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Baked Barbecue Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

Sweet potatoes are so good for you, and they make great fries too. This easy barbecue sweet potato fries recipe is big on flavor and ready in under an hour.

Just before 2010 began, I swore I would lose all this excess weight before I turned 30 in June. I did lose weight … and kept it off … but I didn’t lose the mass of weight I intended. Heck, I really didn’t come close.

Still, recently several of my friends have mentioned that I look thinner these days. It’s always nice to hear that. And those pictures from Cape Cod? They are a vast improvement over last year. But 2010 isn’t over yet. There is still time for me to make a difference. And some simple changes can put me (or anyone) on the right path again. Choosing fruits and veggies over sweets. Sticking to lean proteins. Exercising more. I can do it.

When it comes to healthy choices, choosing baked over fried is generally a good idea. Choosing sweet potatoes over white potatoes? Also a good idea. According to World’s Healthiest Foods, sweet potatoes are rich in vitamins A and C, both antioxidants, as well as a number of other nutrients. So, these baked sweet potato fries? Perfect.

Almost three years ago, I started making sweet potato fries (successfully) at home. Shawn, who swore he’d never like them, fell in love with sweet potatoes. It was a life-changing moment for our family (Shawn, for his part, has become way more open-minded about food over the years).

It’s been a while since I came up with a new seasoning mix for our sweet potato fries, so I decided to work on that recently. The idea of barbecue (think along the lines of barbecue potato chips) popped into my head. I couldn’t seem to escape it. So, I got to work.

My Baked Barbecue Sweet Potato Fries were a huge hit. Paige dove right in and asked for seconds. Will, who usually only eats a few, ate all of his and went back for a few more too. Me? It took considerable restraint to save some for Shawn (but I did!).

The flavor of these sweet potato fries is rich, sweet and complex — definitely barbecue in nature. The sweet potato fries are sweet, but not in a bad or artificial way. And making them? It takes a little less than an hour from start to finish and is worth every second.

Do you love sweet potatoes?

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Baked Barbecue Sweet Potato Fries

Baked Barbecue Sweet Potato Fries

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 x 1/4-inch strips
  • 1/4 cup extra light olive oil
  • 1 tsp dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil (highly recommended, since it prevents sticking).
  2. Add the sweet potatoes and olive oil to a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, mix together the dark brown sugar, salt, cumin, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Don't be afraid to get in their with your fingers to get it mixed well.
  4. Add the brown sugar mixture to the potatoes and stir well to combine. Again, use your hands to get it really well-combined.
  5. Pour the fries onto prepared baking sheet. Slide into the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, stirring and flipping the fries every 15 minutes or so. The fries are done when they are lightly browned.

More Sweet Potato Fries Recipes

Jen Salenger

Thursday 11th of November 2010

Dear Sarah,

These look delicious! I can't wait to try them~

I very much enjoy your blog and recipes, and have been following you for some time now. For convenience I syndicate all my blogs through Google Reader, and when I first started following yours it was especially convenient for sharing directly with friends and family. Since a recent update in your site, the content of your posts in RSS has diminished greatly, and I see barely any of the post. This has drastically reduced my concentration/draw to continue reading your blog because there is little content to draw me in (like delicious photos). I hope that you at least consider changing the format of your syndicated posts, so that RSS readers like myself will continue to be drawn into your tasty posts like before!

Thanks!

The Teacher Cooks

Wednesday 3rd of November 2010

With the abundance of sweet potatoes in my CSA box i will be trying these fries. I love the idea of the BBQ seasoning!

Donna

Monday 1st of November 2010

Baked. Barbecue. Sweet Potato Fires. Three things I would never have put together. They sound fabulous!

Linda

Friday 29th of October 2010

That sounds delicious. I love sweet potato fries but I can never cut them into similar sizes so that they don't burn unevenly.

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