How to cook frozen Jacket Potatoes in air fryer

Be it frozen or freshly prepared jacket potatoes, they will cook at a high heat for no longer than an hour, with no overcooking expected.

Any variety of pre-cooked and then frozen jacket potatoes, like the McCain selection, will air fry at a temperature of 400°F/205°C, for a minimum time of 45 minutes. Frozen jacket potatoes will often feature a predefined cut on top, which can be used to mash the potato in butter, when its ready to be served.

What a pleasant surprise these McCain frozen jacket potatoes were, of course they air fried extremely well,  yet the taste and texture was spot on.

Its easy to air fry any brand of frozen jacket potatoes, which you will essentially be reheating the potatoes, as they would normally be pre-cooked prior to being frozen.

Which means you can't go far wrong when air frying frozen jacket potatoes, where an uncooked, hard potato centre is unlikely to happen. Air fry your frozen jacket potatoes for the full run with no need to touch or turn the potatoes over in this time.

How long you air fry a frozen jacket potato will be provided to you with the oven cooking time. How long frozen jacket potatoes take to cook in an oven - would be how long it will take to cook in your air fryer.

What temperature a jacket potato cooks at - be it frozen or freshly prepared - is always a high of 400°F/205°C.

If the oven cooking instructions on your frozen jacket potato packaging exceed this, then don't worry, this temperature will work out great.

Frozen jacket potatoes like my McCain variety should be air fried with any predefined cut/split facing upwards, with no need to turn the potato over halfway.

Expect skin texture to be soft versus a freshly made air fried jacket potato, yet you may be delightfully surprised how well the soft centre tastes in the frozen selection.

Whilst I've found the best way to prepare a jacket potato is scooping out the potato to thoroughly mash the potato; any predefined cut will allow you to mash in butter with the back of a fork.

You can grate cheese into the opening of the potatoes whilst it remains positioned inside the air fryer, where additional toppings like baked beans can be air fried in a ramekins, right alongside the jacket's. Do line the air fryer basket first thing, as it will ensure any spilled melted cheese will be caught.

Prepare Jacket Potatoes

Frozen jacket potatoes do require a little preparing, but more so with the air fryer where preferably, cut-to-size parchment paper lining should be set down on the basket.

• STEP 1: Preheat: 5 Min. at 400°F / 205°C - Ensure you begin from a preheat so the cooking time is more accurate to the oven cooking instructions
• STEP 2: Line basket in Baking Paper - Potato juice can burn onto parchment paper, rather than leave a mark on your basket. In addition, any cheese will melt onto the lining which will save waste

• STEP 3: Position Jacket Potatoes in basket - Position frozen jacket potatoes side-by-side in air fryer basket
• STEP 4: Avoid rolling potatoes while closing basket - Close the drawer with care, as you don't want the potatoes to roll over, as any pre-cut opening should be facing up

NOTE: As soon as you place your frozen jacket potatoes in the air fryer and pressed 'START,' ensure you proceed with preparing additional toppings, which will overcome you when there's less then 10 minutes remaining.

How to cook 2 frozen Jacket Potatoes

Position the frozen jacket potatoes facing up if there's any predefined splits on top, with no need to turn the potatoes over any time during the course of cooking.

• STEP 1: Set temp 400°F / 205°C; time to 45 mins. - Frozen Jacket Potatoes are pre-cooked prior to freezing, which means a quick 45 minute cooking time will ensure a super soft potato centre
• STEP 2: Allow to cook for full 45 Mins. - It wouldn't hurt to allow Jacket Potatoes to air fry freely for the whole time; although you'd want to ensure the lining like parchment paper especially, remains in place

• STEP 3: Remove Jacket's; lightly Mash Potato - Take out of air fryer; cut deeper into potato with knife; add spoonful of butter; lightly mash soft potato together with fork before returning to air fryer if melting cheese
• STEP 4: Add toppings to Melt OR Heat - Air fry baked beans 10 minute prior to end time in ramekins (optional); add pile of grated Cheddar cheese to melt 1 minute until end

NOTE: Oven cooking instructions recommended 45-55 minutes, which I found 45 minutes enough for my already pre-cooked McCain jacket potatoes. Temperature featured on box was for 210°C/410°F, which exceeded my maximum air fryer temp, thus the temperature was lowered to 400°F/205°C - which was more than adequate to air fry frozen jacket's for 45 minutes.

Have your potato fillings ready

I am sure you don't intend to eat your freshly cooked air fried jacket potatoes by themselves, where butter, cheese and baked beans being an option of many toppings.

If you wish to serve freshly grated cold Cheddar with your potatoes, then I recommend you get it done with 20 minutes to go before the jacket's are finished air frying.

Similarly, and more importantly, if you plan to have baked beans or an additional serving of a canned food, like Bolognese, have them ready to heat for the time it takes them - for the final minutes of your jacket potatoes.

What you can do, is actually decanter any canned baked beans especially, into a pair of ramekins, which can cook alongside the jacket's in the air fryer for 10 minutes.

You can time it so everything is done together, whereas when melting the cheese, it can be dropped on top of the jacket potatoes for the final minute of air frying time.

Make sure your air fryer is lined in parchment paper because it will do a good job at catching melted cheese, which can be returned back over the jacket potatoes.

Summarise

I am sure, based on the oven cooking time featured on the back of my McCain box, all frozen jacket potatoes can be heated at 400°F/205°C, for 45 minutes.

Time and temperature will apply to all frozen jacket potato varieties, and where temperate asks for a higher temp - I guarantee the maximum of 400°F/205°C is more than enough to properly soften the potato centre within 45 minutes.

Frozen jacket potatoes may have a predefined cut/split on top which is the designated topside.

If this applies to you, make sure the cut-side is facing up, with no need to turn the potatoes over during the cooking stage.

When the jacket potato is done, use the back of the fork to lightly mash a little butter into the soft potato.

If you want to melt cheese on your jacket's, do so with a minute remaining on the jacket's cooking time. Baked beans can be cooked the normal way, on the stove or microwave - with an option to bake beans in ramekins in the air fryer for 10 minutes.

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