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Crispy Air Fryer Breakfast Potatoes

Parboiled, roughed up, then air-fried hard. Craggy outside, fluffy inside, twenty minutes.

Prep
10 min
Cook
22 min
Makes
Serves 4
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Crisp roasted potato cubes scattered with herbs
Photo: Terrance Barksdale / Pexels

Raw potato into an air fryer gives you a smooth-surfaced cube that is crisp in the way a chip is crisp — thinly, and only at the very outside. The technique that produces the craggy, shattering surface takes one extra pan and eight minutes.

Parboil the cubes until a knife just goes through, drain them, then put the lid on the pan and shake it hard. The outsides break down into a rough starchy paste while the insides stay intact. That paste is what fries into ridges and blisters, and there is no way to get it without this step.

They belong on the same plate as scrambled eggs with sausage and biscuits.

Then let them steam dry for five minutes. Surface water is the enemy of browning: it has to boil off before the potato can get above 100°C, and every second spent doing that is a second not spent crisping.

The parboil-and-shake step is the same one that makes grilled potatoes work.

Cook them in one layer with space between the cubes. A crowded basket traps the steam the potatoes are giving off and they braise instead of frying — the same reason air fryer fried chicken goes soft when the pieces touch. Two smaller batches beat one full one.

Salt and paprika go on before cooking; garlic powder and herbs go on after. Garlic powder burns bitter in twenty minutes of dry heat, and dried herbs turn to dust.

An air fryer basket during cooking
Photo: CordMediaDigitalServices / Pixabay

Air fryer breakfast potatoes: the card

Parboiled, roughed up, then air-fried hard. Craggy outside, fluffy inside, twenty minutes.

Potatoes and seasoning

  • 2 lb (900 g) floury potatoes, cut into 3 cm cubes
  • 1 tbsp salt, for the water
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder, to finish
  • 1 tbsp chopped chives, to finish

Parboil, rough up, air fry

  1. 1 Put the cubes in cold salted water, bring to the boil, and cook 7–8 minutes until a knife meets slight resistance. Overcooked here means mush later.
  2. 2 Drain well, return them to the dry pan, put the lid on and shake hard three or four times. The edges should look scuffed and floury.
  3. 3 Leave uncovered 5 minutes to steam dry.
  4. 4 Toss with the oil, paprika, salt and pepper — gently, or the roughed-up edges come away.
  5. 5 Air fry at 400°F (200°C) for 20–22 minutes, shaking the basket twice, until deep brown and audibly crisp.
  6. 6 Toss with the garlic powder and chives while still hot.

Choosing the potato

  • Floury potatoes only. Waxy ones will not break down in the shaking step and stay smooth.
  • They hold 15 minutes in a low oven on a rack. Covered, they soften within five.