This is seriously the best recipe for red potatoes in the air fryer. They get beautifully browned outside, soft inside, and they have tons of flavor.
There are THREE important things you need to know to make the best air fryer red potatoes. They need to be rinsed very well, they need to be dried off well, and then they need to be left alone in the heat of the air fryer for a bit. That gets them so crisp and brown. I also add some garlic at the end for the flavor, but late enough that it doesn’t burn and get bitter.
Read on to get all the details about making these delicious potatoes or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
- Video: Air Frying Red Potatoes
- What Kind Of Potatoes?
- Amount Of Potatoes For Air Fryer
- Seasonings For Red Potatoes
- Very Important: Rinse the Potatoes
- Also Very Important: Dry the Potatoes
- Air Fryer Temperature and Time for Crispy Red Potatoes
- Add Garlic And Herbs At The End
- More Side Dish Recipes
- Podcast Episode: Making Air Fryer Red Potatoes
- Air Fryer Red Potatoes Recipe
![White plate of cooked red potatoes with garlic and rosemary in front of an air fryer.](https://cookthestory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Air-Fryer-Red-Potatoes-DSC_3882-portrait-1200x1800-1-660x990.jpg)
Video: Air Frying Red Potatoes
What Kind Of Potatoes?
There’s a few different kinds of small potatoes you may have come across. Baby or new potatoes are small potatoes that have been harvested early and can come in many varieties including red and Yukon gold potatoes. Fingerling potatoes are also on the smaller side, but they are specific heirloom varieties. Smaller potatoes are perfect for air frying because they cook quickly and can get crispy.
When I get my hands on new baby potatoes, I make these air fryer baby potatoes, or this recipe from my Ukrainian Baba for new potatoes with dill.
But if I have regular store-bought red potatoes, the ones that are about 2 inches in diameter, then my go-to is the below recipe for red potatoes in the air fryer. You can use other kinds of potatoes if you’d like. You just want to use the same approximate weight and cut them into 2 inch by 1 inch wedges or cubes. That will be quartered into little wedges for the standard red potatoes.
Amount Of Potatoes For Air Fryer
My recipe calls for 8-10 small red potatoes that are quartered. This will be about 1.5 to 2 pounds of potatoes and works well in my air fryer in a single layer without crowding.
Note that you can use less, for sure, just use less of the other ingredients also. If you want use more, you absolutely can. I just find that the potatoes turn out best when they are forming a single, mostly-not-overlapping, layer in the bottom of the air fryer. If I’m doing more though because we’re really hungry or there are extra people, they end up taking a bit longer, and they don’t always get as crispy. They’re still tasty though!
Seasonings For Red Potatoes
For my air fryer potatoes recipe, I decided to use salt, fresh rosemary, and fresh garlic. Depending on what you’re serving them with, you might want to add extra spices like cayenne pepper or onion powder. Or use your favorite blend, like Italian seasoning or Cajun seasoning mix.
Salt: I found half a teaspoon not enough and 1 teaspoon too much, so 3/4 teaspoon is perfect for this amount of potatoes. But I preferred it with 1/2 teaspoon used at the beginning and then that little bit, a couple pinches to 1/4 teaspoon added at the end to be the best result. Similar to how restaurants season their fries right before serving them as they come out of the fryer, this was the tastiest method.
Rosemary: The chopped fresh rosemary is really lovely on here and compliments the flavor of the potatoes. Dried rosemary unfortunately isn’t a great substitute here. It never plumps up and ends up dry and scratchy. So, if you have fresh rosemary, use it. If not, just skip it. If you have fresh thyme or fresh oregano, those will work instead. But softer herbs like parsley or basil wilt too much. A sprinkle of chopped fresh chives just before serving works really well!
If you’d really like to use a dried herb instead of fresh, dried oregano or dried basil works better than rosemary or thyme because it’s softer. Use 1/2 teaspoon of either one and add it when you add the garlic.
Garlic: I’ve used fresh garlic for this recipe instead of garlic powder. I found that the garlic powder burnt a bit in the air fryer. It’s important to slice the garlic cloves rather than to mince or chop it for the air fryer. The reason is that small bits of garlic fall between the potatoes and then through the grates of the air fryer basket. By doing slices, the garlic has more surface area to balance on the potatoes, and if it does fall down, it doesn’t fall all the way through the grates.
When slicing the garlic, holding the clove so that the widest part faces your knife will give you the widest slices, which are the least likely to fall down. Note that if you do mince the garlic or if your slices are so small that they fall through, you can always remove the basket and scoop the garlic from underneath onto the potatoes before serving.
Very Important: Rinse the Potatoes
What we’re trying to do here is get nicely browned potatoes in the air fryer. And in less time than it takes to cook them in the oven (compare with the time it takes to make these Classic Oven-Roasted Potatoes and these Red Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese recipe.
Starting by rinsing the potatoes gets the starch off of the outside which helps them brown. Cut them into quarters first so that the inner starchy parts are exposed. Then put them into big pot or bowl. Fill it full with cool tap water. Swish the potatoes around. Spill out the water.
And then do it again. And again! You want to rinse those potatoes THREE TIMES to really get all that starch off.
Some people say to soak the potatoes in water for awhile to remove more of the starch. I actually tried this and didn’t find that it made a difference. If the potatoes are rinsed well three times, they end up just as good as if you soak them. Especially if you dry them off well after, which is the next step.
Also Very Important: Dry the Potatoes
After you have triple-rinsed the potatoes, lay out a pile of 8-10 paper towels or a clean lint-free kitchen towel. Topple those damp potatoes onto there and then move them around or wrap them up and pat them to really get all of the water off of them.
Why do this? You see, we’re about to add oil. And you know oil and water don’t mix. If you add oil to watery potatoes, it kind of slides off. Then it doesn’t have contact with the potatoes and can’t help them to brown as well. So, dry those potatoes off well and then get them into a dry bowl. As in, don’t put them back into the damp bowl you used to rinse them, or at least don’t do that without drying off the inside of the bowl first.
And you’re going to want to add the oil to those potatoes immediately. The potatoes have water inside of them. If you leave them for a bit, the water starts to come out and then you have that same oil-not-sticking problem. It’s not something you can see with your eyes, but it happens. So as soon as you dry off the potatoes, put them in a dry bowl and toss them with the oil.
Add the salt after you’ve tossed the potatoes in oil. It’s a little detail but we don’t want anything getting between the oil and the potato, you know?
Air Fryer Temperature and Time for Crispy Red Potatoes
The rinsed and dried red potatoes get tossed with oil and then salt and then they immediately go into the air fryer at 400°F. You don’t have to pre-heat the air fryer first.
Let them cook for 12 minutes at 400F untouched. Leaving the air fryer alone and not tossing the potatoes frequently lets the heat really intensify in there, which also aids in the browning. That browning is our goal with all the other steps, so we don’t want to mess with it now.
Then you can give them a toss and continue cooking until fork-tender, about an additional 6-8 minutes. You may have noticed that so far only oil and salt have been added to the potatoes. That’s because it’s hot in the air fryer and our other flavor ingredients will burn. So then, when do you add those other things?
Add Garlic And Herbs At The End
You might remember that when I was developing this fried potato and onion recipe, the onions would burn before the potatoes crisped up. I had the same issues in today’s recipe, where the garlic and/or rosemary gets dark and bitter if you put it in right at the beginning.
Adding them just at the end for just a little while gets the flavor onto the potatoes and cooks it a bit, without making it bitter. Problem solved!
More Side Dish Recipes
Browse my full collection of 50+ air fryer recipes or try one of the great side dishes below.
Podcast Episode: Making Air Fryer Red Potatoes
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make these potatoes, along with some other great tips, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
Print![White plate of cooked red potatoes with garlic and rosemary in front of an air fryer.](https://cookthestory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Air-Fryer-Red-Potatoes-DSC_3882-square-1200-150x150.jpg)
Air Fryer Red Potatoes Recipe
- Prep Time: 7 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 27 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Air Fryer Red Potatoes get beautifully brown in less time than it takes in the oven for a delicious side dish for all sorts of meals.
Ingredients
- 8–10 small red potatoes, quartered*
- 1 Tbsp. cooking oil
- 1/2 tsp. salt, plus more for serving
- 2 tsp. fresh rosemary leaves (optional)**
- 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced***
Instructions
- Put the red potatoes into a large bowl. Add cool tap water. Swish the potatoes around. Drain off the water. Repeat this two more times so that the potatoes have been rinsed 3 times total.
- Lay out 8 sheets of paper towel. Transfer potatoes to towel and pat and roll until dry. Dry out the inside of the bowl that you used to rinse the potatoes and return potatoes to bowl.
- To the potatoes add the oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Toss to coat.
- Transfer the potatoes to the air fryer basket and cook at 400°F for 12 minutes without opening. Open the air fryer and toss the potatoes. Cook until fork-tender and well-browned, another 6-8 minutes.
- Remove basket from air fryer. With the potatoes still in the air fryer basket, sprinkle them with the rosemary, if using. Then, drape the garlic slices over the potatoes, trying to spread the garlic out over the potatoes. Do not stir or toss – keep the garlic on top of the potatoes.
- Return the basket to air fryer and continue to cook the potatoes at 400°F for 2 more minutes.
- Remove the basket from the air fryer and, if desired, sprinkle potatoes with a pinch or two more salt. Then give the basket a toss, which will shift the garlic around. Invert the basket over a large plate. Serve immediately.
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Notes
*This will be about 1.5 to 2 pounds of potatoes. I find that the potatoes turn out best when they are forming a single, mostly-not-overlapping, layer in the bottom of the air fryer. You can absolutely do more and pile them in there though. Increase the amount of oil and salt accordingly. You will still let them cook for the first 12 minutes untouched, toss them, then cook for another 6-8 minutes, and then you will likely need to do another 6-8 minutes. They potatoes won’t end up as crispy, but they will get fork tender and browned.
**Dried rosemary isn’t a great substitute. It doesn’t soften and is a bit prickly. If you’d like to use a dried herb, dried oregano or dried basil works better because they’re softer. Use 1/2 teaspoon of either one and add it when you add the garlic. Or skip the herbs entirely since the recipe is good without them too.
***It is important to slice the garlic rather than to mince or chop it for this recipe. We’re trying to keep the pieces big enough that they don’t fall through the air fryer basket’s holes. Note that if you do mince the garlic or if your slices are so small that they fall through, you can always remove the basket and scoop the garlic from underneath and back onto the potatoes.
![Air Fryer Red Potatoes](https://cookthestory.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Air-Fryer-Red-Potatoes-DSC_3882-portrait-1200x1800-1.jpg)
You give such helpful tips to turn something simple from good to great. I loved it!
I’m glad it helped, Cynthia!