The classic English cheese and potato pie made in the air fryer! This smooth, creamy and incredibly cheesy mashed potato bake is the ultimate comfort food which can be a main or side dish. It’s easy to make a small batch in your air fryer, where you can get a delightfully crispy topping extra quickly!
Let’s make a small batch potato pie in the air fryer!
Cheese and potato pie is a humble English comfort food classic, but for the uninitiated, it is essentially a big tray of mashed potatoes with onions, lots of cheese, and a crispy cheesy topping. Sometimes there are other things in there such as garlic, a tomato topping, different regional cheeses, etc. Sometimes it’s really as simple as mashed potatoes with cheesy crust. Any which way, I am a FAN of this concept.
I actually have a recipe for an oven baked potato pie already, which uses three different cheeses and sets out to create my own optimal version of this concept. But today’s recipe for the air fryer version is a simpler and more adaptable base recipe for the air fryer. So whether you’re replicating your own childhood favorite and have strong ideas about how you want to it to be, or whether you’ve never had the British version and just want some cheesy potatoes for a side dish, this can be your springboard.
Method Sneak Peek…
This is as simple as mashing some potatoes, air frying some onions, mixing them together, adding a crispy topping, and letting your air fryer do its thing.
Options: You can boil or air fry the potatoes depending on what suits you
I personally boil my potatoes on the stove, so this recipe as written is not 100% air fryer based. But if you’d rather, you could instead bake the potatoes in the air fryer:
- Poke each potato a few times with a knife, wrap them all together in one big piece of foil, then bake at 200C / 400F until they are tender (this might be anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on their size).
- Once they’ve slightly cooled down, you can peel the skins away and mash them in a bowl before proceeding with the recipe.
Baking your potatoes whole in the air fryer is a slower process than boiling chopped potatoes, so you will need a lot more time to do it this way. You may also want a little extra cream or milk because your potatoes will be drier to start with.
What You Need
- An air fryer, no surprises there! I tested this in an Instant Vortex of fairly average size.
- This recipe is made for a deep 8 inch / 20 centimetre cake pan or pie dish which will fit in most medium air fryers- this is the one I used. If yours will not fit this size of pan, you could split it into smaller individual dishes (in which case you may want to reduce the cook time).
- When you are placing dishes into air fryer baskets, my recommendation is to place them on top of a silicone mat just to stop the nonstick being scratched. (These are fairly cheap to pick up on Amazon UK or Amazon US)
- I also recommended silicone pot holders for lifting the pans in and out – it can be a tight squeeze! (These are also fairly cheap to pick up on Amazon UK or Amazon US)
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Choosing your potatoes: floury potatoes work best here, but really, I know you might be here because you have potatoes in the fridge you’re looking to use up, so don’t worry about it too much. Textures can vary a little but any potato will work.
- Choosing your cheese: You want the strongest cheddar you can throw at this for a really nice, deep cheesy flavor. If yours is on the milder side, definitely sense check the salt levels to make sure it doesn’t come out too bland. You can also play around with different cheeses, mix them up, or use up what is in your fridge.
- A little dijon mustard also helps to enhance the cheesy flavor.
- To onion or not to onion: This is optional, but some air fried onion adds a lot of flavor and texture to dish. You can certainly make it without if you’re looking for something simpler and smoother. I don’t add any garlic here, but you certainly could. (You would add minced garlic in the last minute of the onion cook time)
- Cream or milk are the more usual English way to add creaminess, but sour cream would also work if you like the more tangy flavor in your potatoes. This would be a more familiar flavor to American tastebuds, and I would definitely consider sour cream if your cheese is on the milder side.
Serving Suggestions
If you want to serve this as a main dish, these recipes would be excellent accompaniments:
- Simple frozen peas and corn, or a vegetable mix.
- A fried egg.
- Air Fryer Broccoli Parmesan or Air Fryer Asparagus with Cheese & Truffle Oil (you can cook this after cooking the pie – it will be fine to sit out for a while and wait for the broccoli to be ready)
- If you’ve got the capacity to make something like this Sauteed Kale Salad or a no-cook Chickpea Salad with Avocado, Mozzarella & Tomato – you will be glad you did! The contrast between a vibrant crispy salad with a tangy dressing and this creamy carby pie is quite lovely. Not the most traditional way to serve potato pie, but a cafe I used to visit in London always served their potato pies with epic side salads and it was a delight.
Air Fryer Cheese & Potato Bake
Ingredients
- 40 g (3 tbsp) salted butter
- 1 small – medium onion, brown, white or red are all fine
- 700 g (1.5 lb) potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 200 g (1 ¾ cups) mature cheddar cheese
- 90 ml (â…“ cup) double cream, milk or sour cream will swap in fine
- ½ tsp dijon mustard
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Boil the chopped potatoes until tender, about 15 minutes.
- Preheat the air fryer to 160C (320F).
- Add your diced onions to an 8 inch (20cm) cake pan or pie dish. Toss with a little olive oil until they are all well coated. Place the dish in the air fryer for 12-15 minutes, until the onions are browned. Check in around the halfway mark to give the onions a stir.
- Once the potatoes are boiled, drain and return the saucepan. Mash, whip or run through a potato ricer until smooth, Mix in the butter, cream, mustard and around 2/3 of the cheese (reserving the rest for topping). Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the onions into the potato mixture and stir through.
- Spoon the potatoes into the pie dish that the onions cooked in. Add the remaining cheese on top. Press down on the cheese to get it as stuck to the potato as you can – this will help to stop it from flying around when the air fryer fans are going.
- Place in the air fryer for 20 minutes (still at 160F / 320F) or until the top is crispy and golden.
- Serve.
Notes
- Poke each potato a few times with a knife, wrap them all together in one big piece of foil, then bake at 200C / 400F until they are tender (this might be anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on their size).
- Once cooled, you can peel the skins away and mash them in a bowl before proceeding with the recipe.