.

These potatoes also reheat really well. You can add them back to your air fryer for 3-4 minutes until they have heated through. I also quite often cut them up and add them to meals like my Mexican eggs.

other recipes you might like

• Air Fryer Chips
• Air Fryer Hasselback Potatoes
• Roasted New Potatoes
• Air Fryer Smashed Potatoes
• Air Fryer Potato Recipes

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