Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes

Name: Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 240 min
Total time: 245 min
Ingredients: 6 large baking potatoes; 2 tablespoons rapeseed oil; 1 teaspoon sea salt

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Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes – try my easy recipe and you’re guaranteed delicious soft and fluffy spuds every time.
Yes, you can make baked potatoes in the slow cooker, it’s totally fuss free and only 5 minutes prep time. Plus, there’s no need to keep an eye on them – just wrap them in foil and leave to cook.

Perfect for busy weeknight dinners, lunch with your favourite toppings or as an easy side dish.

Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes topped with cheese, sour cream, chives and bacon.

You’ll be amazed by how good Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes are. You need only 3 ingredients, some kitchen foil and a slow cooker and you’re set to go. It’s so simple you’ll be cooking your baked potatoes in the slow cooker from now on.

I’ve been using a slow cooker for jacket potatoes for many years, starting when we lived in rural France. Our limited electricity supply meant always being aware of how much power we were using at any one time.

Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes topped with sour cream and chives.

A slow cooker was a perfect low wattage solution for cooking whilst using other appliances. Since then, and not just because it’s economical, the slow cooker has become our favourite way to cook jacket spuds.

Visitors to the Kitchen Shed were always amazed to hear I’d cooked their baked potatoes in a slow cooker. But they were even more surprised when I would serve them Slow Cooker Crispy Roast Potatoes.

Halved potatoes topped with cheese, sour cream, chives and bacon.

What Equipment do I need ?

A shallow dish for oil.
Baking foil – Squares of aluminium foil large enough in which to wrap each potato helps them to cook evenly.
6.5 litre slow cooker for 6 jacket potatoes or 3.5 litre for 4 potatoes.
Kitchen roll – you need a couple of large sheets or 4 small sheets. These will absorb condensation so it doesn’t drip down into the slow cooker pot and ‘dampen’ your potatoes. As an alternative to kitchen roll, a clean tea towel works if it’s been washed using unscented detergent. A heavily fragranced tea towel will taint your slow cooker and its contents.

What Ingredients do I need ?

Large potatoes – a variety like Maris Piper, King Edward, Wilja or Idaho give the best results. I used Maris Piper but any potatoes labelled as ‘baking potatoes’ are usually reliable too.
Rapeseed oil / Canola – you can use olive oil if you prefer.
Sea salt – adds flavour to the skin but helps draw the moisture out of the potato for fluffier results.

How to make Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes

Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes couldn’t be any easier to make.

Salt, oil, foil and potatoes ready to be prepared for baking.

Give them a good scrub and a rinse to clean off any dirt and remove any eyes.
Prick all over with a fork or skewer to allow the steam to escape when cooking.

Dipping potato into a shallow bowl of oil.

Rub the skins with a small amount of oil and then rub in a little salt.

Wrap each potato tightly in baking foil.

Place potatoes foil fold down in the bottom of the slow cooker. Keep the potatoes in a single layer. I can easily fit 6 large potatoes in a 6.5 litre slow cooker.

Potatoes wrapped in foil in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Place 2 large sheets of kitchen roll over the top of your slow cooker pot and secure in place with your lid.
Switch your slow cooker on and leave to cook – times are detailed in the recipe card.

Slow Cooker pot with an unwrapped baked spud.

Cut your potatoes in half and fluff up with a fork ready for your toppings.

Baked Potato sliced in half and insides mashed.

How to serve

Top your jacket potato with your favourite filling, here are some of our favourites.

Halved potatoes topped with butter and parsley.

Butter
Sour cream and chives
Grated cheese and crispy bacon pieces

Halved potatoes topped with cheese, sour cream and chives.

Recipe FAQs

Is it cheaper to cook jacket potatoes in an oven or a slow cooker ?

Using a slow cooker instead of an electric oven for jacket potatoes will save money on energy bills. Even though the cooking time is longer, a slow cooker still consumes considerably less energy than a traditional electric oven.

How many potatoes can you fit in a slow cooker ?

I use a 6.5 litre slow cooker and I can easily cook 6 large potatoes. A 3.5 litre capacity slow cooker will cook 4 jacket potatoes. Just make sure you have a single layer of potatoes so they cook evenly.

Do they get crispy in the slow cooker ?

Not as such – the skin is not as crispy as oven baked but not as soft as when microwave cooked. They are more like the wrapped in foil jacket potatoes you might buy from a hot potato shop. The absorbent kitchen roll placed between the lid and the slow cooker pot helps deliver a more crispy skin.
We prefer jacket potatoes in the slow cooker because you never get overcooked leathery skins. If you really do miss a crispy skin, try popping them in the oven for 10 minutes at 200 C.

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Loaded Jacket Potatoes on slate and foil wrapped potatoes in slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes

Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes – try my easy recipe and you’re guaranteed delicious soft and fluffy spuds every time.

Yes, you can make baked potatoes in the slow cooker, it's totally fuss free and only 5 minutes prep time. Plus, there’s no need to keep an eye on them – just wrap them in foil and leave to cook. Perfect for busy weeknight dinners, lunch with your favourite toppings or as an easy side dish.

5 from 55 votes

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Course: Lunch, Main, Side Dish

Cuisine: British

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 4

Total Time: 4 5

Servings:

Calories: 210kcal

Author: Sarah James

Equipment

Baking foil / aluminium foil
Slow Cooker I used a 6.5 litre slow cooker
Kitchen roll or a clean tea towel

Ingredients

6 large baking potatoes
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
1 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Scrub and rinse potatoes to remove any dirt.
Prick each potato all over with a fork or skewer.
Rub the skins with a small amount of oil and then rub in a little salt.
Wrap each potato tightly in baking foil. Place potatoes, foil fold down, in a single layer in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Place 2 large sheets of kitchen roll over the top of your slow cooker pot and secure in place with the lid. This helps to prevent water dripping down the inside of the slow cooker pot. If using a tea towel instead of kitchen paper, fold the corners back over the slow cooker lid.
Cook for 4 hours on high setting or for 8 hours on low.
Pierce a potato with a fork or a skewer to check the potatoes are cooked.
Cut your potatoes in half and fluff up with a fork before simply adding butter or your favourite topping.

Notes

Make sure you have a single layer of potatoes so they all cook evenly.
I used a 6.5 litre slow cooker and it easily accepts 6 large potatoes. A 3.5 litre capacity slow cooker will cook 4 large jacket potatoes. The cooking time will be the same regardless of the number of potatoes cooked.
Placing the foil packages fold down on the base of the slow cooker helps to protect your potatoes from overcooking.
Alternative to kitchen roll, a clean tea towel works if it’s been washed using unscented detergent. A heavily fragranced tea towel will taint your slow cooker and its contents.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

I’m sending this recipe off to a few food challenges this month:

The Slow Cooker Challenge, hosted by Janice over at Farmers Girl Kitchen.
The Family Foodies challenge created by Eat Your Veg and Bangers and Mash where the theme is Al Fresco.
Credit Crunch Munch created by Helen and Camilla, hosted this month by Linzi over at Lancashire Food.
Recipe of the Week hosted by Emily at A Mummy Too.

Jacqueline Debono

Monday 28th of August 2023

Loved these slow cooked baked potatoes. They really came our perfect and so fluffy!

Sarah James

Thanks, so pleased you enjoyed my Slow Cooker Jacket Potatoes.

Sangeetha

Absolutely loved trying out this slow cooker jacket potatoes recipe! Such a genius idea to make these fluffy and perfectly cooked spuds with minimal effort. The convenience of just wrapping them in foil and letting the slow cooker do its magic is a game-changer. These will definitely be a staple in my kitchen – a keeper recipe for sure!

Thanks Sangeetha, pleased to hear you're keeping the recipe. We love wrapping the potatoes up, just popping them in the slow cooker and leaving them to cook while we go out for a walk, Sarah.

Madelyn

Sunday 27th of August 2023

The potatoes turn out perfect inside when made like this. Topped with butter and lots of black pepper is how we love them.

That's great to hear Madelyn, we love them with butter too. Must try with lots of black pepper, Sarah.

Kristina

These turn out lovely...i have never thought to use a towel to absorb the water dripping down! This is a great idea and I will be using it for my other slow cooker recipes. Thank you!!

You're most welcome Kristina, pleased to hear your potatoes turned out well. I use a tea towel or kitchen paper in a few recipes, it does make a lot of difference to cakes and bread, Sarah.

Cathleen

No way you can make this in a slow cooker!! This is genius! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe :)

Hi Cathleen, that's the response I used to get from family and friends when I first cooked them in the slow cooker. It's always a pleasure to share my recipes, Sarah.