Cooking with Colm O'Gorman: Fully loaded air fryer potato wedges with easy chilli 

Making great chips or potato wedges in an air fryer is simple 

This is my favourite kind of comfort food

This week I want to show you how to cook an air fryer staple — great chips or potato wedges. I will also give you my recipe for an amazing beef chilli, which is perfect for making loaded chips.

This is the ultimate plate of comfort food; golden crispy chips, or in this case wedges, topped with my fabulous chilli, smoked crispy bacon, vintage Cheddar, pickled chillies, chopped spring onion and coriander and served with garlic mayonnaise. You might also want to have ketchup or sriracha with this. Basically, load up these wedges with the chilli and whatever toppings you fancy.

Making great chips in an air fryer is easy. Simply peel some Maris Piper or rooster potatoes and cut them into chips. Now blanch them in boiling water for just two minutes. Drain the chips and let any excess liquid steam off. Put then chips back in the pan and drizzle them with a tablespoon of olive oil. If you have some fine polenta, add a tablespoon or so of that with the oil and toss the chips to get them nicely coated. This will make your chips even more crispy.

Put the chips into the basket of your air fryer and cook them at 200 Celsius until they are crisp and golden, about twenty-five minutes should do it, though this will depend upon the type of air fryer you use. Some have baskets that rotate, some have static baskets, and others have shelves. If you have a fryer with a static basket, toss the chips 15 minutes into their cooking time to ensure they are evenly cooked. It is that simple, lovely home-cooked chips, crisp and golden and much healthier and less messy than deep-fried chips.

You could make loaded chips if you wish using my chilli recipe and suggested toppings.

However, I love to make outsized potato wedges and load them up. The wedges are crisp and golden, but still soft and fluffy inside, perfect as the base for all these delicious toppings. My chilli recipe makes about eight servings, much more than you need to feed four people. I always make up this quantity though as it stores beautifully and tastes even better the day after you first make it. It also freezes well so it is perfect for batch cooking.

Fully loaded Air Fryer Potato Wedges with Easy Chilli

recipe by:Colm O'Gorman

Golden crispy chips wedges, topped with my fabulous chilli, smoked crispy bacon, vintage Cheddar, pickled jalapeno chillies, chopped spring onion and coriander and served with garlic mayonnaise

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 10 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the wedges:

• 4 medium-sized Maris Piper potatoes

• A splash of olive oil

• For the chilli:

• 2 medium onions

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1 tbsp ground cumin

• 2 tsp chilli flakes

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 1 tbsp tomato purée

• 400g lean beef mince

• 2 tins cherry or chopped tomatoes

• 2 tins black beans

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

• 2 tbsp dark brown sugar

• Suggested toppings:

• A few slices of smoked streaky bacon per person

• Grated vintage Cheddar

• Chopped spring onions

• Pickled jalapeno peppers

• Garlic mayonnaise

• Chopped coriander

Method

1. Chop and sauté the onions over a medium heat in a little olive oil until translucent and just turning slightly brown. This will sweeten and deepen the flavour of the dish. Crush in the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the cumin, cinnamon and chilli flakes. Stir them in well and cook for another two minutes. Add the tomato paste, stir well, cook for another minute.

2. Add the beef, keep stirring to break it up and brown the meat. This will take about five minutes. Now add the tomatoes. Drain and rinse the beans and add them to the pan as well. I use black beans in my chilli and I find they hold their shape better than kidney beans, but either will work well. Season with the salt and a good grind of black pepper. Add the cocoa powder and brown sugar and stir both in well.

3. Bring the pot to a slow boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer and cover the pan. Let the chilli simmer away for anything from forty-five minutes to an hour while you make your wedges.

4. Wash the potatoes and cut lengthways to open the skin a little. This will ensure the potatoes do not burst open in the microwave, so do not skip this step. Cook on full power for about twenty minutes until they are just cooked though. While the potatoes are in the microwave, cook some streaky bacon in your air fryer at 200°C until it is crisp, this will only take about five minutes. When it is done, set it aside. 

5. When the potatoes are baked, cut them into nice big wedges with the skin still on, I usually go for quarters or thirds depending upon the size of the potatoes. Put a tablespoon of olive oil into a large bowl, add some of the wedges and gently mix them to coat them in the oil. Do this in a few batches so that you can take care not to break up the potato wedges, it will only take a few minutes in all.

6. Place the wedges in the basket or on the trays of your air fryer and cook them at 200°C for about twenty-five minutes until they are golden brown and crispy. While they are cooking, prepare the rest of your toppings. Grate some cheddar, chop the cooked bacon, the spring onions, and some fresh coriander. You can mix up some garlic mayonnaise if you do not have any to hand by grating a clove of garlic into 200g of mayonnaise. Add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the mayonnaise and whisk to combine.

7. When your wedges are done, divide them between four plates. Spoon over a generous amount of the beef chilli and sprinkle over some grated Cheddar, the bacon, spring onions, jalapenos, and coriander. Serve with the garlic mayonnaise on the side and whatever other sauces you fancy.