Melting Sweet Potatoes are the ultimate comforting dish that’s crispy on the outside but literally melts in your mouth. Try them today!
Swap out your classic Candied Sweet Potatoes for this new, easy delicious Side Dish Recipe for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. The buttery, melt-in-your-mouth sweet potatoes are sure to be a hit! For more easy sweet potato recipes try my Grilled Sweet Potatoes and Garlic Butter Roasted Sweet Potatoes too.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Melting Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Melting Sweet Potatoes truly have a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth texture that’s absolutely amazing. The sweet potato rounds are roasted, so they’re slightly crisp on the outside but with the most velvety, melty inside you’ll ever taste. This recipe is seasoned with thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper to add simple flavor to the Melting Potatoes. That way, the earthy, sweet potato flavor still shines throughout the entire dish.
Chef’s Note: Cooking with Sweet Potatoes
I love cooking with delicious sweet potatoes because there are so many ways to enjoy them! Their natural sweetness makes them more versatile than other veggies, so they can be both used in both sweet and savory dishes. They have amazing texture on their own but they can break down into a puree to make baked goods like Sweet Potato Biscuits. From simple recipes like these Melting Sweet Potatoes, to Sweet Potato Souffle and Sweet Potato Pie, the possibilities and recipes are endless. Get inspired today with my full Sweet Potato Recipe Catalog!
Ingredients
- Sweet Potatoes: For this recipe, use thin tubular sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch slices.
- Butter Mixture: Combine the sweet potato slices with unsalted butter and thyme for flavoring in this recipe. The thyme’s earthy and fresh flavor pairs nicely with the potatoes. The butter also helps the outside of the potatoes crisp up well.
- Chicken Broth: Add the chicken broth to the Melting Sweet Potatoes during the last 10 minutes of cooking. The crispy potatoes will absorb the moisture around them, giving them an extra soft interior. Sweet potatoes also soak up the flavor from the chicken broth, which is why you add crushed garlic cloves at the same time to infuse the potatoes with bold garlicky flavor.
Kitchen Tools and Equipment
- Baking Pan: A regular deep baking pan is used in this recipe. You can use a metal or glass dish. Avoid a regular cookie sheet as the rim might be too short causing hot broth to spill.
- Sharp Knife: A sharpened knife is needed for peeling and slicing the sweet potatoes into uniform 1-inch thick pieces. A good quality knife will make the preparation easier and safer.
- Mixing Bowl: Use a large mixing bowl to toss the sweet potatoes with the butter mixture.
How to Make Melting Sweet Potatoes
Time needed: 40 minutes.
- Preheat the Oven
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
- Prepare the Sweet Potatoes
Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1-inch thick pieces.
- Mix Butter Coating
Mix together 4 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 teaspoon of chopped thyme, and a dash of kosher salt and pepper. Add the sweet potato slices to the butter mixture and toss to coat.
- First Roast
Arrange the buttered sweet potato slices in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- Second Roast
Flip and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Third Roast
Flip the sweet potatoes once more, and add the chicken broth and garlic to the pan and roast for 10-15 minutes.
- Serve
Let them cool just a bit and serve warm with your meal. Enjoy!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes , thin tube shape, peeled and sliced 1 inch thick
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
- 1 teaspoon thyme , chopped
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 cloves garlic , lightly crushed and peeled
- kosher salt , to taste
- course ground black pepper , to taste
Instructions
- Toss the potatoes in the mixture of the butter, thyme, salt, and pepper. Arrange in a single layer on a metal baking pan.
- Bake in a preheated 500 degree oven on the top-middle rack until golden brown, about 10-15 minutes per side.
- Flip the potatoes a third time, add the broth and garlic and roast for another 10 minutes.
Nutrition
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Can This Be Made Ahead?
Like many people, you may need to conserve oven space on a holiday when you’re busy cooking many dishes. Don’t worry, you can make these Melting Sweet Potatoes up to 2 or 3 days ahead of time. Even though this recipe doesn’t have a very long cooking time, thanks to the way the potatoes are sliced and peeled, you can still save yourself some time on the day you eat them. Just prepare them, then seal them in an airtight container. Warm them up in the oven set at 425 degrees. With zero prep required for reheating and the shorter cook time, this frees up space and time when you’ll need it.
Nutritional Facts
How to Store
- Store: Don’t leave Melting Sweet Potatoes at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Once the dish has cooled, you can cover it in plastic wrap or aluminum foil to store in the fridge for 4-5 days.
- Freeze: Alternatively, you can carefully wrap the dish to keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let them thaw in the fridge overnight before you reheat the sweet potato recipe in the oven.
Serving Ideas for Melting Sweet Potatoes
- Holidays: Maybe not everyone feels this way, but I don’t think my holiday menu is complete without at least one amazing sweet potato side dish recipe. For the ultimate holiday meal, serve these easy potatoes with classics like Roast Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Bean Casserole.
- Weeknights: These Sweet Potatoes are too good to be used only during the holidays. There are many great opportunities to serve this delicious side dish. Try serving them beside Perfect, Easy Ribeye Steak, Shake and Bake Pork Chops, or Homemade Rotisserie Chicken. Melting Sweet Potatoes are great to pair with lots of different main dishes.
- Topping: These potatoes don’t just have to be a side dish, you can use them in salads and bowls instead of meat or just to make them a bit more filling. Try them in salads like my Winter Pear Salad or Steak Salad.
Frequent Questions
Sweet potato recipes make an ideal addition to your holiday menu because sweet potatoes are in season right around Thanksgiving. To make the perfect side dish, look for medium-sized sweet potatoes without wrinkled skin. Also, double-check that there aren’t any bruises or cracks on the sweet potatoes.
These Sweet Potatoes are roasted at 500 degrees, which is a pretty high temperature. This high temperature is what will give the Sweet Potato slices that nice, crispy sear on the outside and the edges. The variation in texture is so lovely in these little melting beauties with the slightly crispy outside mixed with the soft inside.
You can use vegetable broth for a vegetarian-friendly version. Alternatively, use beef broth.
Make sure that your oven is fully preheated to 500 degrees before adding and that it stays at that temperature the whole time. Also, make sure that the sweet potatoes are in a single layer on the baking pan as overcrowding the pan can prevent proper browning.
Variations
- Lemon: Add a bit of freshness and bring out the lemony flavor of the thyme by adding a couple tablespoons, or half a lemon’s worth, of fresh squeezed lemon juice when you add the broth and garlic.
- Maple Syrup Pecan Sauce: You can top the Melting Sweet Potatoes off with a maple pecan glaze. You’ll want to leave out all the savory flavors currently in the recipe, so skip the sage and garlic and replace the broth with water. After cooking the potatoes, you can start making the maple sauce. You only need 1 cup maple syrup and 1 cup chopped pecans. First, add the maple syrup to a small saucepan, and bring it to a boil. Then add the pecans. Let the mixture come back to a boil and cook for an additional minute before removing the sauce from heat. Drizzle potatoes with maple syrup pecan glaze before serving.
- Seasonings: There are plenty of different flavors that you can add to the Melting Sweet Potatoes. Start by adding your favorite seasonings into the butter mixture. Try adding some paprika, rosemary, nutmeg, or red pepper flakes in with the thyme. You can also sprinkle flaky sea salt over the Melting Potatoes before serving. Give the recipe a sweet overhaul by combining cinnamon and nutmeg. Adding some salt to a sweet mixture will help bring out those sweet flavors.
- Broth: For a vegetarian version of this dish, simply replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth. It’ll change the flavor slightly but shouldn’t be too noticeable. Use a vegetable broth that you already like the flavor of, or you could even make your own.
Related Recipes
More Easy Sweet Potato Recipes
Photos used in previous versions of this post.
I thought an orange was included. So I juiced 1/2an orange with the butter tossing step. The we added about 1/4tsp onion powder with the thyme. It was a hit.
Hey, I am a vegetarian, what can I replace the chicken broth with?
Vegetable broth would work well. Let us know what you think of the recipe!
I did finally see the lemon juice is a typo….but originally thought it was the juice of 1/2 an orange or lemon. I’ve tried both and it’s pretty good.
LOL! Great!
The directions call for lemon juice but there’s no lemon juice in the ingredients. Can you give me the amount of it please?
That was a typo. There is no lemon juice in this recipe. Sorry for the confusion.
I am trying it now for dinner. Just one point, I do not see the ingredient Lemon, I have guessed amount to add.
Hi Hazel! Lemon in the blog was a typo and we are working to correct it. I’m hoping you tried it and enjoyed it … without lemon 🙂
There’s no lemon juice in the ingredients but it’s in the recipe.!! How much???
Hi Nancy, so sorry about that. It’s a typo and we’re working on correcting it. There is no lemon juice in this recipe. Thank you for asking.
My family can not get enough of these. Gorgeous! There are never any leftovers ??
Love this recipe. Absolutely delicious.
Thank you Hattie for the 5 star review. Melting Sweet Potatoes are great for Thanksgiving too!