How to Make Air Fryer Hasselback Potatoes

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Cooking With Anadi

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If you want a different way to switch up your regular potato side, then you need to try Hasselback potatoes! I first saw these online at the airport on my way to my Manila trip in December 2025, and I knew I’ve really wanted to try them out! They’ve been on my bucket list for over half a year now, so I’m excited to finally share this recipe with you!

Those who have followed the blog for some time know that I love to explore a new cuisine every month. This month we’re exploring Sweden, and I honestly didn’t know that Hasselback potatoes are Swedish! That was a fantastic discovery, which led to the perfect opportunity to share this recipe now! As I mention in my brand new motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen and to make cooking more fun than ever before, the Chef’s Mindset, Hasselback potatoes really fit the bill to put your heart on a plate. When you see the ingredients for these potatoes, they appear simple, but they’re really packed with deliciousness and they’re really a great way to switch up your typical potato side!

To follow along with how we slice our potatoes and air fry them to a perfect crispiness on the outside with fluffiness inside, then be sure to watch the video! If you’re not already, I would appreciate it if you could please subscribe to my YouTube channel, and don’t forget to press the bell button so you’re notified when all of my new recipes are live! Let’s get air frying!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe!

• Easy to make: These potatoes are pretty straightforward!
• Mostly hands-off dish: You will need to exercise a certain technique to make the slits in the potatoes, then the air fryer takes care of the rest!
• Minimal ingredients: Potatoes, butter, and seasonings are really all we’ll need!
• Perfect for a crowd: You can easily make many potatoes for a crowd! However, keep in mind the size of your air fryer basket as a limitation.

Tools Needed for Air Fryer Hasselback Potatoes

• Salt crock
• Air fryer
• Pepper mill
• Cutting board
• Chef’s knife
• Olive oil dispenser
• Ramekin

Ingredients for Hasselback Potatoes

Let’s see what we’ll need for amazing hasselback potatoes in the air fryer! You can save the recipe for later and find all ingredients and their quantities by scrolling to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD or by pressing the “Jump to Recipe” button. By default, this recipe will make 3 potatoes.

• Potatoes: I’m using russet potatoes here. They can be any size you want, but I suggest the larger the better!
• Compound butter: I’m using my garlic-herb compound butter here. You can use plain butter, if desired.
• Bay leaves: We’ll be adding fresh bay leaves in the slits of the hasselback potatoes.
• Olive oil: You can spray some additional olive oil halfway through.
• Salt and pepper: To season the filling.

How to Make Hasselback Potatoes

Wash and dry the potatoes. Then use a sharp knife to slice the potatoes 75% of the way through - ensure you don't cut all the way.

Brush the olive oil or melted butter all over the outside and inside the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and then stuff a couple bay leaves between the slices of the potatoes.

Preheat the air fryer to 390 F. Place the prepared potatoes on a tray in the air fryer basket and cook for 25-30 minutes.

After about 15 minutes, pause the air fryer and add another layer of melted butter or olive oil and continue to cook until the potatoes are cooked through.

To serve, brush more molten butter and garnish with freshly chopped chives.

What to Serve With Air Fryer Hasselback Potatoes

This recipe makes 3 potatoes, which is 3 servings as a side. They are built to sit next to something roasted — a chicken, a steak, a piece of salmon — because the fanned slices give you crisp edges in the same way roast potatoes do without needing a tray of hot fat. They also hold their shape beautifully on a plate, which is why they turn up at holiday tables far more often than their effort level deserves.

One practical note the recipe does not spell out: the bay leaves tucked between the slices are there to perfume the potato as it cooks, not to be eaten. Pull them out before serving. They go in at the same time as the seasoning, and by the end of 25 to 30 minutes they will have done their work and gone dry and brittle.

For toppings, the recipe finishes with another brush of melted butter and freshly chopped chives, which is how I like them. If you want to push further, a spoonful of sour cream, crumbled bacon, or a little grated cheese pressed down into the slits for the last three or four minutes of cooking all work — just add cheese at the end rather than the start, or it burns before the potato is through.

Timing, Storage and Reheating

The air fryer runs at 390°F for 25 to 30 minutes, and the step people skip is the pause at the 15 minute mark for a second layer of melted butter or olive oil. It matters more than it sounds: by then the slices have started to fan open, so the second brush is the only chance to get fat down inside the potato rather than just over the top of it. That is the difference between crisp edges all the way through and a potato that is only crisp on its outer shell. If your potatoes are on the large side, take them to the full 30 minutes and check the centre with a knife tip before you pull them.

Leftovers keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat them back in the air fryer at 390°F for a few minutes and they crisp up almost like new — the fan shape means hot air reaches every surface a second time. Avoid the microwave, which steams the slices back together and undoes all the texture you were after.

You can also do the slicing ahead. Cut the potatoes, hold them in a bowl of cold water so the cut faces do not brown, and keep them in the fridge for a few hours. Dry them very thoroughly before the butter goes on — any water left between the slices will steam rather than crisp, and it is the one thing that reliably ruins an otherwise good batch.

Which Potatoes to Use — and Which to Skip

This recipe is written for 3 russet potatoes, and that is not an arbitrary choice. Russets are high in starch and low in moisture, which is exactly what you want: the starch is what gives you a floury, tender inside while the thin edges of each slice dry out and crisp. If you want the best potato for the job, that is it, and it is why the dish has looked the way it does since the Hasselbacken restaurant in Stockholm started serving it in the 1950s.

Yukon gold potatoes are the reasonable second choice. They are waxier, so they hold their shape well and brown beautifully, and the flesh comes out creamy rather than fluffy — a different result rather than a worse one, but do not expect that dry, floury interior. Red potatoes I would skip. They are waxy and usually too small, so the potato slices end up shallow and never really fan open, which is the whole visual point. Whichever spuds you buy, pick them medium and matched in size so they finish together, because the size of the potatoes drives everything — small ones can be done at 25 minutes while large ones need the full 30.

On the slicing itself: about 3 to 4 mm between cuts, roughly 75% of the way down, and if your knife hand is not confident yet, lay a wooden spoon or a pair of chopsticks along each side of the potato so the blade physically cannot go through. Leaving the skins on is worth doing for more than crispness — the skin is where most of a potato's fibre sits, and potatoes are a genuinely good source of potassium and vitamin C, so leaving it on gets you a better texture and a better side dish at the same time.

Herb Variations, Batch Cooking and Freezing

The 3 tablespoons of butter in this recipe are my garlic and herb compound butter, which already carries its own seasoning. If you are working with plain butter or olive oil instead, this is where to build flavor back in: finely chopped rosemary and thyme are the classic pairing with potato, both robust enough to survive 30 minutes of hot air, and a pinch of paprika stirred into the melted butter adds colour and a faint smokiness. For cheese, push it into the slits for only the last 3 or 4 minutes — cheddar gives you sharpness and crisp brown edges, mozzarella gives you the stretch but very little flavor, so a mix of the two is usually the answer. A dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of fresh chives at the table finishes it.

One real constraint worth planning around: your air fryer basket. These need enough space around each potato for air to circulate, and crowding them is the single fastest way to end up steaming rather than crisping. Three medium potatoes fit most baskets comfortably; beyond that, cook in batches and hold the finished ones in a low oven rather than trying to squeeze everything in at once.

Leftover hasselback potatoes go into the refrigerator in an airtight container and reheat in the air fryer at 390°F for 3-5 minutes, which brings the edges back properly. You can freeze them, though I would call it a compromise rather than a plan — the slices lose some of their structure on thawing. If you do, freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet first so they do not fuse together, then bag them, and reheat straight from frozen in the air fryer for closer to 8 to 10 minutes.

Enjoy!