Air Fryer Steak and Hasselback Potato Dinner

Make an Air Fryer Steak Dinner, complete with sides, all in about 30 minutes!

This entire meal for two, which includes extra thick, perfectly cooked New York strip steaks, Hasselback potatoes, and roasted green beans, is made in an air fryer in less than 30 minutes. It’s quick enough for busy weeknight dinners, and fancy enough for special occasions.

Steps For A Complete Air Fryer Dinner

Everything is perfectly timed in this unfussy recipe, with minimal clean up at the end of the meal. Here’s how everything comes together:

1. Preheat the air fryer
2. Prep the steaks
3. Cook the steaks in the air fryer
4. While steaks are cooking, prep potatoes and green beans
5. Remove steaks, let rest, add potatoes to air fryer
6. Make the chive butter
7. Add green beans to the air fryer basket with the potatoes
8. Plate it all up, slather potatoes with chive butter, and enjoy!

How To Perfectly Cook Steaks In The Air Fryer

If you’re looking for a more basic recipe with just steaks and not a full meal, check out How to Cook Steak in the Air Fryer.

I think we can agree, the caramelized outside crust on a steak is the best part, and to get that from an air fryer, the steak needs to be thick. Like at least 1 and ½-inches thick. 

You could get away with a 1-inch steak, but the ideal size is the 1 and ½-inch. This will typically be a 12 to 16 ounce New York strip steak. If you’re making this recipe for two people, you can go with 2 of the 12 ounce steaks, and you’ll have two big portions. Or, you could do one of the big 16 ounce steaks and then divide the slices of steak between you for a more modest portion.

So why the thicker steaks? 

Anything less than a 1-inch thick steak will become almost fully cooked on the inside before the outside can ever develop any kind of caramelized crust, leaving you with a gray (unappetizing) piece of steak. 

Thicker steaks require a longer cook time, and with more exposure to the hot circulating air fryer air, the thicker steaks will develop more of that caramelized outside crust we love before the inside overcooks. The “sear” won’t be as deep and dark as it would be from the high heat of a frying pan or grill, but the air fryer deserves a pat on the back for a job done well.

To help with the browning, lightly spray the steaks with olive oil spray, and coat with a mixture of salt and onion powder. I like to put the seasonings into a gallon storage zip top bag along with the steaks, and then shake the bag to distribute the seasonings evenly. 

While the steaks are being prepped, preheat the air fryer. Once the air fryer comes to temp, add the steaks and set the timer for 8 minutes. While the steaks are cooking, prep the potatoes and green beans.

What Is A Hasselback Potato?

Hasselback is a technique in which potatoes, squash, apples, and similar ingredients are thinly sliced, almost all the way through, but not quite, so that the bottom stays intact, and can be stuffed or topped with additional ingredients during or after cooking.

I’ve been known to go a little Hasselback crazy now and then, because it’s such a great technique for getting more surface area onto your food for more caramelization, more flavor, and exposing more nooks and crannies for aromatics like garlic, oil, butter, cheese, or herbs to find and settle into. (Try this Hasselback Sweet Potato recipe!) The additional surface area also helps food cook faster.

To “Hasselback” successfully, you’ll need something to stop you from cutting all the way through the potato other than your good will, because speaking from experience, it’s difficult to know where to stop the slice so that the top of the potato remains wonderfully fanned, and the bottom of the potato remains perfectly intact. 

I’ve found that the handles of two, same-sized, wooden spoons work perfectly. Chopsticks are often suggested, but because they are tapered, I don’t recommend using these as a slicing guide—you’ll almost always end up with uneven slices because of it, and you’ll ruin your chopsticks with little nicks from the knife blade. Stick with the wooden spoons. I’ve used bamboo straws in the past, too, which also work well. 

Place one of the potatoes on a cutting board, horizontally, between the two spoon handles. Using a sharp knife, cut ⅛-inch or ¼-inch perpendicular slices from the top down, until the knife hits the spoon handles. The potato should remain connected at the bottom, and fanned at the top.

What size potato should I use?

Just like the thickness of the steaks matters for the perfect air fryer results, the size of the russet potatoes in this recipe matter, too. Small potatoes, about 3-inches wide, will cook within the time it takes for the steaks to rest. Larger potatoes will take longer to cook. This isn’t catastrophic to the recipe, by any means, but larger potatoes will throw the timing of the meal off a little bit. 

If the potatoes are slightly larger than what the recipe calls for, you have two options: After cutting into Hasselbacks, the larger potatoes can be cooked in the microwave for 3-4 minutes before going into the air fryer. Or, add 10 minutes onto the potato’s air fryer cook time, before the green beans are added—we’ll get to those next.

When the steaks come out of the air fryer, transfer them to a cutting board and loosely cover with aluminum foil to rest. At this point, the Hasselback-cut potatoes can be lightly sprayed with olive oil, salted, and placed into the air fryer. While the potatoes cook, make the (easiest ever) chive butter and prep the green beans.

How To Make Chive Butter

Oven-baked Hasselback potatoes are usually cooked with butter and herbs, a flavored oil, cheese, or some sort of stuffing. As amazing as this sounds, any kind of butter or stuffing will burn in the air fryer, so flavor has to be added to the potatoes AFTER they are cooked.

Chive butter not only pairs well with the potatoes, but with the steak and green beans, too, so if any melted butter finds its way across the plate and under the steak or green beans, it’s a win.

Salted butter comes in handy in this case, so no additional salt is needed. Stir together the butter and chives, and set aside until ready to use. 

How To Roast Green Beans In The Air Fryer

After the Hasselback potatoes have been cooking for about 10 minutes in the air fryer, transfer the green beans to a bowl and lightly spray with olive oil, sprinkle with the remaining salt, toss to coat, and add the green beans to the air fryer basket with the potatoes. Scoot the potatoes over to one side if you need to so the green beans fit.

You’re in the home stretch because dinner will be ready soon. 

Place the air fryer basket with the green beans added back into the air fryer for 6 minutes, and when the unit shuts itself off, leave the basket in the air fryer while you slice the steak. 

Remove the foil, cut the steaks into ¼-inch slices for serving, and transfer to a serving platter. Add the potatoes and green beans to the platter, and slather the chive butter all over the potatoes. I love a generous dollop of sour cream and some fresh parsley over everything as well, just before serving. Enjoy your Air Fryer Steak Dinner!

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