Baked Sweet Potato
A perfectly baked sweet potato is one of my favorite side dishes. It’s no-fuss, easy to bake, and packed with vitamins and nutrients. To serve, just dollop with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. A little dash of cinnamon is also delicious.
There’s So Many Reasons to Love Baked Sweet Potato
Who doesn’t love a baked sweet potato during the fall and winter months when the weather’s cold outside? It’s warm, filling, nourishing and couldn’t be easier to make. It’s also super versatile – eat it plain as a side dish with a little pat of butter or jazz it up and turn it into BBQ chicken stuffed sweet potatoes for a filling meal.
And they’re good for you too! Sweet potatoes are a rich source of fiber (making them great for digestion) and they’re loaded with iron, calcium, vitamin B, vitamin C, and beta-carotene, an antioxidant which gives the potato its vibrant orange color.
What’s the Difference Between a Sweet Potato and a Yam
Sweet potatoes and yams are both root vegetables, but they’re actually quite different. To make matters confusing, most yams sold in supermarkets in the United States are actually sweet potatoes, just marketed under the wrong name – yikes.
Yams tend to have brown-ish, rougher skin and lighter flesh. They’re also starchier and dryer when cooked.
Sweet potatoes have more tapered ends, reddish-orange skin and vibrant orange flesh – though they can come in a variety of colors from white to orange to purple. Sweet potatoes are also sweeter (hence their name) when they’re cooked.
The take-away: if what you’ve bought looks like these photos, odds are it’s a variety of sweet potato even though it may have been called a yam in the store.
How to Bake Sweet Potatoes
Give them a good scrub! While sweet potatoes have been given a rinse before arriving at the supermarket, they’re definitely not clean. To ensure you don’t end up with dirt and debris in your meal, make sure to give them a good scrub. I use this scrub brush under some running water to give my sweet potatoes a good wash. Then I blot them dry with a paper towel.
Poke them. Sweet potatoes build up heat and steam while cooking. To prevent the sweet potato from bursting it’s necessary to give each sweet potato a few pokes to ensure this air can escape and it cooks evenly. You can poke the sweet potato 4 to 5 times with a fork or sharp knife.
Bake them in the oven. Lay the sweet potatoes on a baking tray and cook them for approximately one hour at 400°F. Because sweet potatoes are not always uniform in shape and size, you may need to cook them a little bit less or a little bit longer, depending on size. You can tell if your sweet potato is cooked through if it pierces easily with a knife.
Ideas to Serve Them Up
There’s so many ways to serve up sweet potatoes. I think they’re a great accompaniment to a variety of mains, including:
- Beef: You could fill them with barbacoa or plate them next to a serving of beef brisket. And don’t forget prime rib during the holidays.
- Chicken: Simple baked chicken breast, roasted balsamic chicken and honey mustard chicken are a few of my faves for weeknight dinners. You could also stuff them with shredded chicken!
- Pork: Pork chops with apples are delicious during fall, and you can’t beat a pile of juicy and tender carnitas on top.
A Few Tips…
- Baked sweet potatoes can let out a little juice when baked. This can start to caramelize on your baking tray, making it more difficult to clean up. To prevent this, line your baking tray with parchment paper.
- It’s not necessary to oil the outside of your sweet potato or wrap it in aluminum foil. The sweet potato will bake just fine on a baking tray all on its own.
- While mother nature gives us sweet potatoes in various shapes and sizes, if you’re cooking more than one potato in the oven try to keep them about the same size. No matter if that’s all small ones or all large ones.
- You can adjust the temperature and time of baking sweet potatoes – they’re quite flexible. If you’re cooking other items in the oven at 375°F, add the sweet potatoes and just remember to cook them 15 minutes longer. Alternatively, if you’re cooking other items in the oven at 425°F, your sweet potatoes will be done about 15 minutes sooner. But again, this is all dependent on the size of your sweet potato.
How to Store and Reheat
Sweet potatoes are a great meal prep ingredient! Bake a few at the beginning of the week to enjoy throughout the week. They’re super easy to store if you have leftovers.
- To store: Place the whole or halved sweet potato, or the scooped out flesh in a storage container in the fridge for 3 to 5 days.
- To freeze: If you have a lot of leftovers, you can freeze them! Just scoop out the flesh into a storage container and freeze for up to 3 months.
- To reheat: Pop the sweet potato in the microwave for a couple of minutes or in the oven at 350°F for 10 to 15 minutes, or until warmed through.
More Sweet Potato Recipes to Love
You’ve probably gathered by now that I have an affinity for sweet potatoes. There’s just so much that you can do with them! Here’s a few more tasty ideas…
- Curly Sweet Potato Fries
- Sweet Potato Breakfast Hash
- Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Walnut Pesto
- Prosciutto-Wrapped Sweet Potatoes with Maple Balsamic Glaze
- Sweet Potato Soup
Baked Sweet Potato Recipe Video
It’s super easy to bake sweet potatoes. But if they’re new to you, I’ve got a step-by-step video to walk you through the process. Give it a watch below!
If you make these baked sweet potatoes, let me know how they turned out! I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.
Baked Sweet Potato
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 4 sweet potatoes
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- butter, optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F. Give your sweet potatoes a good wash and scrub.
- Place the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and poke 4 to 5 holes in each sweet potato with a fork or sharp knife.
- Bake in the oven for approximately 60 minutes, or until soft. To test if they're done, poke them with a fork or knife. You should should feel very little resistance when inserted.
Lisa’s Tips
- The scrub brush I use for my sweet potatoes is a great tool to have in the kitchen for washing a variety of vegetables.
- If you don’t have a good baking sheet, I highly recommend purchasing a heavy duty baking sheet that won’t warp or twist in the oven.
Nutrition
Recipe originally posted January 2019, but recently updated.
I am trying this tonight. It looks so good and super easy. Thank you
hi , Wow this is super easy. Thanks for the help
I honestly just eat baked sweet potatoes plain, and a way since I was a kid is to split a whole one in half after the outside is cool enough to touch, and eat it like an ice cream cone, sometimes with a spoon…. sometimes not ;)
Here in Canada we have it the opposite way, sweet potatoes are white and yams are red 😂
Haha! It seems to be very different everywhere!
This worked great and the baked sweet potatoes were super tasty! Thanks for the tips!
Wonderful! I’m happy you enjoyed the baked sweet potatoes and found the tips helpful, Erin!
I made the sweet potatoes like the recipe called for! They turned out great 😊
Wow this is super easy. Thanks for the help
I adore sweet potatoes but never would have thought to add BBQ chicken to it! Fantastic!
I enjoy sweet potatoes. I buy large sweet potatoes, nuke it, then just eat half. Next day, when I reheat the potato, it appears to have shrunk.
Am I better off nuking just a half at a time?
Hi Sharon – I think it’s probably still easier to microwave a whole potato, and reheat leftovers.
I bake 1-2 medium-sized sweet potato(es) in the Microwave for ca. 8-9 minutes.
First time baking sweet potatoes and it did not disappoint! Super easy to make!
Perfection once again! I baked these and then skinned then before smooshing them into a small container to store for an easy breakfast option. I love sweet potatoes in my breakfast bowl with a plain Greek yogurt, fruit, sausage, nuts or nut butter.
Hi Jess – Sounds like the perfect Downshiftology breakfast bowl :) I’m glad you loved this recipe!
Lisa I’m am officially addicted to sweet potatoes now! This recipie is so verities and very delicious on its own. Sweet potatoes are now my favorite food. Thank Lisa!
Hi Tim – Happy to hear you love sweet potatoes as much as I do now! They are such a versatile spud, so you’ll definitely have to try my other sweet potato recipes soon :)
Wow just baked my first two sweet potatoes ever, nice big fat ones too! Just some butter and a pinch of brown sugar, absolutely amazing with baked chicken and summer squash/zucchini :) wifey loved it as well! New favorite healthy carb! (As long as I go easy on the brown sugar lol)
Hi Benny – Congrats on baking your first sweet potatoes! I’m glad you and your wife loved this recipe :)
Delicious
Thanks Debbie! Glad you enjoyed the sweet potatoes. :)
Super easy and delicious.
Thank you, Adriana! I’m so glad you loved the sweet potatoes! :)
I find it’s easier to poke the medium size sweet potatoes with a steak knife and then wash & cotton towel dry them .Afterwards coat then in Smart Balance, sprinkle cinnamon powder and Splenda or Stevia on them,tap each one in Aluminium foil, wrapped side up.bake at 400F.for 1hour,in a black iron skillet, use mittens to pull out oven,afterwards .
Hi Brenda – Thanks for sharing your sweet potato baking tips with the community. :)
Thank you for linking the baking sheet used in this recipe! Are there any other baking sheets you have linked on the website? I’m in the market for new ones (for cookies, veggies, etc) and am hoping to find some that will last me a good while!
Hi Carly – all of the products I use and recommend can be found on the Shop page on my website. :)
I love sweet potatoes so much I sometimes have them on their own for dessert. :P I have some chilli in the fridge and I’m now thinking I may use it for dinner, over a perfectly baked sweet potato, with maybe some of your cashew cream, lime and cilantro on top…? Thank you for the inspiration, Lisa!
With a little sprinkle of cinnamon I think they definitely pass for dessert. ;) And love them stuffed with chili as well – that sounds delicious. Enjoy!
Thanks for the reminder about how delicious and nutritious ‘simple’ food can be. Soo good! Good fiber too. Also, thanks for the tip about the veggie scrub brush.
You’re welcome! And yes, great fiber in the sweet potatoes. That veggie brush is the best as well! :)
Lisa, I love your videos, recipes, blog posts, all of it! The drone footage was especially beautiful. You are lucky to live near such a beautiful and peaceful place.
I have a question about cooking potatoes (sweet and regular). Do you not use a microwave for some health reason? I live alone most of the time and find it easier to cook a single potato in the microwave for the meal I plan to eat at that time.
I know you cook for one, also, and I do love your tips on meal preparation. When you bake 4 sweet potatoes in the regular oven, how long will they keep in the fridge afterwards? (It’s probably in one of your videos, but I’ve missed it.) Do you warm them in the regular oven or microwave before eating, or do you eat them cold?
Hi Gwen – I’m so happy you enjoy all my recipes, videos and content! I do use a microwave and you could certainly “bake” them in the microwave. But I had a few requests about baking sweet potatoes in the oven so that’s what prompted using the oven. In terms of storage, you can keep them for 3-4 days in the fridge. After I shot that video I scooped out all the sweet potato, mashed it up and separated it into a few smaller storage containers in the freezer. It will keep for a couple months in the freezer. And then yes, I do use the microwave for reheating as well. Hope that helps! :) x
We love sweet potatoes in our house! Love how you broke the whole process down.
Thanks Sabrina! Glad to hear you’re a sweet potato lover as well. ;) x
First I’d like to say I love your site so much. I just happened to be reading the September/October 2017 issue of Cooks Illustrated, and they had an article on baking a sweet potato…
“Not long ago, we discovered that baking a russet potato in a 450-degree oven for about 45 minutes produced an ideally fluffy interior (see our complete findings at work in our Best Baked Potatoes recipe). But when I followed the same approach using a sweet potato, the interior was dense and watery. Meanwhile, I tried a handful of baked sweet potato recipes and came upon one from chef Michael Solomonov of Philadelphia’s Zahav restaurant that revealed how truly extraordinary a baked sweet potato can be. After the spuds had spent about 3 hours in a 275-degree oven, their interiors were not just tender but downright plush, and their flavor was concentrated to the point of tasting caramelized, with hints of molasses. These were unlike any sweet potatoes I’d ever eaten.”
They then went on to develop a recipe that gave the same results but was faster than 3 hours:
Any variety of orange- or red-skinned, orange-fleshed sweet potato can be used in this recipe, but we highly recommend using Garnet (also sold as Diane). Avoid varieties with tan or purple skin, which are starchier and less sweet than varieties with orange and red skins. When shopping, look for sweet potatoes that are uniform in size and weigh between 8 and 12 ounces (we prefer smaller potatoes). Top potatoes as desired or with one of our two sauces, Garam Masala Yogurt or Garlic and Chive Sour Cream (see related content).
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Place potatoes on large plate and microwave until potatoes yield to gentle pressure and centers register 200 degrees, 6 to 9 minutes, flipping potatoes every 3 minutes.
2. Set wire rack in aluminum foil–lined rimmed baking sheet and spray rack with vegetable oil spray. Using tongs, transfer potatoes to prepared rack and bake for 1 hour (exteriors of potatoes will be lightly browned and potatoes will feel very soft when squeezed).
3. Slit each potato lengthwise; using clean dish towel, hold ends and squeeze slightly to push flesh up and out. Transfer potatoes to serving platter. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
I have yet to try this, but I plan to. I thought you might find this interesting. If you have access to Cooks Illustrated, the article is very informative.
A devoted fan,
Lani
Hi Lani – thanks so much for the comprehensive info! It’s always fun to see what others recommend doing and I’ll definitely have to give that approach a try next time. I know many of my readers don’t have microwaves or choose to not use them, but for those who do, it would be an interesting comparison for sure. :) x
What a great idea! Plus it’s good to add protein to carbs, right?!!
Lovely filling ideas.
Yes, it definitely makes it a more complete meal with the BBQ chicken. And with a side salad even better. ;)
I never knew there was a difference between a yam and a sweet potato. I always thought they were one in the same. Excellent tips! I love baking sweet potatoes.
Yes, and it doesn’t help that our supermarkets tend to confuse the matter even more by mislabeling them. ;) I’m glad you enjoyed the tips and hopefully your next baked sweet potato will turn out wonderful! x
Now I’m craving sweet potatoes… this is a great post with lots of helpful tips! Love the idea to use foil to make cleanup easier on your baking sheets.
You could certainly use foil though I prefer parchment paper. Either works though!
I’ve never been a sweet potato fan but I love the idea of this! I’ll have to try it!
You can definitely stuff the sweet potato with a variety of ingredients to jazz up the flavor. :)
I love baked sweet potatoes! They’re so versatile! Thanks for the tips!
They sure are! And I love them *all* the ways. ;)