My easy baked sweet potato fries recipe guarantees crispy, golden-brown outsides with sweet and tender insides. Trust us, you’ll want to make a double batch.
Our family absolutely devours these sweet potato fries! If Joanne is in the kitchen while I’m making them, she starts eating them straight off the sheet pan. That’s why we always recommend making a double batch. Bonus: they’re unbelievably easy to make!
We’re pretty picky about fries, which is why we’re obsessed with how these turn out. Perfectly caramelized and crispy on the outside, yet sweet and tender in the middle. If you love these, be sure to check out some of our other favorites, like our baked french fries, potato wedges, and homemade tater tots.
Key Ingredients
- Sweet potatoes: I like medium sweet potatoes (sometimes sold as yams) for these fries. It doesn’t matter if the label says sweet potato or yam, as long as you buy small-to-medium potatoes with orange flesh. Look for Beauregard, Jewel, or Garnet sweet potatoes. They make the best fries.
- Oil: I use avocado oil or olive oil for coating the fries before baking.
- Salt and pepper: I keep them simple, but this is a great time to bring out seasoned salt or your favorite spice blend (I love this Cajun seasoning).
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Sweet Potato Fries
Tip 1: Don’t worry about peeling. I bake my sweet potato fries in the oven. They’re not quite as crispy as deep-fried fries, but they’re healthier and taste incredible. I don’t bother peeling the sweet potatoes. Just scrub them clean under cold water before slicing.
Tip 2: Cut them thin. It’s up to you how thick you want your fries, but we like them thin and crispy, so we slice them on the thinner side. Cut the sweet potato into slabs, then slice the slabs into thin fries. Watch our video to see exactly how we do it. It’s really easy!
Tip 3: Don’t overcrowd your baking sheet and preheat it. The secret to crispy baked sweet potato fries is giving them plenty of space. If they’re packed too tightly, they’ll steam instead of crisp up. I also like to preheat my baking sheets before adding the fries since it gives them a head start and helps them brown beautifully.
Toss the fries with oil, salt, and pepper, then spread them out on foil- or parchment-lined, preheated baking sheets.
Tip 4: Bake at a higher temperature. Bake the sweet potato fries in a 425°F oven until they’re golden brown and crisp. Depending on how thick you cut them, this usually takes 15 to 25 minutes. Keep an eye on them near the end so they don’t over-brown. Sweet potatoes can go from perfectly caramelized to too dark pretty quickly.
Serving Suggestions
Serve these delicious oven-baked sweet potato fries with burgers, veggie burgers, Caesar salad, sandwiches, and turkey meatloaf. My son also loves these with homemade fish sticks and chicken nuggets.
Depending on your favorite dipping sauce, you can make a homemade sauce alongside them. I love homemade ketchup, mayonnaise, or this creamy honey mustard sauce. Garlic aioli is another favorite, and don’t forget fry sauce!
More Sweet Potato Recipes
Perfect Baked Sweet Potato Fries
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This is my favorite sweet potato fries recipe. The fries bake up with caramelized edges and tender centers every time. Watch our recipe video to see exactly how we cut the sweet potatoes into fries. I like to keep the skins on for extra texture and flavor, but you can peel them if you prefer.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
4 medium sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C). Set aside two baking sheets. The fries caramelize best when placed directly on the baking sheet, but you can line them with aluminum foil for easier cleanup.
2Preheat the baking sheets: Place the baking sheets in the oven while it heats. Preheating them gives the fries a head start and helps them crisp up.
3Prepare the sweet potatoes: Slice the sweet potatoes into ½-inch sticks. Add them to a large bowl and toss with oil, salt, and pepper until evenly coated.
4Arrange the fries: Carefully remove the hot baking sheets from the oven. Divide the sweet potatoes between them and spread into a single layer. Avoid crowding them, if the fries are too close together, they’ll steam instead of brown.
5Bake the fries: Bake the sweet potato fries, turning once and rotating the pans halfway through, until the edges are lightly browned and the centers are tender, 15 to 25 minutes. They’re done when the surface looks dry and puffy. Don’t worry if the edges turn brown; they’ll taste caramelized, not burnt. Serve the fries hot with your favorite dipping sauce and a final sprinkle of salt.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Cornstarch: Some swear by adding a generous pinch of cornstarch to the fries before tossing and baking to make them extra crispy. It really does work, so give it a try if you’d like. We usually skip it because we’re already happy with how crispy the fries turn out as-is.
- Storing leftovers: Store cooled fries in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days. They’ll soften as they sit, but you can easily bring them back to life.
- Re-crisping fries: To reheat, spread the fries on a baking sheet and bake at 400°F (204°C) for 5 to 10 minutes until warmed through and crisp again.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
Have not tried this yet, but sounds delicious.
So good, lost count on how many trays I’ve made and enjoyed already!
That’s great, Gina! So happy you enjoy them so much.
These will definitely be a regular in my snack rotation from today. Thanks!
Enjoy reading & getting ideas
Sounds lovely. Trying them today.
My children demand finger chips most of the days. But baked potato chips look tasty too and can save my time. Even my children can make them in the oven.
Hello there, I just found the website and made the Hummus. It turned out great. Thank you and you made it very easy.I tried Humus recipe from other websites too but this one was the “Best”! Thank you.
Dear Adam / Joanne, I am new to your web-site but have to say I am very impressed with the recipes you have posted. I like the fact that you do not go into ingredients that are not in a normal pantry (ref BBC Food as and example). Already baked your great apple pie and the sweet potato fries (baked) are fantastic. Keep up the great work and remember a lot of us are normal people with simple pantries. Inspired Taste is now my “go-to” site, love it. Jim from Cyprus
The fries were a hit! I will definitely be making these again. I sprinkled the brown sugar, cinnamon, garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper mixture on the fries at the halfway mark. Then we dipped them in caramel syrup! Delicious!
These were quite tasty and didn’t have any of the sweet potato taste that typically turns off the kiddo. Two potatoes easily served 4. I made a tasty mustard/honey combo dip that set these apart. I’ll save this recipe as a good base for making more in the future.
Thanks for all the recipes you’ve featured, they’re so helpful to me inspire me to cook. God bless you.
Can I use coconut oil instead of olive oil?
Yes, definitely.
What could you do if you don’t have aluminum foil?
Baking them right on the baking sheet is fine or baking parchment paper works, too.
A bit of work this one–sweet taters being thicker and harder to cut than regular ones, especially if all you have available are dull knives! The pans should be put on same rack so the fries bake at same time and temp- I had a few burned ones in pan on the the lower rack. Overall it was tasty and healthy alternative to the bagged frozen fries I left in the freezer for this meal.
I made these, and I’m a good cook. This recipe did not work for me. Fries were tasteless and although not mushy, they were hardly crisp. Don’t bother.
Hi Bud, Sorry they did not work well for you. Regarding the taste, we stick to simple salt and pepper for the recipe, but you can always add your favorite spice blend. To get them extra crisp, try the method using cornstarch we mention in the notes section.
They turned out to be delicious! Everyone at home loved it!
It is possible your oven runs a little hot (many ovens do). Next time, try reducing the temperature by 25 degrees. Hopefully that helps!
Just finsh making this i added brown sugar cumin paprika cayenne and galic powder with a dash of cinnamon. It came out perfect and very crispy thank you
Hello, I’m a little confused, you say baking sheets but in the picture you have used foil, which one works better?
Hi Frances, Sorry for the confusion. You can do either. The fries do get a little more browned and crispy without the foil. Then again, foil helps with clean-up. It’s totally up to you.
I made these for dinner today. We had baked talapia and boiled cabbage with onion.Oh,so easy and so o o enjoyable! I also added a couple shakes of cummin and garlic powder to the ingredients. This will be my go to for french fries though they are roasted sweet potatoes.YUM!Thank You!
I just made these. They came out very black. I cut very thick fries so they weren’t too thin but they’re pretty much burnt 🙁 I tried taking them out after 25 minutes and I did turn in between but they weren’t done. They were already black after 15 mins. Maybe the oven temp is too high
Oh, no! Sometimes ovens can run too hot (ours does). You might want to consider buying an oven thermometer to check that what your oven says the temperature is matches the actual temperature. We have one in our oven and it has been so helpful! If you don’t want to invest in that, try reducing the temperature by 25 – 50 degrees next time and see if that helps.
Yummy these are so good.
I live out of town and hubby felt like hot chips, I didn’t have any white potatoes only sweet potatoes so gave your recipe a go. I’ve never tried sweet potatoe fries . Can I say they were bloody delicious.thanks
do they have to be served immediately, or they can wait a while and reheated right before the meal?
Thanks
Used coconut oil instead of the olive oil and it turned out great, sweet and savory! I cook it for thirty minutes instead of twenty five, and they’re very crispy and delicious.
Sounds great! Glad it worked well for you.
I use to make this with regular potatoes and they were great. I am trying to lose weight, so I am wondering about the calories. Does someone know?
This is very similar to the recipe from Weight Watchers. If you are counting points, check out their website. Very FEW points.
Are low points good or bad ? Ty
At the moment we do not provide nutrition facts for our recipes. It is something we are considering, though. For now, a great resource is CalorieCount.com
It allows you to copy the ingredient list of our recipe and paste it into the form. Then it outputs nutritional facts. Hope that helps.
Scrumpdeli ishus! Making these for the second time! I throw some fresh garlic in as well!
Yum … great idea!
Could you use veg oil I dont have olive oil
Yep, that will work fine.
I love baking sweet potato fries! I love using cayenne and cinnamon together. I’m going to try the two-baking sheet trick next time. I must be steaming mine, because they don’t get very crispy. Thanks!!
I just made something similar to this!!! I can not wait to try yours!
This recipe is so badly needed in my household. My husband and I are always trying to make baked SP fries, but we ALWAYS burn them. Well not always. When we don’t burn them, they’re mushy. haha. Thanks for this!
35 minutes or less?! I am in! Great side to lunch or dinner!
I’m terrified of frying but love a good sweet potato fry! Will have to attempt this!