How to make crispy sweet potato fries for any occasion! This easy photo tutorial includes all the tips and tricks you need to know to make the crispiest, most delicious baked sweet potato fries! If you have an air fryer, this post includes instructions for air fryer sweet potato fries!
If there’s one food against which I’m completely defenseless, it’s sweet potato fries.
The crunch. That sweetness. The goo. Hand me a small bowl (or vat) of ketchup and it.is.over.
While the simple pleasure of dipping a perfectly crispy sweet potato fry in ketchup or chipotle dipping sauce is marvelous enough on its own, I am fully obsessed with any sort of loaded fry situation. Cheese? Meat? Caramelized onions? Pepperoncinis? Extra sauces? Something I’ve never even heard of? Let.me.in!!
I’ve been making oven baked sweet potato fries for over a decade, and along the way I learned two key tricks to making them extra crispy and perfectly cooked:
- Soak the cut sweet potatoes
- Tapioca flour
Let us discuss.
Tricks For Making Sweet Potato Fries Crispy:
It’s so easy to make your sweet potato fries nice and crispy! I have found soaking the sweet potatoes before baking them and tossing them in tapioca flour helps generate an amazing crisp.
All you do is cut the sweet potatoes into fry shapes (I do about ¼-inch thick and 3 to 4 inches long), soak them for 20 minutes in water. Drain them and use a paper towel to pat them dry – remove as much of the moisture as possible but it’s okay if they’re still a bit damp.
Transfer the fries to a mixing bowl and toss them with tapioca flour, avocado oil and sea salt. Bake, and BOOM! Addiction is made.
The amount of tapioca flour, avocado oil and sea salt you use is entirely dependent on the amount of fries you’re making. Because I love them so much, I usually figure 1 whole sweet potato per person, but most people could probably allot one large sweet potato per two people.
I figured most people would want to bake up 2 large sweet potatoes, so I provided the measurements based on that. 2 large sweet potatoes results in about 5 to 6 cups of cut fries (pre-baking).
Let’s discuss the reason all of this works like a charm…
Ingredients for Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries:
Sweet Potatoes: That amazingly flavorful tuber that becomes sweet like candy on the inside and crispy-crunchy on the outside when baked to perfection. I personally prefer sweet potato fries over regular fries, but that’s neither here nor there.
Tapioca Flour: This simple ingredient is a starch that sticks to the sweet potatoes and coats them with a protective sheath that not only produces a crispy exterior, it helps the potatoes bake evenly so that the interior is molten sweet goodness.
I haven’t tested the recipe using arrowroot starch or cornstarch, but I suspect these would work too. If you try the fries using a different type of starch, be sure to drop a comment to let us know how it worked out!
Avocado Oil: We need a high temperature cooking oil to protect the sweet potatoes through the baking process, and avocado oil is my favorite for said task. It has a high burn temperature, so it withstands the 415 degrees needed to make these baked fries nice and crispy.
Be sure to use plenty of avocado oil! Too little and the fries will turn out overly dry and won’t have a nice crisp to them. Too much and the fries will be soggy. You want them to be noticeably coated but not overly oily before going into the oven. I use 3 tablespoons of avocado oil per two large sweet potatoes. Since sweet potatoes vary greatly in size, you’ll need to use your best judgement of whether you need more or less oil.
Sea Salt: Super key to achieving a delicious fry!! Sea salt also helps with the cooking process so try to not forget it! If you prefer less salt, use 1 teaspoon instead of 2. If you use iodized salt instead of sea salt, cut it down to ½ teaspoon and adjust up to taste. Iodized salt is MUCH saltier than sea salt.
How to Make Crispy Sweet Potato Fries:
Cut the sweet potatoes into fry shapes. Aim for fries that are about ¼ inch thick and 3 to 4 inches long. The exact size doesn’t matter so much as long as all of the fries are about the same size so that they bake evenly.
Once your sweet potatoes are cut, transfer the pieces to a large bowl and fill with water.
Soak the sweet potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes.
After the sweet potatoes have soaked, Preheat the oven to 415 degrees Fahrenheit.
Drain the sweet potatoes into a colander. Use paper towels to pat the fries dry. You want them as dry as possible.
Transfer the sweet potatoes back to a mixing bowl and add the tapioca flour, sea salt, and avocado oil.
Use your hands to toss everything together until the sweet potatoes are well coated.
Spread the sweet potatoes on two oiled (or parchment-lined) baking sheets and spread them into a single layer. Try to leave space between each slice so that the fries bake evenly – if they are touching each other, they won’t crisp up as well.
Bake for 25 to 32 minutes, or until the fries have reached desired done-ness. Note: there’s no need to turn, flip, or stir the fries partway through! In fact, they turn out best when you leave them be.
Remove the fries from the oven and use a metal spatula to scrape underneath the fries to release them from the baking sheets (some of them will likely be stuck. This is normal).
Serve with your choice of dipping sauces and enjoy!
Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries:
- Follow all the same instructions above to pre-soak and coat the fries.
- Heat your Air Fryer to 380 degrees F.
- Transfer fries to the air fryer basket (this will need to be done in two to three batches to avoid overcrowding) and cook for 12 minutes (or until they’re crispy) giving them a shake half-way through.
Also try my Crispy Baked Avocado Fries , Cream Cheese Stuffed Baby Bell Peppers, and Animal Style Fries!
Crispy Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes cut into ¼-inch thick fries
- 3 Tbsp tapioca flour
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil
- 2 tsp sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Cut the sweet potatoes into fry shapes. Aim for fries that are about ¼ inch thick and 3 to 4 inches long.
- Once your sweet potatoes are cut, transfer the pieces to a large bowl and fill with water. Soak the sweet potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 415 degrees F. Drain the sweet potatoes into a colander. Use paper towels to pat the fries dry. You want them as dry as possible.
- Transfer the sweet potatoes back to a mixing bowl and add the tapioca flour, sea salt, and avocado oil. Use your hands to toss everything together until the sweet potatoes are well coated.
- Spread the sweet potatoes on two oiled (or parchment-lined) baking sheets and spread them into a single layer. Try to leave space between each slice so that the fries bake evenly - if they are touching each other, they won’t crisp up as well.
- Bake for 25 to 32 minutes, or until the fries have reached desired done-ness. Note: there’s no need to turn/flip/stir the fries partway through! In fact, they turn out best when you leave them be.
- Remove the fries from the oven and use a metal spatula to scrape underneath the fries to release them from the baking sheets (some of them will likely be stuck. This is normal, and it is why a metal spatula comes in handy!).
- Serve with your choice of dipping sauces and enjoy!
Nutrition
So we tried this in the air fryer and found them to actually not be very crispy. Not sure what we did wrong…possibly too thickly cut, even possibly too much tapioca powder. Will try again with some changes. Thanks
I am very happy to report that cornstarch *definitely* worked, even though I didn’t soak the potatoes. I made them in my Nuwave Pro Plus at 350 for 25 minutes, and the family loves them! Thank you sooo much!
My pleasure!! I’m so happy the fries worked out using cornstarch. Thanks so much for coming back around to provide your review! xoxox
What do I set the oven to? The directions do not state this.
Ah jeez, silly me. 415 for 25 to 32 minutes! Hope you love them, Randye! xoxo