Smashed potatoes air fryer style turn out tender and delicious in your Cosori or Ninja Foodi. Top roasted potatoes in air fryer with parmesan cheese toasted with crispy potato skins and tender insides.
This is how to make smashed potatoes in an air fryer easy. If you love a comfort food as a side dish with your main meal this is a great one kids love too. Cheap to make, topped with cheese and sour cream makes them an air fryer recipes you’ll want to make again and again. (affiliate links present)
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Ninja Foodi Smashed Potatoes
It doesn’t matter what brand of machine you might have on your counter. You can cook all kinds of potatoes air fried this way. Add them whole and make baked which could be a complete meal with something like cheese or chili inside.
Petite sizes like these are great as an easy side whereas you can shred them as homemade hashbrowns and serve those for breakfast. I mean what can’t you make with this food grown underground? As for the variety we chose, they were all bagged together. A mix of red and yukon which worked well.
If you love extra crispy food and quick recipes, here are some resources to start with:
- My Favorite models are this Cosori or for a dual machine, the Foodi.
- You can find more Ninja Foodi recipes here as well; bookmark them both!
- It is best practice to put food into a hot basket. this is how to preheat air fryer first.
- Here’s a printable free air fryer cooking time chart here for your fridge.
Air Fryer Smashed Potatoes
The flavors you can add on top would be up to you. You’ll want to add seasonings on the outside when roasting but when mashed the options are endless. We do love garlic so that is a nice add in as well as anything else you’d want for baked potatoes.
Follow the directions below, then when they are tender you’ll want to add her ingredients. Use half and half or whole milk with a potato masher pressing down until insides are exposed. Add cream cheese and smash until the cheese melts inside. Then add diced chives and scallions on top.
This is what we used on this go around. 1 bag of baby potatoes or fingerlings, about 27 were used can be found in a bag at the store.
- Baby potatoes
- Chili powder
- 1/4 tsp chili flakes or red pepper flakes
- Garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- Olive oil is a must to keep the outsides moist but crispy
- 1/2 c parmesan is optional but a must for us
Smashed Potatoes in Air Fryer
There are kinda’ two steps to this. The first one is just getting the insides nice and tender. Then you can smash gently exposing the insides like you see here. Then you can add cheeses and other things to melt for a few minutes.
- Rinse the baby potatoes, lay on towel to dry, then place into a preheated air fryer basket at 360 degrees F. Cook at 360° for 15 minutes or until fork tender in the middle.
- Once they are tender into the middle, use a fork to flatten the tops of the potatoes so they split.
- Mix oil, chili powder, chili flakes, garlic powder, and salt together in a small bowl.
- Drizzle oil mixture over potatoes.
Air fry red potatoes in a single layer for another 5 minutes. Top with parmesan or shredded cheddar cheese. Cook for 5- 10 minutes until cheese melts.
What is the difference between mashed potatoes and smashed potatoes?
Quite a bit really. For mashed you’ll likely remove most or all of the skins to begin with. Usually you’d boil the potatoes because you want them as soft as you can get. Using our Ninja Foodi mashed potatoes recipe, using a pressure cooker, is how we have done it for years since it works so well.
It is the quickest cooking time overall as well. You can use your Instant Pot to do this but you won’t get any crunch out of this method which is what you want. Then you mash until creamy and add creamy ingredients to it.
If you just want to crispy smashed potatoes you typically want crispy potato skins to remain on the outside. The added texture is key. Yes the insides should be tender but not smoothed, they are more like mini baked taters basically.
How Long to Cook Smashed Fingerling Potatoes in Air Fryer
You could choose fingerling instead of petite. They would cook at the same rate basically, just one is round and the others are longer and thinner. I like finding the bags with yukon, red, and purple potato varieties all mixed together. Just brings a bit more fun to the dish.
Dairy Free Smashed Potatoes
Even if you have someone in your home that needs it to be dairy free (like we do) you can tweak it pretty easily. This hard cheese has a low lactose level which usually doesn’t bother my husband. I have found lactose free sour cream before and cheese from the Daiya brand. Pretty good actually.
Want to make a double or triple batch? When your first is done, use a spatula to transfer on to a baking sheet. Cover with foil and sit inside your oven until your second is done. Add that one when done on top to keep the other warm and then serve them up!
Smashed Potatoes with Parmesan
Looking for a few other things you can make with russets in your hot air machine?? Try our other potato recipe ideas like air fryer latkes for breakfast or potato pancakes in air fryer too. Jump to recipe below and get started on this one first, then move on to the others. Let us know what you think!
How do you reheat already cooked potatoes?
Ok so you know I hate wasting food, these save quite well and can be warmed for a second meal the day or two later. Make sure that you allow them to cool completely first. Then transfer into a freezer bag and suck all the air out of it. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
When you are ready use the same machine to heat them back up! This is way better than using a microwave which will just heat but leave them a bit soggy on the outside. Instead preheat to 380 F for 5 minutes and lay in one layer. Spray olive oil on the top and lightly salt. Heat for 3 or so minutes to crisp them right back up.
If you make some of our Crockpot 5 ingredient chili you can spoon some of that on top too to make another meal out of it. A super cheap one at that and hearty with beans and ground beef. Alternatively you can spoon on top inside a bowl with the taters on the bottom and heat in microwave for about 1 minute or so with cheese too.
Smashed Potatoes Air Fryer
Equipment
- 1 air fryer
Ingredients
- 1 bag baby potatoes, or fingerlings, about 27 were used
- 1.5 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp chili flakes, or red pepper flakes
- 1.5 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 c parmesan
Instructions
- Wash baby potatoes, lay on towel to dry, then place into preheated air fryer basket at 360 degrees. Cook at 360° for 15 minutes.
- Once they are tender into the middle, use a fork to flatten the tops of the potatoes so they split. Mix oil, chili powder, chili flakes, garlic powder, and salt together in a small bowl.
- Drizzle oil mixture over potatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes. Top with parmesan or shredded cheddar cheese. Cook for 5- 10 minutes until cheese melts.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
