Baked sweet potato fries! Wedges of sweet potatoes, tossed with oil, sprinkled with spices, and baked on high heat until browned and crispy at the edges. Addictive!
These. Are. So. Addictive.
And once you know how to make them, you will never have an excuse to not cook sweet potatoes again.
Those kids that won’t eat their veggies? Hah!
They’ll eat so many of these fries their skin will turn yellow from beta carotene.
Munch. Yum. Munch. Yum. I’m still eating them in my mind. I brought these over for my father to try. I think he only got to eat one or two because he was also eating the rest of his dinner, the dinner I abandoned in favor of these.
They’re really easy to make too. Just cut them into wedges or rounds, toss with some olive oil, sprinkle with spices, and bake at a high temperature until lightly browned. So good!
Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries Recipe
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 20 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 as a side dish or snack
The baking times are approximate; it depends on how thick you cut the wedges or rounds of sweet potatoes. Try to cut them evenly so they all cook at about the same rate. For best browning results bake only one sheet at a time.
For extra caramelization, sprinkle fries with a little sugar before putting in the oven.
Try swapping out half of the oil with melted butter for some extra flavor!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds orange fleshed sweet potatoes (yams), about 3 large ones
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, canola oil, or rice bran oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1-2 tablespoons spice or spice combination of your choice: chipotle powder, smoked paprika, Chinese five-spice, pumpkin pie spice, garam masala, Cajun seasoning, etc.
Method
1 Preheat oven and roasting pan: Preheat oven to 450°F. (For more crispiness, preheat your oven to 500°F.) Place a roasting pan or heavy duty baking sheet (one that can take high heat) in the oven to pre-heat.
2 Peel and cut sweet potatoes into wedges: Peel the sweet potatoes and cut off the ends. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and then, if they are very long, in half crosswise. Cut each piece into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick wedges. Alternately, you can slice the peeled sweet potato into disks either with a mandoline or a sharp knife.
3 Toss with oil, salt, spices: Put the sweet potatoes into a large bowl and add the oil. Mix well to combine. Sprinkle with salt and spices of your choice. Use your hands to mix well, so all pieces are coated with oil and spices.
4 Spread out onto pre-heated pan: Remove the pre-heated baking sheet from the oven. Carefully spread the sweet potatoes out in a single layer on the baking sheet. (Watch out, the pan is hot!)
5 Bake: Bake for a total of 15 to 25 minutes. After the first 10 minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven and use tongs to turn over all of the sweet potato pieces.
Return to the oven and bake for another 5-15 minutes, or until they are well browned.
Cooking time depends on the temperature of the oven (500F will need less cooking time than 450F) and the size and thinness of the sweet potato wedges.
The browner they are, the crispier they will be, but there is a fine line between browned and burnt beyond edibility. Even if they get really dark, they should still be good because of the natural sugars of the sweet potatoes caramelizing. So watch carefully.
Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
