5 tips on how to bake the perfect sweet potato. It is easy to bake the perfect sweet potato by using these quick and essential tips. You will never have a badly baked sweet potato again.
Over the years of eating out at restaurants, friends’ homes and even making my own sweet potato recipes, I have discovered that there is such a thing as a badly baked potato.
After trying many different ways, I have developed 5 tips that are essential in getting the perfect baked sweet potato. If you have more questions, feel free to ask in the comment section.
What makes sweet potatoes distinctive?
Sweet potatoes are a highly nutritious and part of the root vegetables family. They provide various essential ingredients, including potassium, fiber, vitamin a, vitamin c and more. Source: Medical News Today.
What’s the difference between them and yams?
- Yams are much starchier than sweet potatoes
- Yams have a darker skin color
- Yams are not as sweet as sweet potatoes
- Sweet potatoes have a more orange colored flesh while yams have lighter color
What’s the best way to eat them
- Baked and topped with a dollop of sour cream
- Load or stuff these best baked sweet potatoes with your favorite toppings like black beans and corn.
- Lightly roasted and flavored with simple seasonings, black pepper and sea salt.
- Steamed and topped with a little butter. For extra flavor, add garlic powder.
Baked sweet potatoes makes for the perfect side dish. When you are looking for a healthy side dish for Thanksgiving, these sweet potatoes are it!
So, How do you bake a sweet potato?
Choosing the right sweet potato to bake
Baking whole sweet potatoes is an art! Before you start using my 5 tips, you need to find the right sweet potato. No sweet potato will be perfect if you choose the wrong shaped sweet potato.
Here are a few things to look for in your sweet potato
1. Make sure it’s long
Sweet potatoes come in many shapes and sizes. There are long ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones and thick ones. It’s hard to decide which size to choose at the grocery store.
If you are going to be loading a baked sweet potato, it HAS TO BE LONG. This way you will be able to load the ingredients evenly and make it look like its really loaded!
There is nothing wrong with the short, stubby sweet potato. It is perfect in a sweet potato curry or even mashing them. But, to load them or to use the pulp, the long one is sweeter and “meatier”
2. Avoid those with “rot”
Some parts of the sweet potato can dry up and start rotting. Use them in curries or soups (cut out the bad part first).
But, don’t use them in a baked sweet potato recipe!
3. Look for symmetry
A sweet potato with symmetry is going to bake evenly and have an even flavor. You won’t get parts of the sweet potato that are dry while other parts are watery.
Draw an imaginary line from the top of the sweet potato to the bottom and right in the middle. Then, check to see that there is an almost equal amount of potato on both sides.
Check out these two cuties! They have amazing symmetry! Talk about the perfect sweet potato!
5 quick tips on baking the perfect sweet potato
Follow these quick tips to get the perfect baked sweet potato
Tip #1: WASH, WASH, WASH! Then wash some more
Nothing ruins a good sweet potato casserole or sweet potato pie like dirt! Yes, I have actually experienced that.
I was invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at a friends house a few years ago and they made mashed sweet potato pie. The cook washed the potato quickly and microwaved it.
The result was a gritty and dirty potato pie.
So, I use the fingers that humans are lucky to have and get into that sweet potato. I clean every nook and cranny and even use a vegetable brush to get through it all.
Once it is clean, I dry it using a paper napkin and let it sit for about 10 minutes. I want to make sure that there is no water left on the skin
Tip #2: poke holes into it
Poking holes works! The end.
I have had potatoes where no holes were poked. They turned out to be too mushy and almost inedible, while the outside remained dry and uncooked.
So, I poke holes in my potato with a fork and avoid that problem. The holes are not deep, just superficial enough which is a great way for the steam to escape.
Tip #3: lightly oil the outside
I cannot stress the importance of this tip. When I oil the outside of the potato with avocado oil, the skin doesn’t become a dry and crinkled mess. The skin remains smooth and easy to peel once the sweet potato is baked.
It sounds strange, I know, but I don’t like my sweet potato to look like a giant shriveled raisin when it is done baking.
Tip #4: cover up with it’s best friend
There are 2 types of people in this world. Those who wrap the sweet potato and those that don’t!
Of the 5 tips, this one is the most controversial one. Those who think that it shouldn’t be wrapped are against it because they want to let the steam escape out of the potato and never to come back.
My personal preference is to keep the steam contained.
Now, I know that this tip completely contradicts tip #2! But, hear me out.
When I wrap my sweet potato in foil, I wrap it loosely. So, some of the steam still escapes out of the ends of the foil. Most of the heat is contained within the sweet potato and it also cooks the outsides of the potato.
This bakes the potato from the inside and the outside. Therefore, you will notice that sweet potato is baked evenly.
When the potato is not wrapped, I find that the outside gets cooked more than the inside. Also, it gives my oven a lingering sweet potato aroma for days.
Tip #5: leave it in the oven
The last of the 5 tips is leaving the potato in the oven’s wire rack after you turn it off. Bake the potato in the oven at 400 degrees for 65 minutes.
Depending on your oven, the baking time may vary. At about the 45-minute mark, I take a knife to it and see if it is easy to pierce the skin of the potato.
If the knife goes through easily, then I turn off the oven and let the sweet potato sit in the rack.
I leave it in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes and then remove it from the oven. Quick tip: Learn from my burn scars and don’t use your bare hands to remove it.
After removing it from the oven, I let it cool at room temperature. Then, I open it and split it lengthwise with a sharp knife. Using a fork, I begin pulling the meat of the sweet potato away from the skin. Then, put the pulp into a bowl and season it.
This particular sweet potato is going to be used for a sweet potato soup.
Make ahead and storage
Luckily, you can bake sweet potatoes ahead of time and make it part of your meal prep. Refrigerate just the pulp or the whole baked sweet potato.
You can also put it in the freezer. Wrap after it bakes and cool in parchment paper and place it in a Ziploc bag. Put the baking date on it, freeze and use it up within a month of baking it.
Alternatively, you can store it in an airtight container like these (Affiliate Link) glass containers which are freezer and oven friendly.
March 2018 Update:
Over the years, I have been asked several questions about the baked sweet potatoes, so here are some answers to FAQ about baking sweet potatoes:
Sweet Potato FAQs
Yes! sweet potatoes are healthy in general because they have a heavy dose of Vitamin A. According to Wikipedia, 100g of sweet potato has about 89% of the RDA.
Baking the sweet potato brings out all its flavors and nutrition.
Yes, the skin is edible after baking the sweet potato. However, some people don’t like the taste. In that case, compost it instead of discarding it. Or, you can roast the skin separately! This roasted crispy skin can be an easy game day appetizer.
Yes, you can bake them in the microwave, but should you? No, I don’t recommend it at all!! Microwave zaps out the nutrition, cooks the sweet potato unevenly and it looses some of its sweetness. Instead, go with an air fryer to bake them.
Yes, after they are cooked, they should be refrigerated, if used within a week. Freeze them and use within 6 months.
You can choose 425° and bake for 65 minutes, placed on an oven rack and not on a baking tray. I have always baked sweet potato at 400° for about 55 minutes. Depending on your oven, they can take about 45-60 minutes to be fully baked.
I have read studies where that theory is disputed and I have seen studies where that theory is proved. The bottom line is that there is no firm study that prove the link.
If you are making this perfect sweet potato every day, then maybe using an aluminum foil might be problematic. Using aluminum foil once in a while is ok.
Truth is, Alzheimers is very complicated and there is no one source.
I like using foil because it circulates the heat evenly. At the end of the day, you have to do what you think is right for you. No judgments here!
So, now you know my 5 tips for baking a sweet potato. What are your tips for making a perfect oven-baked sweet potato recipe?
Try these other sweet potato recipes
- Sweet potato wedges
- Sticky sweet potato fries
- Air Fryer Sweet potato cubes
- Air fryer candied sweet potato slices
Sharing is caring
Don’t be shy, chime in below in the comments. Let me hear your opinion on this recipe. If you enjoyed this, please give it 5 stars and share it on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Youtube.
5 Tips For Baking The Perfect Sweet Potato
Ingredients
- 1 Sweet potato
- 2 tsp Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Wash and dry the sweet potato thoroughly. Use a vegetable scrubbing brush if you have to.
- Poke holes in the potato using a fork. I poke the potato in about 5 different locations
- Lightly oil the sweet potato
- Using aluminum foil, wrap the potato. Don’t wrap it too tightly.
- Bake for 65 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the potato in the oven.
- Remove from the oven and allow it to cool to touch
- Open the foil and split the sweet potato lengthwise.
- Using a fork, pull the pulp away from the skin and place the pulp in a bowl
You can discard the skin or use it in a loaded sweet potato recipe
Video
Nutrition
Your 2 descriptions and I followed the first one to a tea and used a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. Then I put a knife in and they are hard inside. That’s when I saw a second set of instructions that say 425 degree oven for 45-50 minutes. Now I’m sitting here trying to determine how much longer to cook these sweet potatoes that aren’t cooked. I should have looked at both sets of instructions, but I didn’t know anything else was below the detailed recipe.
Thank you, Patricia. I have fixed the instructions. It should be 400° for 65 minutes.
I’m sold on baking sweet potatoes. This is by far the best tasting method that I’ve tried. I use avocado oil instead of olive oil though because olive oil is unstable at high heat so you lose the benefits of the olive oil in this case. I might try with butter sometime. ☺
Thanks for your tips. I have never been a fan of sweet potatoes but after read your article and when i know about this recipes i am interested about it.And it totally changed that completely. I think it will be a delicious one. I will must try it as soon as possible.
I am so happy to hear that, Andres. I think you will love sweet potatoes now. Baking them has changed my eating habit and I love how delicious they taste.
Thank you for this amazing article/post! I’m venturing on a health kick and going back to my fruits and vegetable roots. I’m just off of a 4 day water fast and I’m eating healthy, easy to digest foods and this is how I found you!
For those of us that don’t like to use tinfoil in direct contact with our food, first wrap your s.p. in parchment, then loosely wrap it in foil. 🙂
Thanks for the great suggestion, Noreen. 🙂
microwaves “zap away” some of the “nutrition”. Clearly you don’t know how microwaves work and you don’t know what you’re talking about. Educate yourself.
Phil, where in my post do I say that its ok to microwave?? I am against microwaving anything unless absolutely necessary. I think you should read the whole post before you leave troll comments.
I think Phil was taking issue with the fact that you said that microwaves “zap away nutrition”. He is pro microwave, it seems
It’s true! It is not a good idea to microwave them!
Thank you, Jimmy
Microwaves have been known to “Kill” whatever kind of fooditem you are cooking.
Discard the skin?? DISCARD THE SKIN??? WHY????? Fiber, vitamins…UH….NO , don’t discard the skin, eat that bad boy. Your insides will smile and say thank you.
I’m with you! The skin is not only good for you it’s my favorite part!
My thoughts exactly! Eat the skin.
I only eat organic and I always eat the skin! When I made these the skin was peeling off when I touched them. Next time I’ll poke a few holes in the top of the foil to let some of the steam out and cut back on the olive oil (though I barely used any at all) They did taste delicious and I will make these again.
HAHAHA YES DONT DISCARD, i only add honey and butter so far it is very good.
I also added cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little vanilla. Just great!!
Thank you, Camille
Perfect recipe! I had quite a big potato so I had to cook it for 1 1/2 hrs. But it was just right!! Thx for posting it????
Burn scares, huh? I’m glad you didn’t actually GET burned!
Thank you, Elizabeth. Actually, I do have quite a few burn scars to proof it, lol
I am 74 y.o and this is the best Sweet Potato I have ever had. Thank you so much. I like the skin (lots of nutrients and fiber) and these were perfect.
Thank you, Lousie. 🙂
Perfect sweet potato:) thanks
I read your 5 tips, but I use Crisco on mine and I bake at 350 instead of 400 for 55 to 60 mins depending on the size of the potatoes I also place them on a cookie sheet. Thanks for sharing.
I try to keep sweet potatoes for two or three weeks before I bake them. It seems the juices come out more.
I know this is a very old post, but wow! I’ve never cooked sweet potatoes in my life ever but had the biggest pregnancy craving when I did my food shopping yesterday so I had to get some I was really worried as I had no idea how to tackle them but after coming across your method I must say I just had the most beautiful dinner, I’m very greatful I did some research first instead of just throwing them in a pot on the stove because the flavour in them was truely amazing and it was so simple to do following your instructions and the extra time in the oven after the 45 minutes really did finish it off. Will be keeping this method in mind for this year as a healthy baby food go to when my bub reaches the age. Thank you!
Used all your tips, but because my sweet potatoes were rather large, I baked them for an hour & 10mins. SHEER PERFECTION! I make a twice baked sweet potato pie & these tips made it SO much easier. Silky texture! Thank you!
I would love to have your twice baked sweet potatoe pie recipe if you wouldn’t mind sharing it. I ❤️????π !
Followed the recipe to a T, and they were truly the best sweet potatoes I have ever had! Thank you!
I followed your advice (except that I forgot to poke holes), and the sweet potatoes were terrific, probably the best I’ve ever done. I’m not much of a cook, but I was pleased to take them with me on an outing, and share them with friends
Strangely, they even seemed sweeter than usual — maybe I just got lucky and got a good batch.
I made one small goof. I cooked one more sweet potato than I needed for the outing, and left it for a few hours still wrapped in foil. Leaving it in the foil was a mistake. I should have taken the foil off. It ended up soggy.
I like to cook them in foil and then for the last 10 minutes or I take off the aluminum foil and dry it out out little it also concentrates the sugar a little so it’s sweeter.
Joe
I’m going to try this tomorrow. I like sweet potatoes plain. I think they’re plenty sweet and I just mash them up with a spoon and I think they’re great. I read and rejected various sweet potato recipes for Thanksgiving b/c they all contained so much sugar. Why is that necessary?
I came across this and decided to try it. I’m glad that I did! The sweet potato came out very nice and tasted great! When you mentioned about scrubbing the potato really well I thought I’ll have to use my fruit and veggie scrub cloth for that! That thing works awesome on regular potatoes, carrots, and to get silk off corn, should work great on sweet potatoes and sure enough it did! Thanks for the tips!!
I read your 5 tips for a perfect baked sweet potato. I do one thing you don’t do. I wrap the potato in foil and then I poke holes all around. I hope you try my way, thanks for all of your cooking tips. Happy Thanksgiving. Kathy Beardsley
Thank you, Katharine. That’s a great tip. Going to try it next time.
I wouldn’t do it that way, as you might push the foil into the potato which would not be good. Maybe poke the holes in the foil separately? Rest it on a towel or cutting board to get the holes, and then wrap.
Dear Healing Tomato,
What do you suggest if I want to follow your recipe but then I want to take these foil-wrapped sweet potatoes to a Sat evening dinner at someone else’s house? I want each person to open their own & add sweetener & cinnamon or whatever to it, only if they want, as several in the group are diabetic & prefer it plain. Do you think they’ll stay ok if left in the foil for the 40 min drive to dinner destination? Then, do you think we can warm them up again briefly in oven upon arrival?
Thank you, Linda. If you have one of those Keep Warm bag, put them in it, you will be ok. If possible, bake them 3/4 of the way and then take them to your destination and complete the cooking process when you get there.
Just tried this! Wound up having to bake an additional 15 minutes, an hour total plus the 15 min of sitting in the oven, but maybe my potatoes were bigger. Regardless, they look beautiful and the potato feels really smooth, puts the microwaved version to absolute shame.
Thank you, Meg. I really appreciate it. I will update the post with a few more instructions.