Easy Baked Sweet Potatoes

4 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

This easy Baked Sweet Potato recipe, made with potatoes, butter, salt, and pepper, is the PERFECT addition to any dinner and is ready in under 60 minutes!

We’re always searching for easy Side Dish Recipes around here, and some of our absolute favorites are Baked Mac and Cheese,  Easy Mashed Potatoes, and Roasted Green Beans.

Baked Sweet Potatoes with butter on a sheet pan

This recipe is a healthier alternative to my Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes Recipe. They still pack a ton of sweetness and flavor without all the sugar. I like to serve these during the holidays because sweet potatoes are a traditional flavor, but they’re perfect for serving all year.

Usually, baked potatoes are made with russets, but if you’re looking for a change, sweet potatoes are naturally more nutritious and work just as well. Like russets, sweet potatoes have tough skin, so they are ideal for this kind of recipe.

How to Bake

I usually bake the potatoes on the middle rack of the oven. If you’re in a rush, you can pierce the outside of the potato skin and microwave the potato for 5 minutes at a time until it’s cooked through, usually about 10 minutes for a large potato. You can also wrap the potatoes in foil and grill them for 35-40 minutes or until they’re soft.

Another option is to bake the potatoes in the slow cooker if you need the oven. Just clean and salt the potatoes, pierce the skin, and wrap them in foil before placing them in the pot. Then cook on low for 9-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours until the potatoes are soft.

How to tell when your potato is fully baked:

The potatoes are done baking when a fork easily penetrates the center with little resistance. If you can’t get the fork through, the potato is undercooked; let it cook for longer.

Do you have to wrap the potatoes in foil?

Wrapping potatoes in foil before baking them has benefits, but you don’t have to. The foil helps them stay warm once they come out of the oven and keeps the skin softer by trapping moisture to steam them. If you want the skin roasted and crispy, avoid using foil in the oven and wrap it afterward to keep it warm. When I make potatoes in the oven, we eat them immediately, so I don’t worry about using foil.

If you grill the potatoes, foil keeps the flame from burning the outside. It can also slightly increase the cooking time.

Can they be made ahead of time?

You can prep a baked potato side dish by washing the potatoes the night before, but wait to cook them until the day you’re serving them. To keep them fresh, don’t wash the potatoes more than a day or two in advance.

I recommend prepping the toppings the night before and refrigerating them, then setting the slow cooker in the morning so the potatoes will be ready just as you set the dinner table.

Baked potatoes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 4-5 days.

Try these Toppings:

  • Browned Butter or Olive Oil
  • Cinnamon or Paprika
  • Sour Cream and Chives
  • Brown Sugar and Pecans (did you see yesterday’s Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes?)
  • Mini Marshmallows
  • Honey or Maple Syrup
  • Black Beans and Salsa or Chopped Onion

 

Baking Tips:

  • Make sure your potatoes are all about the same size. Otherwise, they’ll finish baking at different times, and you’ll end up with over- or undercooked potatoes.
  • Rubbing wet potatoes with coarse salt helps make the skins crispy and adds flavor when baking.
  • Add a drizzle of olive oil when salting to make the skin of baked sweet potatoes extra crispy.
  • Add the butter while the potatoes are still warm so they can melt. While the butter is melting, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and an optional dash of cinnamon for extra flavor.
  • I like to line my baking sheet with tinfoil because sweet potatoes leak juice when baking. Don’t add them directly to your oven rack, or you will have to clean up sticky potato juice on the bottom of your oven.
  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees, or you may need to add more cooking time.
Baked Sweet Potatoes with skin in a baking pan

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Easy Baked Sweet Potatoes

Easy Baked Sweet Potatoes made with potatoes, butter, salt and pepper are the PERFECT addition to any dinner and ready in under 60 minutes!
Yield 4 servings
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 4 medium sweet potatoes washed
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees and wash the potatoes before piercing the sweet potatoes with a fork all over.
  • Place on baking sheet lined with foil and cook for 45-50 minutes until tender and serve sliced open with butter, salt and pepper.

Notes

Note: click on times in the instructions to start a kitchen timer while cooking.

Nutrition

Calories: 214kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 30mg | Sodium: 218mg | Potassium: 438mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 18800IU | Vitamin C: 3.1mg | Calcium: 42mg | Iron: 0.8mg

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. These are perfect. I love sweet potatoes and I love making these as a replacement for the traditional regular potato! So GOOD!