Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries (2024)

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These crispy baked sweet potato fries are the perfect healthy side option! Serve these mouthwatering fries with chicken, burgers and more!

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About This Recipe

This super-easy dish is a healthy alternative to your favorite deep-fried dish. Sweet potato fries are lighter and healthier. Plus, these wedges are baked in the oven so you avoid extra oil, but still get all the crisp crunch of classic french fries.

Crispy baked sweet potato fries make a great side to pair with just about any kind of entree. Whether you’re enjoying a juicy cheeseburger or a hearty vegan bowl, there's nothing that can't be improved with a few crisp sweet potato fries.

And did I mention that these sweet potato fries also make for a crunchy midday snack? These oven-baked fries are 100% kid-approved, go with any of your favorite dipping sauces, and never disappoint.

How To Make Actually Crispy Oven-Baked Sweet Potato Fries

There are a few key steps to avoiding limp fries and cooking your sweet potatoes to crispy perfection.

First of all, after you cut your sweet potatoes into fries or wedges, soak them in water for at least 10 minutes. This helps wash away some of the excess starch on the surface of your potatoes. The starch can prevent your fries from crisping up in the oven.

Then, when you remove the potaotes from the water, be sure to dry them as thoroughly as possible on a clean dish towel. Extra moisture will stay around and turn your fries soft, rather than crispy.

Finally, before placing them into the oven to roast, toss your sweet potato wedges in a bit of cornstarch. I add salt and pepper at this step too, to make sure the fries are well seasoned and flavorful. The cornstarch helps absorb moisture on the potaotes, keeping them crispy and dry in the oven while they bake.

How To Make Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Fries

In this recipe, I use cornstarch to make the sweet potato fries extra crispy. Although, if you're out of cornstarch, you can substitute it with regular flour. However, I think that cornstarch is not only tastier, but it is also completely gluten-free!

Frying Vs. Baking: Which is Easier?

You can achieve great crispiness by baking or frying sweet potatoes. But which method is easier? In truth, both techniques are easy to do in your home kitchen, but it depends on your preferences.

For example, frying can sometimes be a quicker process than baking. It only takes a few minutes in heated oil to fry sweet potatoes. However, baking cooks the sweet potatoes more evenly. Plus, there's no worry about oil splattering. And finally, baking can be healthier than frying because it uses much less oil.

Ultimately, it's important to note that if you do fry your sweet potatoes, do so in a well-ventilated area. Frying can create some strong fumes that can be left behind after cooking.

Many of our readers like to do a fun at-home taste-test. Make two batches of crispy sweet potato fries, but fry one in oil and bake the other batch in the oven. Taste them with your friends and family and let us know which is your favorite!

Tips and Tricks to Flavorful & Crisp Sweet Potato Fries in the Oven

Want to add extra flavour to your crispy sweet potato fries? This recipe calls for a simple seasoning of slat and pepper. However, you can mix up the flavours with your favourites spices. Add paprika, red pepper flakes, cumin, dried herbs or other spice blends just after you take them out of the oven. This will bring new and fun tastes to your popular side dish.

You can even double this recipe and make several different flavoured sweet potato fries to serve up.

How to Serve and Store Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

Like most crispy foods, these fries are best when eaten hot, right out of the oven. They'll lose some of their crispiness over time, so I don't recommend storing them for later.

Wondering what to serve with a big batch of oven-baked sweet potato fries? Well you're in the right place. Here are my favorite main dishes to pair with crispy fries:

Crispy Fried Chicken without Buttermilk
Juicy Chicken Burgers
Garlic Butter Chicken Bites with Lemon Asparagus from Blondelish