Healthier Crispier “Baked” Sweet Potato Fries
Who doesn’t love crispy fries? These homemade sweet potato fries are a lighter, healthier version of potatoes cooked in oil. They taste so much better than those store-bought sweet potato sticks. Along with great flavor, they also offer extra nutrition: sweet potatoes are high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
For this recipe you have your choice of spices, toppings, and dipping sauce (including plain old ketchup). This recipe includes two versions: a spicy one with cayenne and a “dessert” with cinnamon and sugar. Surprisingly, both the savory and sweet fries are delicious with the chipotle dipping sauce that my son—who LOVES hot dishes—asked me to prepare.
I am always searching for new ways to make food taste excellent while maintaining the purity and health that it naturally contains. These baked sweet potato fries give you the crispy outside and soft inside texture that we all look for. I usually make three times the recipe, but inevitably, there are still not enough fries! They fly off the table, usually before we even sit down to eat.
One of my favorite ways to serve these fries is to place a great big pile of them underneath a slice of venison loin or a cut of organic beef. You have never tasted anything quite this good. Plan on making it this weekend and get double the ingredients because you will want to make it again!
What’s the secret to crispy fries?
The best sweet potato fries are crunchy and golden brown on the outside and tender on the inside. Some people use a cornstarch coating to make crispy fries, but I find it’s not necessary if you do these two things.
- One of the tricks for crispy perfection is to dry the sweet potato pieces well. If they have moisture on them, they won’t crisp up.
- For crispy edges, bake the fries at high heat (425 degrees) in a single layer without letting the sweet potato pieces touch. If they touch, they will steam instead of roast. This applies for cooking in an air fryer, too.
Should you grow your own sweet potatoes?
Sweet potatoes are great to plant for yourself and also for your deer. The best time to plant sweet potatoes is 3-4 weeks after the last spring frost, once nighttime temperatures have reached at least 55°F. Below is our experience planting and harvesting them last year.
Our family loves planting great food for our deer and wild life and then harvesting some of it for us to eat as well. Each year we plant a ton of these sweet babies and the wild life love it! Thankfully, they will keep well in a cool, dry place for six months to a year.
Click here to learn more about harvesting sweet potatoes.
More Sweet Potato Recipes
There are myriads of recipes rolling around in my mind to use for these sweet, colorful beauties. I usually choose to use some form of the sweet potato when I entertain to add color to the plate. Also, I like to teach the kids the helpful tip of adding as much color to your plate as possible to ensure an array of vitamins and minerals.
Crispy Sweet Potato Fries Baked in the Oven
Ingredients
Sweet Potato Fries
- 2 pounds potatoes cut into ½ inch strips (fries)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper or black pepper
Chipotle Dipping Sauce
- 1 cup mayonnaise – I prefer homemade
- 1 ripe red jalapeño
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Sweet Potato Fries
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil. Place potatoes in pot and boil for about 6-8 minutes or until al dente. Don't let them cook too long here or they won't be firm enough to hold their shape.
- Drain potatoes and then dry with paper towels. Make sure that they are very dry or they won’t crisp up.
- Mix the olive oil and spices in a medium to large bowl. Place potatoes in the mixture and toss to coat evenly.
- For crispiness, spread sweet potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper if desired to prevent sticking. Use two baking sheets if necessary to prevent the potato strips from touching. (If the fries touch, the potatoes will steam instead of roast.)
- Place potatoes in oven and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy, turning them occasionally.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, or chopped fresh rosemary if desired. Serve with the chipotle dipping sauce or your favorite fry sauce.
For Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potato Fries
- Replace the dry ingredients with ¼ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg and continue with recipe instructions.
Chipotle Dipping Sauce
- Heat a cast iron skillet to smoking hot. Place jalapeño on skillet and cover with lid or pan to create roasting effect. Rotate pepper occasionally (once a minute) until all sides are charred. Remove stem and skin from pepper.
- Place pepper along with the rest of the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Check seasoning and serve.
Yum! I needed some healthy comfort food today, so I baked up these fries for lunch. So good. I made the sweet version, substituting allulose baking mix for the sugar. Boiling the potatoes ahead of time definitely improved the texture from my previous attempts at sweet potato fries.