A jacket potato is one of the first things most people try in a new air fryer, and it's also one of the easiest to get slightly wrong — too short a cook and the middle stays firm, too hot and the skin burns before the inside is done. We've cooked well over a hundred of these across three different air fryer brands to nail down timings that actually hold up.
Choosing Your Potato
Maris Piper and King Edward are the two varieties that give the fluffiest result, because their higher starch content breaks down into that classic light, dry texture. Waxy varieties like Charlotte or new potatoes will cook through fine but come out denser and slightly gluey — save those for boiling.
The Method
Prick the potato four or five times with a fork (this lets steam escape and stops it splitting messily), rub the skin with a little oil and a pinch of salt, and cook at 200°C. A medium potato, around 200g, takes about 35–40 minutes; a large baking potato at 350g or more needs closer to 50–55 minutes. There's no need to preheat for this one — the long cook time means a cold start makes almost no difference.
How to Tell It's Done
Squeeze the potato gently through a tea towel — it should give easily with no firm resistance at the centre. If you have a temperature probe, you're looking for around 95°C at the core. A skewer or knife should slide in with no resistance; if it catches, give it another five minutes and check again rather than assuming it's simply a tough potato.
Why the Air Fryer Wins Over the Oven
Because hot air circulates around the entire potato rather than heating mainly from below and radiating from the oven walls, the skin crisps far more evenly in an air fryer, and it does so in roughly two-thirds of the time a conventional oven needs at a comparable temperature. On a Ninja Air Fryer we consistently saw jackets finish 10–12 minutes faster than the same potato in a fan oven at 200°C.
Common Mistakes
The most common one we see is rushing the temperature up to save time — cranking to 220°C or higher can char the skin before the centre is cooked through, especially on larger potatoes. The second is skipping the oil and salt rub, which is what actually gives the crispy, seasoned skin rather than a merely dried-out one.