Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes couldn't be easier! Just a couple of minutes of prep time and a few hours in the slow cooker and you have yourself soft and fluffy potatoes that are ready to be loaded with your favourite toppings. A fuss free family favourite, these are delicious, seriously fool proof and total comfort food.
Whether you called them baked potatoes, or jacket potatoes, we all know them as being cooked in the oven for hours and heating up the whole kitchen. It's SO much easier to cook jacket potatoes in the slow cooker.
Very little prep time, a slow cooker jacket potato is cheaper than cooking in the oven and you still get the light and fluffy centres. The best thing is, you can put them on and then head out and leave them cooking. We love coming back to these slow cooked jacket potatoes after a long walk.
For some more jacket potato recipes, take a look at our quick Microwave Jacket Potato or our easy Air Fryer Jacket Potato.
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Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes Ingredients and Substitutions
A full ingredients list, along with US Customary and Metric measurements, can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Potatoes - You can basically use any potatoes you have, making this a great budget friendly meal. But we find that starchy potatoes work best to get light and fluffy potatoes.
- Oil - We used olive oil. However, add some extra flavour with infused oil like garlic or chilli oil.
- Seasoning - Keep these slow cooker jacket potatoes simple with sea salt and black pepper, or add a little paprika and cayenne for smokiness.
Variations
We have kept it simple and just seasoned these slow cooker jacket potatoes with sea salt and black pepper. However, there is no reason why you couldn't go a bit crazy with the seasoning.
Why not sprinkle a little smoked paprika or cayenne over them? You could also give them an Italian flavour boost with some dried oregano and basil rubbed over them.
You could also add flavour with the oil you use. Why not use an infused oil like garlic oil or chilli oil?
You can also use this method to cook sweet potatoes in the slow cooker, but this will cook quicker and only take 6 hours on low or 3 hours on high.
How To Make Jacket Potatoes in The Slow Cooker - Step By Step
- Step 1: Wash and dry the potatoes and then rub them with oil, salt and pepper. Individually wrap them in foil.
- Step 2: Put them in the slow cooker and cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours.
What Potatoes To Use For Jacket Potatoes
Whilst you could use any potatoes for this jacket potatoes in the slow cooker recipe, making it great for a budget friendly meal where you use whatever you have, certain potatoes will give you the perfect slow cooker baked potato.
We find that King Edwards, Russets and Desiree potatoes are the best. Firstly, their skin doesn't hold moisture very well, and Russet skin is nice and thick, so they get nice and crispy. Whilst slow cooker jacket potatoes don't get as crispy as they would in the oven, using this potatoes will help them to crisp up.
Also, these variety of potatoes have a higher starch content, which means that they get nice and soft and fluffy on the inside, especially when they are cooked low and slow like this.
Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes Toppings
We went with the classic topping of sour cream, cheese, bacon and chives. Some spring onions would add some nice crunch too. But there are so many options!
Why not check out our post on 10 Healthy Baked Potato Toppings? Also, all of the following would be delicious on a slow cooker baked potato:
- Chili con Carne
- Slow Cooker Bolognese
- Turkey Chilli
- Lentil Bolognese
- Bean Chilli
- Mushroom Bolognese
- Slow Cooker Baked Beans
Extra Tips
- When the potatoes have been washed, used kitchen paper to wipe them dry.
- When putting your foil wrapped potatoes in the slow cooker, the part that has the extra foil bunched up should be the part that touches the bottom of the slow cooker. This will help them not to burn.
- Make sure that the slow cooker isn't overcrowded. The potatoes shouldn't be laying on top of each other, and each potato should be touching the bottom of the slow cooker bowl - this helps them to get crispy.
- If you do want to give your potatoes a little extra browning/crispiness, then turn them over half way through cooking. This isn't essential though. You can also skip the wrapping in foil step, and lay them on a couple of pieces of baking paper in the slow cooker.
Frequently Asked Questions
They are the same thing. In the UK, we call them jacket potatoes, simply because they are potatoes with the skin left on, like a jacket. But, they are still potatoes that have been baked.
Sadly, no. That's the one downside to this recipe. You will get parts of the potato that have little crispy bits, but you don't get that all over crunch that you would from baking them in the oven. But, the positives of this recipe far out weight that small negative. If you did want to have a crispy skin, you could always put them in the oven for 20 minutes to crisp up or in the air fryer for 5 minutes. But, we honestly didn't miss the crispy skin. Also, see our extra tips below for getting crispier potatoes.
Yes, the size of the potato makes a difference when it comes to cooking time and them all cooking evenly. We used large potatoes that were about 350g each. At this size, they take 5 hours on high to cook, or 8 hours on low. If you use smaller potatoes, then you could probably get away with just cooking them on high for 4 hours. Don't worry too much about the cook time of these, as you can't overcook them - slow cookers are really forgiving that way. Having evenly sized potatoes means they will all be cooked at the same time too.
No, you don't have to add oil. We find that it adds flavour and helps to brown the skin, but you could leave it off. This would change the nutritional information.
Yes, if you have too many potatoes cooked, then you can store the leftovers in the fridge of freezer. Wrap them in foil and they will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days and up to 3 months in the freezer. Defrost thoroughly in the fridge for 24 hours and then heat them up in the oven.
More Potato Recipes
If you’ve tried these slow cooker jacket potatoes, let us know how you got on in the comments below.
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Recipe
Easy Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 Potato - (about 350g/12oz each)
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- Sea salt and ground black pepper - to taste
Instructions
- Wash and dry the potatoes and then rub them with oil, salt and pepper. Individually wrap them in foil.
- Put them in the slow cooker and cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours.
Recipe Tips
- When the potatoes have been washed, used kitchen paper to wipe them dry.
- When putting your foil wrapped potatoes in the slow cooker, the part that has the extra foil bunched up should be the part that touches the bottom of the slow cooker. This will help them not to burn.
- Make sure that the slow cooker isn't overcrowded. The potatoes shouldn't be laying on top of each other, and each potato should be touching the bottom of the slow cooker bowl - this helps them to get crispy.
- If you do want to give your potatoes a little extra browning/crispiness, then turn them over half way through cooking. This isn't essential though. You can also skip the wrapping in foil step, and lay them on a couple of pieces of baking paper in the slow cooker.
Nutritional Information
The nutritional information provided is approximate and is calculated using online tools. Information can vary depending on various factors, but we have endeavoured to be as accurate as possible.
As all appliances vary, cooking times are a guide. Please note that by changing the serving size, the cooking time may also need to be altered.
Michelle says
I have never heard the term jacket potatoes, but this is a great method to make baked potatoes without them drying out
Tricia says
Jacket potatoes is a British term for potatoes cooked with the skin still on
Michelle says
I had no idea you could make these in the slow cooker! Will definitely be making it this way all the time.
Tara says
What a fun potato recipe for the slow cooker! I love the minimal prep. They look so good with the bacon and cheese on top.