I Tested 6 Ways to Air Fry Potatoes, Only One Wins

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What’s up, dude? After 15 years cooking in restaurants and 20 years in the food world, I’ve developed a serious obsession with perfectly cooked potatoes. You see, in restaurants, we’d par boil them and then roast them in the oven in a comical amount of fat. And don’t get me wrong, these were amazing, but also messy, dangerous, time-conuming, and just way too much work for a weekn night. So, today I’m testing six different methods to find the absolute best way to make crispy roasted golden potatoes at home using only an air fryer. Now, let’s go. Now, for starters, I’m going to be using Yukon Gold for all the tests we’re doing today. If you’re using russetss, you may get a different outcome. Just remember that russetss are a lot drier than Yukon Gold, so they’re definitely going to lean towards being blanched first before you air fry them. So, my potatoes are washed and cleaned. And all I’m going to do is slice them in half. Slice the halves in half. You can do them a different shape if you want. Just make sure they’re all the same size so they cook evenly. But something like this looks like a good size for a little roasty. If you want to do cubes, you can do cubes. It’s up to you. For the first test of the day, we are simply going to oil, season, and air fry these potatoes. I do not recommend this method, and I’ll tell you why after. Just a good gug of olive oil here. Little toss. And season it however you like. I’m going to do all of them today with rosemary salt. If you know, you know, because this video is really about the technique and the method behind getting the best air fried potatoes and not the seasoning. But do what you like. Simple as that. Then just drop them in a preheated 400°ree air fryer. And make sure you spread them out a little bit. And depending on the strength of your air fryer and the size of your potatoes, it could take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. I reckon these will take about 20 minutes. And whenever you’re air frying just about anything, it’s always a good idea to take it out about halfway and just give it a little toss. Just redistribute that oil a little bit. Oops, lost the potato. And then reffry. And after 18 minutes, our first potatoes are done. Now, let’s take a closer look at these little bad boys. They look great, actually. Now, what’s funny about this first method is that 10 seconds ago, these potatoes were crispy as hell. They just lose their crisp immediately. And that is definitely one major con of this method, but there are more. I mean, take a look at how unevenly these potatoes cooked. You have some that are super pale, some that are super dark, others that are splotchy and in between. And that’s really due to all that excess starch on there not being washed off. Let’s try one. I mean, they taste good, but that’s just because of the rosemary salt. If you know, you know. But honestly, the worst thing for me is just no crunch. I can deal with that unevenness a little bit, but man, the texture just sucks. You might as well just make mashed potatoes out of them, right? There’s just no crunch. They look amazing. They deceive your eye. These aren’t good roasted potatoes. They just aren’t. Moving on. You very well may be the laziest person on earth if you don’t opt for this second method over the first. It’s so easy to do. It’s like literally maybe 2 minutes of extra work, if that. And same exact method here. I’m going to cut everything same size. You guys know the deal. And if you want, you can pull through like this, like a total gangster. But be careful with that method. Now, unlike method one, we need to get all the starch off these potatoes. And you do that simply by rinsing them out in cold water about three times. And as you can see here, after first putting them in water, it’s really milky and cloudy looking. That’s all the excess starch. You really want to get that off, no matter what you’re doing with the potato. Next, you just want to make them as dry as possible. I just use a little bit of paper towel for this just to remove that excess moisture. Then it’s just the same old process as the first method. Just give them a little bit of olive oil and the seasoning of choice. Then just drop them in the air fryer and cook them for 18 to 20 minutes or until they’re just fork tender. These ones also took 18 minutes. And as you can see side by side with the previous batch, they are definitely a lot lighter in color. That’s because we removed that excess starch. Having said that, just like the last ones, these lost their crunch almost immediately. The only thing is they just look more evenly brown without being too dark. Also, if you’re burning those starches like in the first one, that flavor is not good either. I mean, a little bit of a cleaner taste, but just this weird chewy, no crunch soft. Like, this sucks, dude. Either make mashed potatoes or learn how to make a good roasted potato, which you’re about to do because you’re subscribed to this channel. Oh, you’re not? Oh my god, you’re going to suck at cooking for the rest of your life. Just subscribe. And on a quick side note, if you have the foresight and time to do this sort of meal planning and prep, it’s always a good idea to slice up your potatoes, rinse them out three times, and then leave them in the fridge for a day or two. This always just breathes so much life back into them. They get so much harder, and a hard potato always makes a better product no matter what you’re doing with them. Trust me, restaurants do this and it is goated. Before moving on, regardless of how you cook your potatoes, the greatest enemy to crunch is overcrowding. Which is why I genuinely love the sponsor of today’s video, the Typher Dome 2 air fryer. This thing has real estate, and I truly believe Tyer has created the best air fryer on the market. Because of all that room inside, the overcrowding issues that I had with most air fryers are a thing of the past. And one of the coolest features is the 360° heating technology with heating elements on both the top and bottom. And pairing that with dual temperature sensors ensures your food is perfectly cooked every time. No need to constantly shake or flip. And with 15 cooking functions, you can air fry, bake, broil, grill, roast, dehydrate, reheat, and much more. And as a chef, I’m looking for consistency and speed when it comes to my equipment. This thing heats up incredibly fast and then holds that heat incredibly well, circulates it well, the whole deal. I absolutely love just seasoning up some chicken wings in there, throwing them in potatoes. I like doing chicken thighs. It really handles that so well. And the upgraded selfcleing function now operates at 500° Fahrenheit, breaking down grease and grime more thoroughly for an easier cleanup. This Typher air fryer has become one of my most loved pieces of equipment in this kitchen. I do use it all the time. It works fantastically well. And with its original price at $499, now dropped to $349 for the back to school sale. And you can take that discount even further by clicking the link down in the description and using my code to get it for a total of $314. It’s the best price you’re ever going to get it if you need an amazing air fryer. Thank you, Tyer, for sponsoring this video. Now, let’s get back to the recipe. For this third method, you need to put on your big boy chef pants because we’re going a little bit pro, but I wouldn’t even call it pro. All we’re going to do is blanch these in salted vinegar water first. And to be quite honest with you, I would be surprised if this wasn’t one of the best methods on our list today. I’ve got high hopes for it. And for this method, we start with four quarts of boiling water. We’re going to add 1 tbsp of salt and 2 tbsp of just regular old white vinegar. Don’t need anything fancy. Then just carefully lower in your potatoes. And then all we need to do is par boil these until fork tender. And the main reason you want to drop them into boiling water as opposed to starting them in cold water like you would with mashed potatoes is because we need to break down the edge of that potato to get this sort of rough textured effect, which in the end gives you the best roasted potato ever with an insane crunch. And if you’ve never really made good roasted potatoes at home, it seems counterintuitive, right? I’m going to boil this potato in water and it’s going to become cruncher. That doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t. Just like the universe keeps expanding and expanding and expanding and it’s infinite expanding. That doesn’t make any sense, dude. We’re made out of atoms and so is this. That doesn’t make any sense, but it works. People will also recommend putting baking soda in there, which does help break down the edge of that potato a little bit, but I’ve done side by side tests and I find they’re just fine like this, but you can add a little bit if you want. So, my potatoes only took 12 minutes and they are just perfectly fork tender right now while still holding their shape. All you got to do then is strain them off and let them sit here for about 3 or 4 minutes to steam because all that steam is doing now is really drying them out, which makes them so much better for the next step. Now, to get this textured effect on the outside, I’m simply going to start just tossing them inside of this strainer. And I like doing it in the strainer because all these little holes around the outside actually give it that textured effect. And so I’ll toss and then I’ll also do this that sort of just roughs up the ones on the bottom. And we’re not trying to have them all fall apart, but just to texture that outside a little bit. And after just a little bit of roughing here, you can see how they’ve gotten sort of white, right? Some potatoes will rough better than others, but as you can see now, the edges aren’t smooth, right? They have these little micro textures going on, and that’s what we’re after because that’s all going to be crunch. And so once you have them textured like this, only now will I add the oil. And you know, in restaurants, we would be dropping these onto a sheetpan with already hot oil. So, on their way to becoming French fries in a restaurant, you kind of drown them in oil. But since this is an air fried method, we are not going to do that. So, I’m just going to get them oiled up to my liking. And while at the same time now, I’m just going to season them with the rosemary salt. And you won’t need as much salt as the other methods because we put it in that water. And so, the salt that was present in that boiling water had fully dissolved and sort of permeated those potatoes. So, you have this nice, what I call rounded seasoning. It’s like a even seasoning throughout, very light. And then that next layer of rosemary salt is more for the outside. It really does make the whole bite of potato just that much better. They’re also continuing to rough up a little bit right now. And just like before, all you need to do now is get them in the air fryer. Make sure they are nicely spread out for cooking. I also tossed this batch a few times throughout. And it was done after just 22 minutes. So just slightly longer. And let me tell you something, friends. As soon as I pulled this out of the air fryer, you can just see how much better these look. These look like roasted potatoes to me. And even that sound they made when they hit the plate told me they have some crunch going on, which is what we want. So, they’ve been out of the air fryer for a few minutes now while we’ve been setting up the shot. And I can just feel the crunch. Let’s see. Woo! Still way too hot. Crunch is there. You will never in a million years achieve that kind of crunch without par cooking them in some way. And especially par boiling them. That is just the best. So, the outside is nice and crunchy and the inside is just nice and fluffy and a little bit mashed potato- like. Just really good, man. A literal night and day difference from the first ones. And while these potatoes do have crunch, it’s really coming from all those little end pieces. The cuts that are in the middle that have less of the skin and outside have lost quite a bit of crunch at this time. Having said all that, these are by far the best air fried potatoes we’ve made yet with these tests. For our fourth entry, we are actually going to par cook the potato in the microwave and then air fry it. A lot of people online have said this is really good. Let’s see if it works. And all I’m going to do is take some washed potatoes, prick them a few times with a fork so they don’t split, and then just jam them in the microwave. It could take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. If you’re using like a baby potato, it would be closer to five. And if you’re using a really large potato, it’s going to be closer to 15, obviously, but I’ll give you the exact time when they come out. And my mediumsized Yukon Golds took only about 10 minutes. When I put a little thermometer in, it goes in nice and easy. So, they’re cooked, but just barely. Right? This is how we want them. And lastly, I would recommend you just stick these in the freezer for 12 to 15 minutes just to take that heat out of them. If you try to cut them right now, first of all, it’s going to be super hot and they might fall apart too much. We don’t want that. That’s going to mess up the next step, which is air frying. So, in the freezer they go. And there’s our potatoes after 15 minutes in the freezer. Now, all we got to do is cut them just like the rest. Just like so. And they stay together nicely. They definitely cooked through. And just the exact same deal as before, we’re going to hit them with some oil and our seasoning. Give it a good toss. And to be honest, I like the way these are feeling. I have kind of high hopes for this. And in they go at 400° just like the others. Should take about 20 minutes, but I will give you the exact time when they get out. And these ones actually took the longest at about 23 minutes. And you know, not too long ago, I made a video where I baked potatoes and then cooled them down overnight, sliced into wedges, and then roasted them in the oven with a lot of oil. And they looked similar to this because remember, when you’re doing it this way, you are not rinsing any of that starch off. Okay? Right? It’s all inside the potato. And that’s why you see this really sort of uneven blotchiness throughout. But hey, let’s give it a try. They don’t really feel crispy. The problem with not washing off that starch is that they’re going to burn so much easier, right? You want to get them really crispy. So, you want to cook them longer, but the longer you do, the more burn they get. Whereas, if you wash the starch away, that won’t happen. I would say they’re better than the first two methods, but not nearly as good as the third. That’s my consensus. For our fifth method, we are going to attempt to double fry these potatoes solely in the air fryer. And the idea behind this one comes from the fact that almost all restaurants will double fry their potatoes for French fries. Meaning they’ll fry it once at a lower temperature, let it rest, and then fry it again at a much higher temperature to get it crispy. The question is, does that method work in an air fryer? Let’s give it a shot. And all we’re going to do with these is cut, rinse three times, dry them off, hit them with the oil and seasoning just like the others, and then cook them at actually 225° Fahrenheit until they’re just fork tender. So, these potatoes took 40 minutes to get to that stage where I could just poke them with a little thermometer and it went in nice and easy. And at this point, they have no color on them whatsoever, which is what we want. You could definitely try raising the temp a little if you want to speed up the process. Just be sure you don’t get them too brown on that first stage of cooking. At this point, I just jacked up the temperature to 400° F and set a timer for 10 minutes. Let’s see how they look after that. And there we are. All it took was another 10 minutes and these look perfectly done to me. Let’s go ahead and give them a taste. And I was really hoping they would be crispier than they are right now. They feel so soft. Unfortunately, the crunch is pretty much non-existent. Although, there is a good side of these potatoes, and that’s the creamy interior. It’s very mashed potatoey like, which I like. And not just that, but because the seasoning had a lot of time to sort of bake on there and start permeating into the potato, it’s really got a nice seasoning throughout. I like that, too. On a side note, if you’re a gamer, I just started a gaming channel. We’re having a blast over there. there. It’s called That Duke and Game. I’ll put a link for it down in the description as well as the corner. Right now, for our sixth and final method, we are going to follow the exact same steps as method three, except after the blanching, we are going to freeze them for a couple days because I recently did a French fry test and these were by far the best French fries. We’ll talk about it more a little later. And for this method, all we’re going to do is texture those par boiled potatoes before putting them on a tray and letting them cool down. At which point, I’ll throw them in a ziplo and stick them in the freezer for about 2 days. Now, without going fullblown nerd, basically what’s happening here is as those potatoes freeze, ice crystals form inside them and rupture the cells of the potato, which in turn should give you a crispier potato. But full disclosure, I’ve never actually tried this method and then air fried them. After freezing, I’ve always done them on a sheetpan in the oven with oil. So, we’ll see what the difference is. And same exact deal with these potatoes as the rest. We’re just going to toss them with a little bit of oil and some rosemary salt. And then blast them in the air fryer at 400° for about 20 minutes. Might take a little bit longer. And here we are after 22 minutes. They look nicely done to me. Let’s give them a taste test. And they definitely look pretty good. Although a little more blotchy than I would have imagined they would come out. Yeah, they feel soft, guys, which is so interesting because when I did this with French fries, it was the best way to do it. Although, having said that, they were in the oven with a bunch of oil on Mhm. Interesting. This one looks a little crunchy. Woah. There are some huge differences with the freezing though. And the key thing that really sticks out is the inside of these potatoes has become so much more mashed potato-like. It’s like a little sauce in there. It’s crazy. And I remember that with the French fries as well. The inside just becomes much more goopy and pliable. Look at that. And it’s a shame because I really love that creamy interior, but they just didn’t get the crunch, which is honestly surprising. And if I were to cook them longer than this to try to get them crunchier, they would be way too brown, right? Maybe that works better with russetss. But yeah, so after these six tests, what if we actually learned about making air fried potatoes at home? In my experience, just blanching them in that salty water with a little bit of vinegar, and then tossing them in oil, seasoning, and air frying is the way to go. If you try this with a rusted potato or you try it with another method that works really well, please chime in down in the comments. But as it stands right now, blanching, air frying, that’s the way to go. Thanks for watching today, my friend. And if you happen to be a fan of written recipes, definitely check out my Master in the Making ebook that will be linked down in the description. It has 55 of my personal favorite recipes. They’re all bangers, winners, whatever you want to call them. And if you like these type of test videos, I did one here on mashed potatoes. I also did one on French fries, all made at home using simple stuff. Thanks for watching and until next time. You know, I love you and I’m out. [Music]