How to Reheat Roast Potatoes in the Air Fryer
Reheat roast potatoes in the air fryer for a quick, easy way to bring back their crisp edges and fluffy centres. The hot circulating air helps leftover roast potatoes crisp up beautifully without drying them out, making this one of the best methods for reheating them. In just a few minutes, they’re hot, crunchy, and far closer to freshly roasted potatoes than you’ll get from the microwave.
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How to Reheat Roast Potatoes in the Air Fryer
Learning how to reheat roast potatoes in the air fryer is honestly one of those kitchen discoveries that changes everything. Forget the microwave turning them sad and soggy or the oven taking forever to heat up just for leftovers. The air fryer gets them golden and crispy again in just a few minutes and they come out tasting almost better than they did the first time around. Save this guide for the day after your next roast dinner and never waste a leftover roast potato ever again. You are welcome!
Ingredients
- Leftover roast potatoes
- Olive oil spray (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer to 180°C.
- Place the leftover roast potatoes in the air fryer basket in a single layer. Don't overcrowd them.
- If the potatoes look a bit dry, give them a light spray with olive oil. This helps them crisp up again.
- Cook for 6-8 minutes, shaking the basket halfway through, until they're hot all the way through and crispy on the outside.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- The air fryer is hands-down the best way to reheat roast potatoes. It brings back that crispy exterior without drying them out or making them soggy like the microwave does.
- I use this air fryer for everything! It heats up quickly and circulates air beautifully for even crisping.
- Don't overcrowd the basket. The potatoes need space for the hot air to circulate properly. If you've got a lot of leftovers, reheat them in two batches.
- A light spray of olive oil works wonders if the potatoes are looking a bit sad and dry. It helps them crisp up and adds a bit of richness back.
- Shake the basket halfway through to ensure all sides get evenly crispy.
- If your potatoes are particularly large or dense, add an extra 2-3 minutes to the cooking time.
- The air fryer heats up fast, so there's no need to preheat for ages. A minute or two is plenty - most air fryers will tell you when they're ready.
- These are best eaten straight away while they're still hot and crispy. Reheating twice isn't recommended as the texture deteriorates.
- If you don't have an air fryer, you can reheat roast potatoes in a hot oven at 200°C for 10-15 minutes, but the air fryer is faster and crisps them up better.
What I Cook With
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 220
Serve this with
- Reheat leftovers from my Rosemary and Garlic Roast Potatoes in the air fryer to bring back those crisp edges and fluffy centres. It’s perfect when you’ve deliberately made too many for Sunday roast.
- Use this method for leftover Crispy Roast Potatoes with Lemon & Thyme. The air fryer revives the crunchy exterior beautifully while keeping the centres soft and fluffy.
- It also works brilliantly with my Roasted Brown Butter Baby Potatoes, giving the outside a fresh crispness while warming the buttery centres through without turning them soft or soggy.
The Air Fryer That Was Bought Under False Pretences
It’s Monday. Yesterday I made a beautiful batch of roast potatoes and, because I am cooking for one, I have far too many leftovers sitting in the fridge just calling out to be eaten. Nobody wants cold, waxy leftover potatoes. Cold leftover potatoes are a deeply depressing thing, and I refuse to accept them as my reality. Enter the air fryer.
Now, here’s the story behind this air fryer. I bought it because my boyfriend promised he would cook for me if I did. Has he cooked for me yet? No. But that’s okay, because now I have an air fryer, and I have wonderfully crispy reheated roast potatoes scattered with fresh thyme and sea salt flakes, and honestly I couldn’t be happier about how this has turned out. The potatoes are the win here. The potatoes have delivered on every promise made.
Winter in Adelaide is something I was not fully prepared for. It is cold. It is properly, deeply, surprisingly cold in a way that absolutely puts Scotland to shame, which is not something I ever expected to be able to say about South Australia. My house gets so cold I can see my breath some mornings, and I say this as someone who spent years in Glasgow. But that’s what the air fryer is for, warm crispy potatoes on a cold Monday, fresh thyme, sea salt, and a kitchen that smells like something good is happening.
Finding Peace in Adelaide
Living in Adelaide is honestly one of the better decisions I’ve made. It’s peaceful and serene in a way I didn’t quite expect, and it makes me that little bit less homesick for Scotland and the UK, which is saying something because that particular homesickness is a persistent and stubborn thing. I feel like I’m truly finding myself here. Finding my pace, my rhythm, my version of what a good life looks like. There’s something about this city that has that effect on people, or at least it’s had that effect on me.
There are things that happen, difficult things, what feels like bad luck arriving with a depressing clockwork regularity every three months or so. But I’m learning to persevere through it, to grow stronger in the spaces it leaves behind, to come out the other side a better and more resilient version of myself. That’s the work, isn’t it. Not the absence of difficulty but what you build from it.
I do miss having a cat running around the house. That particular absence is felt. It’s something I’m thinking about, but I’m not quite ready for yet, and I’m giving myself the grace to not be ready. For now I have the air fryer and the potatoes and a very good winter coat, and that’s enough.
Adelaide Winters and Why Brisbane Could Never
I am genuinely enjoying this Adelaide winter, which surprises me every time I think about it. The fireplaces in the pubs, the excuse to dress in big fluffy coats and cute hats and proper boots, the kind of cold that makes a warm meal feel like a genuine act of comfort rather than just dinner. There is a particular pleasure in being cold enough to need warming up, and Adelaide does cold in a way that feels cosy rather than brutal. Most of the time.
Brisbane could never do this. Brisbane winters are lovely in their own way, don’t get me wrong, but there’s no fireplace in a Brisbane pub, no boots season that actually requires boots, no bone-deep cold that makes you grateful for a hot plate of potatoes. Adelaide gives you the seasons, properly, and I didn’t realise how much I’d missed actual seasons until I had them back.
So here I am on a Monday, reheating yesterday’s roast potatoes in an air fryer that was purchased on the basis of a cooking promise that has not yet been fulfilled, in a house that is cold enough to see my breath, in a city I have come to genuinely love. The potatoes are crispy, the thyme is fragrant, the sea salt is doing exactly what sea salt should do. It’s a good Monday, all things considered.
How to Do It
The method couldn’t be simpler. Take your leftover roast potatoes straight from the fridge, give them a light spray of olive oil, and put them in the air fryer at a high heat for eight to ten minutes, turning halfway. The olive oil spray is what gets you back to that crispy exterior rather than just warmed-through softness. Don’t crowd the basket, give them space so the hot air can circulate properly around each potato.
Fresh thyme scattered over before they go in adds a fragrance that makes the whole thing feel intentional rather than just leftover management. Sea salt flakes at the end, never before, because salt draws out moisture and you want everything to be as crispy as possible before it goes on.
That’s genuinely all there is to it. Leftovers that taste better than the original, in under ten minutes, with almost no effort. The air fryer, for all that it was purchased under slightly questionable circumstances, has absolutely earned its place on my bench.
Ingredient breakdown
Leftover roast potatoes
The whole point of this post, and honestly the reason air fryers were invented. Any roast potato works here regardless of how they were originally cooked, whether that’s the crispy lemon thyme variety, classic smashed potatoes, or whatever came out of the oven on Sunday. The main thing to keep in mind is that they need to go into the basket in a single layer with enough space around each piece for the hot air to circulate properly. Overcrowd the basket and you’ll get steamed, soggy potatoes rather than the crispy revival you’re after. If you’ve got a lot of leftovers, do them in two batches rather than cramming them all in at once.
Olive oil spray
Optional but worth having on hand. Roast potatoes that have been sitting in the fridge overnight tend to look a bit sad and dry, and a light spray of olive oil before they go into the air fryer helps them crisp back up and adds a little richness back into the surface. Don’t drench them, just a light spray is all they need. If you don’t have an oil spray, a very small drizzle of olive oil tossed through before reheating works just as well.
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