Crunchy Sweet Potato Fries

So many of us know the struggle - you go to the restaurant and their sweet potato fries are divine: crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, salted just right and you think “I really have to cook these at home”. You get home, start making your sweet potato fries and it all turns out to be a disaster: soggy, soft, too salty, not salty enough and all you can think it “what have I done wrong?” “Can it really be that hard?”.

I also had my fare share of sweet potato fry fails and was so sad after each time because I really craved them and was left eating something else as they had turned out to be inedible. After many attempts and after getting many tips and tricks from chefs I finally found the essential steps to making the most delicious sweet potato fries.

1) Cut your fries evenly

This might sound like an obvious statement but you really underestimate what a difference it will make if all your fries are plus or minus the same size. The best size would be around 0.5 cm to 0.7 cm but you don’t have to be overly precise. The important thing is that they are not overly thick or else they won’t cook properly and that they are not overly thin.

2) Ice cold bowl

This sounds crazy but in my opinion it’s the most important part of successful sweet potato fry making. After you have evenly cut your fries place them in a bowl of ice cold water for minimum 30 min (but you can also leave them overnight). This step is crucial as it will remove the excess starch from the fries - and starch is what doesn’t let our fries get crunchy. What I like to do is take actual ice and put it in a bucket with cold water to make it even colder. After your fries have bathed, rinse them and dry them with a kitchen towel.

3) Oil them up

If you are oven baking your fries (which is the healthy alternative to frying) sprinkle some oil on them (not too much they don’t need to be swimming in oil) but just enough.

4) Cornstarch

Your sweet potato fries don’t need any flour - what they need is a coat of cornstarch! After you have oiled them sprinkle some cornstarch over them. This is also the moment when you can add any “tastes” to your fries (e.g. garlic powder, herbs).

5) Time to bake!

Take out your parchment paper (baking paper) and place your fries on it. Make sure you are not making a mountain of fries that are one on top of the other or else they will never cook properly. Lay them out evenly and separately like little soldiers. Bake the fries at 200°C or even 220°C depending on your oven - they should get baked at a high heat in order to make them crispier. The fries will take around 15/20 min to bake but it’s important you keep an eye on them, every oven is different and you want to hit the sweet spot when it comes to your fries. Some people remove the fries from the oven and turn them around after around 10 min but I do realize that is a lot of effort so you can skip this step.

6) They are out

Once the fries are out of the oven salt them lightly (you can always add more salt later) and let them rest for another 3 minutes before eating them. After the little wait dig in and enjoy them!

Additional Tips

I love to add Parmesan to the fries when they are out of the oven or sprinkle some truffle oil on them! You can also enjoy them with a spicy jalapeno sauce or any other sauce you like.

If you are frying the sweet potato fries you can follow the same steps until step 3 and then fry them at medium heat using sunflower oil.