Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes — 🥔⏰🙏 Learn how to make soft, fluffy, tender baked potatoes with super delicious skin in your slow cooker! Use this method when you want to free up oven space for a holiday meal or when you don’t want to turn your oven on and heat up your house. Foolproof, perfect potatoes every time!
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Easy Baked Potatoes … in a Slow Cooker!
Growing up I ate so, so, so many oven-baked baked potatoes. They were my dad’s favorite food, and along with being inexpensive and easy, my mom made sure they were served extremely frequently. Although she never made baked potatoes in a slow cooker.
However there are times when slow cooking baked potatoes is advantageous. Specifically for a holiday meals when you don’t have room in the oven for potatoes.
Or when you have the luxury to plan ahead for hours and your baked potato side will be ready when the main course is ready and they can just hang out and wait in a warm slow cooker until you’re ready to serve the main.
I should note we are not actually “baking” the potatoes and instead they are being slow cooked, which essentially results in them being steamed.
The result is a soft, tender, and fluffy potato no different than you’d get with oven baking. The skin is seasoned, super flavorful, and even non-skin eaters will enjoy it!
Admittedly so, this is one of the easiest and simplest “recipes” out there! It’s not so much a recipe as it is a methodology.
Ingredients for Slow Cooked Baked Potatoes
For baked potatoes in a slow cooker, you only need the most essential of ingredients including:
- Russet potatoes
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Aluminum foil, optional but recommended
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Cook Potatoes in a Slow Cooker
Baking potatoes in a slow cooker is seriously so easy! Actually, it doesn’t get any easier or more basic!
Follow these simple steps for slow cooking baked potatoes:
- Scrub the potatoes and pat them dry.
- Pierce the potatoes with a fork.
- Drizzle or brush them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Wrap each potato tightly in foil.
- Place them in your slow cooker and slow cook them until they’re tender before serving.
How Long to Cook Potatoes in a Slow Cooker?
You can slow cook your baked potatoes on either the high or low heat setting.
On high heat: they’ll likely be done in about 4 to 5 hours.
On low heat: you’re looking at about 7 to 8 hours.
Cooking times will vary depending on the size of the potatoes. I used a medium-large size potato for this recipe. Potatoes are done when they are fork (or steak knife) tender and exhibit no signs of firmness.
Make-Ahead Instructions
After you’ve finished slow cooking your baked potatoes, you can keep them in the slow cooker on the warm setting for up to 3 hours after cooking.
This is perfect for parties or events like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or any type of holiday meal where you are trying to time your sides with the main course and if it’s a big main, such as a whole turkey, the cooking time can vary. At least you know your slow cooker baked potato side dish will be ready and can wait.
This is also nice way to enjoy the taste of oven-baked potatoes but in warmer months when you don’t want to turn on your oven and heat up your house.
Recipe FAQs
Insert a steak knife right through the foil and into center of one of the largest potatoes. If there is no resistance, they are ready! Make sure to test the biggest or nearly the biggest potato for doneness and not the smaller ones.
For slow cooker baked potatoes, because I slow cook 8 at a time, you need to have a decent-sized slow cooker. I recommend a 7 to 8-quart slow cooker, which is nearly the most common size that people own. If you have a smaller slow cooker, then I recommend reducing the number of potatoes you make.
When it comes to baked potatoes, there’s nothing quite like a Russet potato because they are a starchy potato and bake up soft, fluffy, and just perfect.
I advise using medium-large potatoes of approximately all the same size so they will all cook in a similar time frame. This isn’t a time personally when I would select a jumbo sized potato since they will take forever to cook through! If weighing them, about 1/3 to 1/2 pound each is what I recommend. 
I come from a long line of die-hard baked potato fans. When baking potatoes the traditional way in the oven, no one ever wraps them in foil in my family. Namely because foil prevents the skin from crisping up.
However, in a slow cooker whether you wrap them in foil or not, the skin won’t crisp up because you are essentially steaming the potatoes in your slow cooker. Because of the lengthy cooking time of at least 5 hours, or more, I like to wrap my slow cooker baked potatoes in foil because it keeps the interior of the potato juicier.
If you are dead set against wrapping them with foil for whatever reason, just don’t then — knowing your potatoes won’t be as moist and may seem a bit dried out.
My favorite aluminum foil of all time for any baking or cooking need is Reynold’s Nonstick Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil.
Yes! These slow cooked baked potatoes have amazing tasting skin! I strongly encourage you to eat the skin because it’s lightly oiled and perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper, thin, and tender. I know there are people who never eat potato skins but this is one time where you need to give it a try.
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Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes
Ingredients
- 8 Russet potatoes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
Instructions
- Scrub the potatoes well under cold water and pat them dry.
- Place the potatoes on a cutting board, baking sheet, or clean countertop and pierce the potatoes all over with a fork. I pierce each potato about 10 times. I would rather over than under do it to prevent one from exploding!
- Evenly drizzle the potatoes with olive oil and evenly sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use your hands to lightly massage it all in.
- I recommend wrapping each potato tightly in non-stick heavy duty aluminum foil which ensures the interiors stay moist and juicy and don't dry out, although this step is technically optional.
- Place the potatoes in a 7 to 8-quart slow cooker and cook on high for about 5 to 6 hours OR on low for about 7 to 8 hours, or until done.* (See Notes)
- Unwrap, slice, and serve as desired including by adding additional salt and pepper, butter, shredded cheese, bacon bits, sour cream, chives or however you like your potatoes.
- Extra potatoes will keep whole, sliced, or diced airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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