3-Ingredient Air Fryer Ranch Potatoes Recipe

Air fryers are miracle workers in the kitchen. They make a difficult recipe easy and a not-so-healthy deep-fried food taste better and be better for you. Mom of three boys Laura Sampson is always looking for recipes that taste fantastic and fill up those big eaters she's constantly feeding. This recipe developer also loves to take old-fashioned dishes and make them new again from her home in Alaska. In the olden days, people would boil potatoes and eat them soft or mashed. But Sampson has taken the staple and given them a twist using modern technology.

Her three-ingredient air fryer ranch potatoes recipe makes the absolute easiest and tastiest side dish or stand-alone snack. Even better than the fact this delicious food takes just three ingredients is that it requires only 5 minutes of prep time and 12 minutes of cook time. In fact, you just might have these ingredients on hand already. Be prepared to be bowled over by this amazing air fryer recipe.

All you need for this awesome three-ingredient air fryer ranch potatoes recipe is a pound of baby red potatoes, two tablespoons of olive oil, and one and a half tablespoons of powdered ranch dressing mix. Sampson said any type of small red potatoes will work, and they do not necessarily have to be organic. If you can't find red potatoes at your local grocery store, you can use any other type of small potato.

"I like red, but yellow are delicious, and the mixes are fun," she said. For this type of recipe, Sampson recommends using a light olive oil. You can double the recipe, but add five more minutes for baking and shake them twice during the proess.

The tangy and delicious flavor in Sampson's three-ingredient air fryer ranch potatoes recipe comes from the ranch dressing mix. She prefers to use Hidden Valley Ranch powdered mix in the packet for this recipe, but she said any ranch powder mix would work. "I think even homemade would work," she said.

There are a ton of different brands that sell ranch dressing mix, so look around at your local grocery store to see what you can find. There is also a massive selection of different ranch dressing mix brands available online. And if you want to change things up, don't be afraid to add extra spices you already have in your cabinet.

First preheat your air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes. In the meantime, scrub and then dry one pound of baby red potatoes or whatever type of potatoes you've selected for this recipe. According to Idaho Potato it's best to wait until the very last minute to wash potatoes and skip using a bacterial soap or veggie wash. The best way to clean potatoes is to place them in a clean sink or basin then run water over them. Most of the dirt will rinse off right away. When scrubbing the potatoes, don't scrub too hard because the skin can easily be rubbed off.

Once the potatoes are clean, set them in a bowl and toss with two tablespoons of olive oil. Be sure to coat them completely, and don't leave any spots bare. If you need to, add a bit of extra olive oil to ensure full coverage.

Then, sprinkle one and a half tablespoons of ranch dressing mix over the potatoes, and toss again to coat the taters. Once the air fryer is hot, dump the potatoes into the basket. Set it to 380 degrees Fahrenheit, and cook them for 12 minutes. At the six-minute mark, shake the basket of taters. Sampson said to check with the manufacturer's directions for your specific air fryer, but to safely shake up the food, slide the drawer out and give the basket a gentle shake.

"If you're not comfortable shaking, you can use a wooden spoon or tongs to move the potatoes around," she said.

After 12 minutes have passed, check the potatoes to see if they're done. Do this by poking them with a fork, Sampson explains. "If they're soft and the fork slides in, they're done," she says.

If they aren't yet done, slide the basket back in and cook for another three minutes. Serve them while still hot as a side or a snack.

"These are fabulous as leftovers if you're lucky enough to have them. I like to serve the potatoes as a side dish, but my kids would eat them as a snack. These air fryer potatoes are the best kind of roasted potatoes: crispy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. And the flavor is sheer perfection," Sampson says.