Air fryer canned potatoes

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These air fryer canned potatoes are the perfect frugal recipe. Ideal if you’re perhaps not up for peeling fresh potatoes and prepping them yourself, or even just want a super fast potato side dish to prepare in just a few seconds. Just a little warning that the odd canned potato is prone to going pop in the air fryer so keep that in mind when checking on them!

Using canned potatoes is a great convenience hack for people with disabilities, those on a low budget or even just people who are low on time. For around 38p you can purchase a can of tinned potatoes, already peeled, in water, ready to use in recipes.

My air fryer, well, my Ninja Foodi OL750UK to be more specific, has to be my favourite EVER kitchen gadget! I use it just about daily, sometimes more, and I love how easy it is to just use my air fryer to cook whole meals, air fryer side dishes, air fryer desserts and MUCH more.

This particular recipe takes just seconds to prepare for and you’ll be shocked at the results you can achieve too, as you can see from the photo on this post!

Nothing brings me more joy at family meal times than serving up food that my children will eat, and these air fryer tinned potatoes are the perfect example. They are always a hit, taste delicious and leftovers can be used in other recipes too with ease.

While you’re here be sure to check out my air fryer tips and tricks. Whether you’re a total newbie to using an air fryer, or just looking to get more from it, this is sure to help! Why not check out some of my other air fryer potato recipes too?

These air fryer canned potatoes work so well as part of a main meal, and are the perfect easy side dish. They’d also work great as air fryer smashed potatoes.

Ingredients for air fryer canned potatoes: 

1 tin of canned potatoes – the ones I purchased were new baby potatoes in water, 567g in volume, 345g once drained. Any similar quantity will be fine!

Salt and pepper

Vegetable spray oil

Dried parsley

Garlic powder

Optional – paprika and rosemary

Something to note about air fryer recipes is that all air fryers have different sizes, depths and as such the cooking times can vary. All air fryer recipes on this website are intended as a guide, and not a guarantee that the timings will be perfect. Enjoy!

If you’ve followed the cooking time and your potatoes are not quite ready then just use the air fryer for a few more minutes at a time, checking back frequently to avoid burning them! 

How to cook canned potatoes in air fryer:

Drain and rinse the potatoes. I like to rinse several times, just to remove any residue from the products they use to keep the potatoes fresh while canned.

Cut any larger potatoes in half or third as appropriate.

Then I dry them using a clean kitchen towel, but you can skip this step if you really want to save some effort.

Use a little spray oil on the potatoes.

Season with salt and pepper.

Air fry at 180C (360F) for 12 minutes.

Add 1/4 tsp of dried parsley, garlic powder and if you’d like then also add 1/4 tsp of paprika and rosemary.

Add a little more spray vegetable oil if needed. 

Shake up. 

Air fry at 200C (390F) for 10 minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!

Which potatoes to use for canned potatoes: 

You can use any canned potatoes. I bought the new potatoes in water, just because they were the cheapest option. UK supermarkets have these, sometimes in the World food aisle, sometimes in the first canned items aisle.

These canned potatoes are very simple to use, and an *electric can opener makes these even easier to use.

There are a variety of canned potatoes available, and any will work well for this recipe. I’ve seen sliced canned potatoes and tinned sweet potatoes which would both work great too, though you may need to adjust the cooking times a little.

Do you need to soak canned potatoes before cooking? 

No, absolutely not. These have been in water since they were canned, sometimes for weeks or even months! No preparation is needed besides washing them and drying before coating with the spray oil.

Do canned potatoes go crispy? 

Yes, they are SO crispy on the outside, almost as good as ‘proper’ roast potatoes made from fresh potatoes! I love the crisp outer edge and the soft fluffy potato inside too. 

Want to know how to make canned potatoes crispy?

The trick is to shake regularly and then add a little more spray oil. This will help them be extra crispy.

Want to make air fryer tinned potatoes with parmesan? 

When you remove these tinned potatoes from the air fryer just sprinkle over either finely grated parmesan OR finely sliced parmesan. It’ll melt on and go all cheesy and delicious! No other effort required at all.

If you want it extra crispy then pop them back in the air fryer basket and cook for a further minute.

What to serve with air fryer tinned potatoes? 

We personally love to enjoy these tinned potatoes as part of a main meal. In the past I have served with air fryer BBQ chicken breast, air fryer cajun chicken, air fryer peri peri chicken, air fryer chicken wings, air fryer pigs in blankets, baked beans or air fryer green beans and lots of brown sugar BBQ sauce. 

Do you need to use foil when cooking air fryer tinned potatoes? 

No, I almost never use foil in my air fryer! It is unnecessary, as nothing really sticks to the basket anyway, not in most decent models anyway!

Do you need to use an air fryer basket to make canned potatoes?

If the air fryer you use just has a bowl, and no air fryer basket, you can definitely still make these crispy tinned potatoes.

They will crisp up lovely, just ensure that you mix them around at least once during cooking, ideally a couple of times if you have time, and then leave lots of room so they are not sticking together and can cook evenly. 

Want to make air fryer canned potatoes and onions?

Prepare your onions by peeling and cutting into quarters and then peel apart the layers. Then you can add the onions into the air fryer for the second part of the cooking process. This will avoid them burning.

Why not try some of my other fantastic air fryer recipes while you’re here? 

• Air fryer parmentier potatoes
• Air fryer frozen roast potatoes
• Air fryer chicken tenders
• Chicken mini fillets in the air fryer
• Air fryer chocolate protein oats
• Air fryer smores
• Air fryer burgers
• Air fryer cheese crumpets
• Air fryer jerk chicken
• Air fryer Nando’s chicken

How to make roast tinned potatoes in an air fryer

Note: All calorie information is for demonstration purposes only and is based on the specific uncooked ingredients that I used when creating the recipe.

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