Several years ago, a friend introduced me to a concept called “the French fry feeling.” Basically, it’s a feeling you get after talking too much, often about somebody else, possibly in not such a nice way – you know, gossiping. And then realizing you probably shouldn’t have gossiped quite so … enthusiastically. Which, strangely enough, is very similar to the feeling one might get after wolfing down a giant portion of French fries.
Well, the beauty of this spicy baked sweet potato fries recipe is that you don’t get the French fry feeling after eating them. Unless you gossiped with a friend while doing so.
I will say that these baked sweet potato fries are very easy to wolf down. I’ve used many tricks in the book to help make these guys as crisp as possible – not easy with baked sweet potato fries. The most important? Use corn starch! Tossing sweet potato fries in corn starch after cutting them helps them to crisp up nicely in the oven. Feels weird to do but totally, totally worth it. (I did some research to try to pinpoint the first online source to publish this trick, and as far as I can tell, it came from The Art of Doing Stuff. Lots of brilliant crisp sweet potato fry tips here!)
If you’re not sure about the “spicy” part of this recipe, just leave off the spices and go with a little salt and pepper. Still delish. But if you do go with the spices, be sure to whip up some of the cool Greek yogurt ranch to serve alongside. It cools the bit of fire – and sweet potato fries + ranch are a match made in heaven. Trust.
Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Cool Greek Yogurt Ranch
Ingredients
Spicy Baked Sweet Potato Fries:
- 2 medium sweet potatoes
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoons pure maple syrup or brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (add more for more heat)
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt or fine-grain sea salt + more to taste
Cool Greek Yogurt Ranch:
- 3/4 cup Greek yogurt (I use full-fat)
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
- 1-2 garlic cloves (smashed and finely minced (about 2 heaping teaspoons))
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon fresh minced dill
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (plus more to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (plus more to taste)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Scrub sweet potatoes or peel off the skin, if you desire (I like to leave it on). Cut sweet potatoes into approx. 1/4-inch matchsticks. Put sweet potatoes into a large bowl and sprinkle the cornstarch over the top. Toss with your clean hands until all of the fries are coated. Drizzle with olive oil and toss again. Add maple syrup or brown sugar, chili powder, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and salt. Toss until all of the fries are coated.
- Lay fries on a baking sheet, making sure there is a little space around each fry - don't crowd or pile them! Depending on the size of your baking sheet, you may need to use two (I do).
- Place in oven and bake until golden brown and many are crisp, about 25 minutes, turning carefully at right around the 15 minute mark. Remove fries from oven and let cool a bit.
- While the fries are baking, make your ranch dip. In a small bowl, stir together all of the dip ingredients. Taste and add more salt and pepper if desired.
- Add more salt to the fries if you like. Serve warm with the ranch dip.
More baked sweet potato snacks
Chili-Lime Baked Sweet Potato Fries from Connoisseurus Veg
Baked Garlic Sweet Potato Fries from Damn Delicious
Garlic Rosemary Baked Sweet Potato Chips from Oh My Veggies
Sweet Potato Nuggets with Apple Cider Dipping Sauce from Oh My Veggies
Crispy Cornmeal Sweet Potato Fries from My New Roots
I have tried the corn starch trick without much luck. Maybe I’ll have to give it another try. While I don’t mind soft baked sweet potatoes, my husband loathes them and begs me to deep fry them to make them “crispy like you get in a restaurant.” haha! I love the look of your dipping sauce, too! I definitely need to give this recipe a try.
I can’t wait to give these a try! and that dip!!! pinning!
That is a really cool trick about the corn starch – will have to try it. Totally get the “french fry feeling” in both respects – and glad to find something yummy to avoid it 🙂
Thank you for the tip of using cornstarch to help keep the sweet potato fires crisp. I would never have thought to do that.
Kathleen
CORN STARCH! Gotcha – I can never get my fries crispy enough in the oven and it drives me nuts! I’ll have to try your little trick yum!!!!
These are just made for nights on the couch with a good movie and a glass of wine, oh and a friend to help share in the fries and gossip 🙂
Because sometimes the French fry feeling is worth it after all! 😀 Thanks Amy!
Ahaha! I love that – “the french fry feeling”! I know that feeling oh so well and it does NOT feel good. I’m glad you’ve come up with a french fry that won’t give you that feeling afterward. These look wonderful!
I am really rating the yogurt dip here, as I had already made the fries before finding this recipe while searching for a healthy dip using plain greek yogurt! But the Sweet Potato recipe here looks so good, I will have to try it next time. The yogurt dip really does have a ranch taste and is so good! Since the fries that I made didn’t have much spice, I added a sprinkling of ancho pepper and 1/8 tsp smoked paprika to the dip for an extra kick (still mild, though). It tasted great, thanks so much for sharing!
Also, in the recipe for the sweet potato fries, do you know of any alternatives to corn starch for getting the fries to be crisp? We’re avoiding corn products due to an allergy in the family. I’ve tried egg whites before but found the taste to be too strong (I don’t want my fries to taste like eggs!). Any suggestions would be appreciated!