Roast potatoes are a staple at Christmas (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Cooking Christmas dinner is no mean feat and involves juggling a multitude of tasks at once, while somehow managing not to burn anything.
Fitting everything in the oven also isn’t the easiest of jobs, so it can be handy to have alternative ways to cook your side dishes, and one of the best tricks is to utilise an air fryer.
The kitchen gadget has been having a moment of late, and it seems you can put just about anything in there and it’ll taste great. But if you only use it for one thing this Christmas, a chef recommends it for making the crispiest roast potatoes.
Poppy O’Toole, who is known on social media as ‘the potato queen’, has spoken to Metro.co.uk about her favourite carb and shared her top tips for cooking in an air fryer.
Her biggest tip is not to overfill your air fryer with potatoes and to ensure you coat them in a spray of oil, or some other kind of fat.
Which oil makes the best roast potatoes?
When it comes to making roasties, everyone will have their own preference for how they cook them. Whether they make them in the oven or air fryer and what type of fat they put in the pan, etc.
And while you can use any oil or fat when making yours, it can sometimes be tricky to know which is best. If you want to cook yours like the pros, then you might consider using one of these oils on your potatoes…
According to Jamie Oliver, olive oil is the best one to opt for.
‘You want to use an oil with a mild flavour for your roasties. We prefer olive oil, but you can opt for vegetable, canola or grapeseed oils instead,’ the chef said.
However, celebrity chef Tom Kerridge prefers to use vegetable oil on his roast potatoes as it’s ‘clean’ and ‘works just fine’.
But if you’d rather use a fat instead of an oil, then Marry Berry says goose fat is the superior choice as it makes ‘all the difference’ to the flavour.
Gordon Ramsay is also a fan of goose fat, as per the Gordon Ramsay Restaurants website. But recommends olive oil if you don’t have any.
She said: ‘Air fryers use hot air circulation to cook food but if it’s all layered and squashed together, you’ll be left with undercooked and steamed food, which is not ideal if you’re after a batch of golden and crispy potatoes.
‘Another piece of advice is to re-evaluate cooking times, the air fryer is an incredibly energy efficient piece of kitchen equipment that reduces cooking times. It will normally come with a handy table of cooking times and temperatures for common foods but check online if you are unsure. You don’t want you to accidentally burn your festive feasts!’
The expert, who has recently published an air fryer cookbook, continued to say: ‘It’s really useful to coat whatever you’re cooking (be it meat, veg etc) in a spray of oil or some sort of fat so it cooks more evenly and gives you a better overall colour. Whilst cooking, it’s also important to give everything a toss mid-way through so you avoid any underdone bits!
‘And if you’re unsure about just how powerful your air fryer is, test out a simple recipe like homemade chips so you can gauge your timings and heat settings. Some air fryers are particularly ferocious and the recipes need adjusting slightly to avoid any burning!’
Your air fryer could be a godsend when cooking Christmas dinner (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
How to make deliciously crispy roast potatoes in the air fryer
In order to make Poppy’s golden and crispy roast potatoes (which serve 2-4 people), you’ll need just three ingredients and the whole process is broken down into four simple and speedy steps.
She claims the key to the best roastie is to ensure you’re using the ‘right’ potato, which needs to be a ‘starchy’ one, such as a Maris Piper. This is because they’re going to ‘give the most punch and the most fluffiness in the middle’.
The chef also urges you to think carefully about how you cut up your potatoes when preparing them, as the more edges you have on them, the crispier they will become as they cook.
Ingredients:
4 Maris Piper, Russet or red skin potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of fine salt
Instructions:
Heat the air fryer to 160ºC/325ºF
In a mixing bowl, toss the potatoes in the oil and salt, and tip them into the air fryer basket.
Cook for 30 minutes, giving them a proper aggressive toss every 10 minutes, and even poke them with a fork if you want to fluff up the insides further.
Increase the heat to 200ºC/400ºF and cook for a further 6 minutes, until golden and crispy.
Mary Berry’s ‘secret’ for perfect roast potatoes
Culinary goddess Mary Berry also has a wonderful recipe for making roast potatoes if you’d prefer to cook them in the oven.
Her method, shared on her website, also offers tips to save some time on Christmas day, by preparing and cooking the potatoes ahead of time on Christmas Eve, so they are slightly under done. To do this roast for only 20-30 minutes until pale gold, remove excess fat and store in a cool place overnight.
You can then ‘re-roast’ them for another 30 minutes on the big day, so they won’t take as long.
She also claims goose fat is the secret to getting the best flavour for your roast potatoes, but warns that a little goes a long way.
‘Goose fat is available at Christmas time from good supermarkets and makes all the difference to the flavour of roast potatoes,’ Mary explains. ‘Don;t use too much, though, as this will simply make the potatoes go soggy.’
Here’s what you’ll need:
1.4kg of potatoes, such as désirée, king edward or maris piper, peeled
3-4 tablespoons of goose fat
salt
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7
Cut the potatoes into even-sized pieces and put in a large pan. Cover with cold water, add a little salt and bring to the boil. Parboil for about five minutes then drain well in a colander and shake to fluff up the edges.
Heat up the goose fat in a large roasting tin in the preheated oven until piping hot. Add the potatoes to the fat, spooning the fat over the potatoes to completely coat. Shake the tin to prevent sticking.
Roast for about an hour depending on size, turning the potatoes from time to time until golden and crisp. Sprinkle with salt just before serving.
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Roast potatoes are the best part of Christmas dinner.
