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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 side dish to prepare in just a few seconds.

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 35p 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 already I’m sure!

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.

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.

A bowl of canned potatoes that have been cooked in the air fryer. They are decorated with parsley, garlic, salt and pepper

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

A white enamel tray of Marmite roast potatoes with a jar of Marmite alongside

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! 

Method for making canned potatoes in the 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.

Cook 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. 

Cook at 200C (390F) for 10 minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!

oxo roast potatoes in a white and blue enamel roasting tin. Alongside are three OXO cubes in red and silver foil packets.

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 prep is needed besides washing them and drying before coating with the spray oil.

Three air fryer hasselback potatoes that have been cooked in the air fryer in a red stoneware baking dish from Le Creuset

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 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 breastair fryer cajun chickenair fryer peri peri chickenair fryer chicken wings, air fryer pigs in blankets, baked beans or air fryer green beans and lots of brown sugar BBQ sauce

Air fryer diced potatoes in a metal tray. There are paprika and rosemary ones, and ones just seasoned with salt and pepper. The text reads air fryer diced potatoes

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 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. 

Air fryer mashed potatoes in a bowl with chives and melted butter on the top

Want to make air fryer canned potatoes and onions?

Prepare your onions by peel 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? 

A Ninja Foodi OL750UK multi-cooker on a kitchen worktop.

How to make roast tinned potatoes in an air fryer

A bowl of canned potatoes that have been cooked in the air fryer. They are decorated with parsley, garlic, salt and pepper
5 from 1 vote
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Air fryer canned potatoes

Delicious crispy canned potatoes that are roasted to perfection in the air fryer!

Course Side Dish
Cuisine British
Keyword air fryer, potato, Roast dinner
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 22 minutes
Servings 2 servings
Calories 126 kcal

Ingredients

  • 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

Instructions

  1. 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.
  2. Cut any larger potatoes in half or third as appropriate.
  3. Then I dry them using a clean kitchen towel, but you can skip this step if you really want to save some effort.
  4. Use a little spray oil on the potatoes.
  5. Season with salt and pepper.
  6. Cook at 180C (360F) for 12 minutes.
  7. Add 1/4 tsp of dried parsley, garlic powder and if you’d like then also add 1/4 tsp of paprika and rosemary.
  8. Add a little more spray vegetable oil if needed.
  9. Shake up.
  10. Cook at 200C (390F) for 10 minutes.
  11. Serve and enjoy!

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

If you enjoyed this post I’d love it if you could pin it on Pinterest!

A bowl of canned potatoes that have been cooked in the air fryer. They are decorated with parsley, garlic, salt and pepper
Recipe Rating




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Candi

Tuesday 29th of November 2022

I’m a sucker for garlic powder, onion powder, rosemary & thyme on mine. Thank you for sharing that you put the seasoning on towards the end it’s a game changer, no more burnt seasonings 🙏🏼 Do you have any recommendations on how to stop them from exploding in the air fryer? I’ve tried squeezing as much liquid out as possible, piercing them with a tiny hole, leaving them to sit on paper towels & I’ve put them on an oven rack after the paper towels too. I just can’t get them to not explode 🤯. If anyone has any suggestions I would really appreciate it.

Candi

Wednesday 7th of December 2022

@katykicker, Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I will definitely give it a go the next time I do a canned potato cook. You haven’t steered me in the wrong direction yet so I’m sure it will work! Thank you for the great advice & for sharing it with everyone. You are very much appreciated

katykicker

Saturday 3rd of December 2022

I do have the odd one explode, which is a tad annoying, but I figure they're contained within the air fryer so it's not so bad! What I have found helpful is to cook very gently for a couple of minutes at a super low temperature first, as this seems to remove some of the excess moisture which I believe leads to them exploding.

Thanks so much for stopping by! x

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