Oven Baked Sweet Potatoes

Learn how to make the best oven baked sweet potatoes with this easy recipe. They’re perfectly tender with crispy and delicious skin! 

Perfect Baked Sweet Potato

I’ll admit, I didn’t start eating sweet potatoes until a few years ago. My mom never made them growing up, so I thought I didn’t like them. Then one day I tried these scalloped sweet potatoes and I was hooked. Now I make some sort of dish with them almost every week.

I love a classic baked potato, but if you’re trying to eat a little healthier then baked sweet potatoes are a great option. They’re loaded with fiber and antioxidants and are a great source of healthy carbs. Not only are they great for you, but they also taste delicious too! When baked in the oven, they get super tender on the inside with perfectly crispy skin.

You can make stuffed sweet potatoes with your favorite toppings or keep it simple with a dab of butter, salt and pepper. Add a dash of cinnamon for a little more flavor or even scoop out the insides to make a sweet potato casserole or slice them for candied yams. The options are endless!

Scrub and Wash

One of my biggest tips when making sweet potatoes in the oven is to use a vegetable brush to clean them really well before baking. This helps get any unwanted dirt or yucky residue off the skin. And because the skin has such great health benefits, you want to make sure it’s clean so you can enjoy it!

I like to use Fit fruit and vegetable cleaner to clean my potatoes. Simply scrub/wash them with warm water for about 30 seconds, then place on a paper towel to dry. You want them to dry completely after washing so that the skin will crisp up nicely in the oven.

How to Bake Sweet Potatoes

1. PIERCE. Once your potatoes have dried from washing/scrubbing, pierce each potato with a fork about 6-8 times.
2. COAT. Lay them on a foil-lined baking sheet and brush the skin with olive oil. Then sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
3. BAKE. Bake in oven at 400°F for about 1 hour, or until they are soft and fork tender.

Cooking Tips

• Choose sweet potatoes that are a little longer than a regular baked potato and choose potatoes similar in size. Avoid potatoes with soft spots, bruises or cracks.
• Make sure to use a fork to pierce them before baking. You don’t need to go super deep, just about a 1/2″.
• Lightly rub the potatoes with olive oil. This will help ensure the outside of the potato doesn’t get dried out. If you don’t want to oil them, simply wrap them in foil.
• Line your baking sheet with foil for easy clean up. They tend to let out a little juice when they bake and it can be a nightmare to get off the pans once it’s caramelized.
• If you are short on time, you can microwave the potatoes for a few minutes ahead of time. You can also cook one potato in the microwave in about 5-10 minutes.
• If you’d like the outside a little more crisp, cook at 425°F for 45 minutes.

Favorite Toppings

The topping ideas are endless! If serving as a side, you can keep it simple by just adding a little butter, salt and pepper. Or pile on a few more hearty toppings and serve as a main dish (we especially love to make buffalo chicken sweet potatoes).

• Classic: Butter, salt and pepper
• Sweet: Butter, cinnamon sugar and toasted pecans
• Southwest: Taco meat, cheese, black beans, salsa, guacamole
• Buffalo: Buffalo chicken, mozzarella, red onion, cilantro
• BBQ: BBQ chicken, red onion, cilantro

More Recipes to Try

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