There isn’t anything that I despise more than a floppy, bland french fry. Well… maybe not having any french fries. But, anyway… Anyone that knows me knows that I am a french fry addict. I’m talkin’ round up all the family and friends, drag me into a surprise intervention and then ship me off to a resort center in Hawaii. That kind of addicted.
Sometimes I like to mix it up a bit and go for sweet potato fries instead of it’s less colorful cousin. The problem, though, is that they generally don’t get all that crispy. They just kind of lay there. We’ll fix that with these crispy sweet potato fries.
This is a pretty straight-forward recipe. I’m not even sure you could really call it a recipe. You just throw a few things into a baggie and then bake them. That’s right. I said bake. I know, I know… Fries are always better when you (double) fry them. This is a good alternative to frying if you are like myself and always end up with oil everywhere when you fry anything.
There are some days when you just don’t want to fool with all of that. Maybe you have new batteries in the smoke detector and don’t feel like crawling up there again to take them down. Whatever reason it may be, sometimes it’s just nice to bake instead. Oh, and some people tell me it’s healthier. I don’t know anything about all of that. Moving on…
Sweet potatoes are a whopping 75% water, so it can be difficult to get a crispy element to the fries. The secret to making sure these little orange treats get crispy and delicious is corn starch. The additional starch is required to get a crispy coating. You’ll need this even if you opt to deep-fry them instead of baking.
A trusty ol’ Ziplock bag is your best option to coat the fries. Toss the sticks into a bag with the corn starch, close it up with a bit of air left inside the bag and shake, shake, shake! Play some music. Sing a song. Dance a little jig. Just shake them up. Spread them out on a sheet pan (without parchment for an even crispier exterior) and drizzle a bit of good olive oil over. Toss them around with your hands, season to taste and bake.
The sugar in the sweet potatoes will give them a beautiful caramelization on the outside. This is what you want to see, as it will be crispy and delicious. You might be prone to pulling the fries out early when you start to see these caramelized bubbles. Don’t! Just wait. Do another jig or make a julep to calm yourself down. After a bit, flip the fries and give it a few more minutes. You’ll end up with amazingly crispy sweet potato fries.
- 2-3 sweet potatoes
- 2-3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 teaspoons seasoning salt, per taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt, per taste
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne, per taste
- Pre-heat oven to 425 F.
- Cut sweet potatoes into ~ ¼ inch sticks as evenly as possible.
- Toss sweet potatoes with cornstarch in bag.
- Place fries on baking sheet.
- Drizzle with olive oil. Use hands to cover evenly. Don't over-saturate fries.
- Spread out fries on baking sheet. Be sure they are not touching, as this will prevent crispiness.
- Bake for ~15 minutes. Flip. Bake for ~5 minutes longer.
- Enjoy! Visit SouthernFATTY.com for more.
Mine are far from crispy and I found the recipe to be vague. I was wondering when the spices were to be added, so I mixed them in with the cornstarch.
I think I will go back to frying….
Good point on my forgetting to add where to put the spices in. You certainly wont ever get crispier fries baking than your go-to frying, but this has always been a great option when I don’t want to fool with the mess. Thanks for giving it a go.
I have never thought of using cornstarch to bake sweet potato fries but I think it is a wonderful idea!
Thanks! It works pretty well 🙂
You can also use potato flour in place of cornstarch for this as well as chicken. Got tip from cook at Pei Wei.
I have used potato flour to bake regular fries before but haven’t tried it with sweet potatoes. I’ll have to give that a go! Thanks for the tip.
I am amazed that you were able to get sweet potato fries crispy!! And they are baked??? Can’t wait to try this recipe!!
Be careful to not crowd them of they’ll just steam. Hope you enjoy!
Yummy 🙂 I have another trick for crispy sweet potatoe fries. I bake them at a really high temperature (~425) for about 15 minutes till they look toasted, then turn the oven way down (~325 or 350) and let cook until they smell ready. The fries come out puffed and crisp.
Thanks– I’ll have to try that!
I need to try making sweet potato fries at home – my husband loves ’em, and I bet the Baby would eat ’em, too. Gotta add them to my to-make-soon list!
Sooooo good!
Nothing worse than floppy, greasy french fries. These look amazing, love the flavors!!
Right?! I most certainly do not have time for that.
Thanks!
Thanks for the cornstarch tip. I often odd a bit of cornstarch to the flour in fried chicken so it’s easy for me to see that this works. Another trick I like with baked sweet potato fries is a light dip in egg whites. GREG
Excellent point. I’ve tried that before, but it has been a while. Certainly would help!
Thanks–
Had no idea about the cornstarch trick! Going to have to try these. Yeah, eating fries is research I tell ya. 😉
Right? I’m all about some research. I tried cornstarch after realizing how much I use it with frying chicken for Chinese food. Worked pretty well! Works amazingly well when they’re fried.
Corn starch? Who knew. Great tip. Pinning.
Works! Thanks, Angela 🙂
I love anything with sweet potatoes, especially fries that are crispy and fresh like yours. So happy to have found your blog via our “Tour”.
I’m definitely a sweet potato addict, too. I go through phases where I eat these more than I want to admit!
Same to you and your blog. Beautiful.
PS- I want to steal your 5th Ave. kitchen!