There are two ways to get guaranteed crispy sweet potato fries. In your oven (yes!) or in a deep fryer. But even deep frying plain sweet potato fries won't get them crispy. You need a tiny bit of the secret ingredient - cornstarch.
Skip right to the printable recipe.
Right here, right now I am going to teach you how to make crispy sweet potato fries. Even though they're not a real french fry. They are french fry substitutes to be eaten when a real french fry can't be found.
Yes, I know. But you loveeeeeeeee sweet potato french fries. You like them wayyyyyyyyyy better than regular french fries. That's because you're an amateur. I on the other hand, am a french fry professional.
I have been making, eating and gorging myself on theses sticks of potato deliciousness for as long as I can remember. In high school I ate so many of them at lunch that at the end of the year I threw up a ball of grease. So ... clearly ... a professional here whose advice should be followed.
But ... if you're on some sort of stupid meal plan, or you're all out of regular potatoes, or you just feel like having something a little different than regular french fries, why wouldn't you cook up some Sweet Potato French Fries?
Because they're soggy messes. That's why. They'll get brown but they don't get crispy.
I've oven baked them, par boiled them and deep fried them and they don't get crispy. They get brown, but not crisp.
Finally, I've figured out how to make crispy sweet potato fries and the best part is you can do them in the deep fryer or the oven! Either way, you'll end up with crispy fries. Guaranteed.
But like with most things, you're more guaranteed if you do them in the deep fryer.
Here's what you need to do to create this perfect sweet and spicy lunch or side dish.
Gather your sweet potatoes.
Get some corn starch.
Also get some olive oil. Just the cheap stuff. Not the good stuff like my favourite Lorenzo No.5. Seriously best tasting olive oil ever.
Peel your sweet potatoes. I have used the same brand of vegetable peeler for 15 years now. It's the cheapest, most basic vegetable peeler around and it's pretty much every cook's favourite. It's the Great Lash mascara of the vegetable peeling world.
Cut your sweet potatoes until they're a medium thickness. Not hugely thick cut and not shoestring.
Let potatoes soak in water for an hour - half the day. (not mandatory, but recommended)
Preheat oven to 425°
Throw a Tablespoon or two of cornstarch into a plastic bag.
(update: I'm reducing this to a definite 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch because people were reading this as 1 to 2 to 173 Tablespoons of cornstarch. So it's a hard 1 Tablespoon now. Got it?)
Dump a handful of sweet potatoes into the bag with the cornstarch. You don't need to dry them with paper towels or anything. Just drain the water and then give each handful you drop in the cornstarch a good shake. Twist the top of the bag so it forms a balloon with some air inside and shake the fries around until they're lightly coated with the cornstarch. This is important. Too much water and too much cornstarch and you'll end up with a goopy mess. Plus your fries will taste like cornstarch.
Put them on a non stick cookie sheet. The darker the cookie sheet the better - all the better to brown with.
Drizzle 2 Tbsps. of olive oil over the sweet potatoes. This is if you want to be healthy.
Any vegetable oil will work. I've used sunflower, avocado, vegetable etc. etc.
Saturated and Unsaturated Fats
Saturated Fats for frying
- Lard
- Tallow
Monounsaturated & Polyunsaturated Fats for frying
- Olive Oil
- Canola Oil
- Peanut Oil
- Sunflower Oil
You can use as much oil as you want.
(Update: The more oil you use the easier time you'll have of getting the fries crispy but the less healthy they will be.)
I usually go the totally unhealthy route to make sure the fries are crispy. Just drizzle the oil across them and then mix them up with your hands to coat well.
Spread the whole mess out evenly on your baking sheet.
Arrange them so they have space between each fry. The less of them on the pan the better they'll cook. Too many shoved together and they'll never get crispy. They'll just steam. So do NOT overcrowd the pan. Pop the pan into your preheated oven and cook for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile you can make the dipping sauce. Mix together ½ cup of mayonnaise with 1 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce and ¼ teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper.
You can adjust the proportions to taste. Mix it up and taste it then adjust as you like.
Check them after 15 minutes, flip them over (you might have to use a spatula depending on how "non stick" your pan is) and return to the oven if necessary for another 5 minutes. The timing really depends on the size of your fry, the heat of your oven and how well your pan conducts heat.
(update: You can see the pan I'm using here is very dark, this very dark, old, used pan cooks things faster and crispier. So if you have an old pan like this use it. If you have a shiny, new baking sheet your fries will take much longer to cook, will have a greater tendency to stick and won't get as crispy)
Maxwell Williams French Fry and dipping cup!!
If you prefer your food deep fried, (and who doesn't) throw them in the deep fryer at the highest setting for a few minutes instead of sticking them in the oven. You STILL need to coat them in cornstarch. Even in a deep fryer, sweet potatoes fries won't want to get crispy unless they have a coating of cornstarch.
This is how I do them when I'm in a rush. They're always crispier than those from the oven, but far less healthy.
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
- *Dipping Sauce*
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon or more Sriracha sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 or deep fryer to highest setting
- Peel sweet potatoes, slice into medium thick slices (closer to thin than thick).
- Soak potatoes at least 4 hours in water.
- Drain water from sweet potatoes and shake dry with your hands.
- Put 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch into food safe plastic bag.
- Dump sweet potato fries into bag, blow some air into it, and shake bag until fries are coated.
- Place fries on cookie sheet, drizzle with a couple Tablespoons of olive oil.
- Toss fries until evenly coated with oil.
- Arrange on cookie sheet(s) with lots of space in between fries to prevent steaming.
- Cook in hot oven for 15 minutes then check.
- The fries will release from the pan when they're ready to flip the same way a steak would.
- Flip fries, and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes.
- (cooking time depends greatly on the quality of your baking sheet so keep an eye on them)
- Dipping Sauce: Mix together mayo, pepper and Sriracha sauce. Adjust to your taste.
Notes
- Do NOT use too much cornstarch. It will lead to heartache and raw, powdery tasting fries.
- A dark, metal baking sheet will give the best results.
- Sweet Potato Fries will get dark fast because of their high sugar content. Don't forget to flip and turn them.
TIPS
- Do NOT use too much cornstarch. It will lead to heartache and raw, powdery tasting fries.
- A dark, metal baking sheet will give the best results.
- Sweet Potato Fries will get dark fast because of their high sugar content. Don't forget to flip and turn them.
Please note : This recipe does have a bit of a learning curve. It may take a few attempts to get your proportions of corn starch and oil correct. It took me several years to figure out how to do this, but with these instructions it shouldn't take you more than a couple of tries.
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Ashley
*Nice*
::Bowing down to the french fry queen.::
I really enjoyed your candor and the tip is indispensable to me since I'm eating Paleo. Thanks!
Ashy
Jen
Fantastic! Can't wait to try this.
Carol Egbert
Found you from Pinterest. Great recipe. I look forward to trying it.
Caroline
What is Sriracha sauce?
Karen
Hi Caroline - Sriracha sauce is a hot sauce, kind of like Tobasco but a totally different flavour. It's really good. It's comes in a bottle about the size of an old, glass Heinz ketchup bottle and is usually in the Asian section or with the hot sauces. Now that you're aware of it, you'll probably notice it/be able to find it. :) ~ karen
Jenifer
This recipe sounds great, but what temp do you set the oven on? Thanks!
Emma
Hello Karen,
I recently posted your recipe for crispy sweet potato fries. I received your comment and took it down immediately. I sincerely apologize, I meant no disrespect. My site is just a way for me to collect recipes for myself, and yours looked so delicious.
I am very sorry.
Emma
Karen
Emma - No problem. No hard feelings. But maybe you should take a look at this ... https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-properly-re-post-something/. It's a post I did on how to repost something properly for anyone who is new to this. Sorry if I alarmed you, but my blog is how I make my living. I work 60 hours a week on it so I have to protect my site and the content. :) ~ karen!
Elysse
Mine just came out and they're PERFECT!! At first I added way too much corn starch, but i used a colander to shake them around a bit and get some of it off...seemed to do the trick. Thanks so much for this post!
Karen
Elysse - Excellent! Some people get discouraged by the learning curve, but they're worth it! ~ karen
Katy Vela
OMG - just tried them - we have a professional fryer - HOT HOT OIL - 6 min - didnt have Sriracha but kinda made a hot mayo - maybe I CUT them too small - kinda like shoestring - BUT STILL EXCELLENT - I will do bigger cuts next time - but sooooo excellet
Karen
Excellence! But I HIGHLY recommend getting the Sriracha. Sooooooo good. ~ karen
Lori
This is EXACTLY what I was craving for supper down to the Sriracha dip!! I'll definitely be giving these a try tonight. Thanks!
Rachel
I a making these with dinner tomorrow and I can't wait to see how they turn out.
Amber E.
Whoa. 1st attempt at the fries...WAYYYY too much corn starch! Oooops. Tried to get most of it off, didn't really work, just resulted in a BIG BIG BIG mess in my kitchen. Sigh. Better luck next time?!!! They are in the oven right now...crossing my fingers they are still edible!
Karen
Amber E. - LOL! Oh no! Well ... now you know for next time. Right? Eep. Sorry! ~ karen
Magic and Mayhem
We made these tonight and tried to follow the recipe and all the comment suggestions exactly, but they were a pretty big flop. Even with a light coating of corn starch, the fries tasted powdery. They didn't crisp up, despite the olive oil and additional cooking time. We had organic heirloom sweet potatoes from our CSA box and I'm kind of bummed to have wasted them.
Karen
Magic and Mayhem - Eek. I'm sorry to hear you ruined your heirloom sweet potatoes. The only thing I can tell you is either your oven isn't running hot enough, or you should just go straight to deep frying. There's no way to mess them up that way. If you ever go to a restaurant with great sweet potato fries you'll notice they're always deep fried and they always have a light coating of cornstarch on them. Also ... soaking them in water is important. Like I say ... there's a learning curve to these fries and the proportions of cornstarch and olive oil. If you give it another go let me know how they turn out. ~ karen!
Lianne
Oh, so sad "Caab Living is now in voluntary insolvency."
But now you have a collectors item!
Lianne
Sorry, only been following you since this summer…
Used 'Stumble!' and found you remembered you from CityLine and have RSS'd (and now FB) you ever since! Love all your stuff and thanks for the link!
Lianne
Glad I'm not the only one who had soggy problems. Will try yours next time (I had given up).
I'm surprised no one else has comments on your beautiful serving vessels… where did you get them?
Karen
Hi Lianne - I actually did a post on this fry cup last year! https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/stuff-i-like-the-mystery-cup/ It's by Maxwell Williams. ~ karen!
doodles
I found your blog on these gems when poking around on Pinterest. I was intrigued. Because we were just at a favorite restaurant in town, husband loves their french fries come to find out they use CORNSTARCH!!!
Karen
Doodles - It took me mannnnnyyyyyy attempts and experiments before I decided cornstarch was indeed the way to go with Sweet Potatoes. I'll never go back! Glad you found the site! ~ karen
Su@TheIntentionalHome
We made them. . we loved them. . you are right, there is a learning curve. . go light light on cornstarch. . and for us we had to bake 20 minutes but we all loved them. . .thanks for sharing the details of how to make these. I just shared about these on my blog. . .I linked to here.
Here is my post:
http://theintentionalhome.blogspot.com/2011/09/5-for-friday_16.html
Su@TheIntentionalHome
found this on pinterest. . making them now. . will let you know how the family likes them. . thanks for sharing
Karen
Su - I'm making them for dinner tonight! Sweet potato fries, tenderloin steaks and asparagus on the BBQ! I'm doing the deep fry w/ cornstarch route. Mainly I love them because of the dip. :) ~ karen
Keith
I just tried the oven baked wedge style SP fries. This was my third attempt. First I tried frying, no good. Second time I tried frying them bigger, again, no good. I will try you recipe Sunday.
You are a Pro! I will post the results.
Karen
Keith - Give it a go. Like I said it may take a couple of attempts to get a feeling for the proportions. If you want GUARANTEED results, use the cornstarch/deep fryer method. Perfect every time. ~ karen
Elizabeth
I love you for posting this.
Karen
Elizabeth - It seems a bit early for declaring our love for each other but ... well ... I love you too. ~ karen!