The earthy skin on a jacket potato makes such a simple food so tasty.
With the right approach, potatoes can turn crunchy and crisp, but they remain moist and rubbery if cooked too quickly, like in a microwave.
Jamie Oliver has shared his expert approach, combining rapid cooking with the texture most home cooks envy.
He claimed that his crispy jacket potato skins are “super easy” to master by forgetting everything you think you know about cooking them.
Swap your microwave or oven, or both if you prefer a dual-step approach, for one appliance: an air fryer.
Jamie’s approach goes one step further than modern air-frying techniques. He suggests scooping out the insides of the potatoes part-way through cooking to ensure the inside remains delicious and fluffy.
Regarding ingredients, the esteemed chef opts for a simple combination of sea salt and olive oil to ensure the skin really crisps up while it cooks.
The recipe calls for goat’s cheese, spinach, pepper, parmesan and pesto to infuse the potato filling, but you can keep it simple with some butter and cheese if you prefer.
Air fryer jacket potatoes
Ingredients
Two baking potatoes (250g each)
Olive oil
Salt
For the filling (optional)
One long red pepper
160g frozen leaf spinach
60g crumbly goat’s cheese
Two heaped tsp pesto
Parmesan for grating (optional)
Method
First, remove the spinach from the freezer and put it on a plate to defrost if you are following Jamie’s serving suggestion. Alternatively, jump straight to preparing the potatoes.
Wash and dry your potatoes. Then, use a sharp knife to prick each one a few times. Rub them with one teaspoon of olive oil and sea salt flakes.
Place the prepared spuds in an air fryer in a single layer at 180C for 40 minutes or until soft, turning them over after 20 minutes have passed.
If you wish to serve the potatoes in the filling, add pepper to the air fryer for the final 10 minutes of cooking.
After 40 minutes in the air fryer, place the potatoes (and pepper) on a chopping board and leave them to cool slightly.
Carefully peel off and discard the pepper skin when it’s cool enough to handle, then halve the flesh lengthways, scrape it out, and discard the seeds. Add to a mixing bowl and chop.
Squeeze the excess water from the spinach, then roughly chop it and add it to the pepper. Crumble in the goat’s cheese and stir in the pesto.
Now halve the baked potatoes horizontally, then use a spoon to scoop out the fluffy insides into the bowl, leaving around half a centimetre of potato around the edges so the baked potato keeps its shape.
If you prefer a plain filling, add the potato insides to a bowl along with a knob of butter, some salt and pepper, and a sprinkling of cheese. Mix, gently mashing the potato as you go.
Spoon the potato mixture back into the empty skins, then grate over a little Parmesan.
Return the stuffed potato skins to the air fryer basket and cook at 180C for 10 minutes to crisp up the potato skin edges and melt the cheese on top.