You’re gonna love this tip for getting a crispy sweet potato fry and it uses less grease. How’s that for a win?
If you’ve ever made sweet potato fries before, you know it’s almost impossible to get them crispy. This is because they lack the starch that a white potato like a russet has. Their unique makeup when it comes to starch and moisture levels makes them a bit tricky to crisp up into a French fry.
Tips for Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
After a little research, we found the best tips for air fryer sweet potato fries and it only requires one more step than our Air Fryer French Fries.
- Toss them in starch before cooking. The starch helps to create a rigid structure on the outside of the fry so the inside is nice and soft and the outside is crispy.
- Don’t overcrowd the air fryer basket (this one comes highly recommended). Sweet potato fries are especially sensitive to over-crowding, so when you arrange them in the air fryer basket, make sure you are leaving plenty of space between the fries. You may have to cook them in batches, but if you want them crispy, it’s a must!
- Cut them into thin strips. This is key if you have large sweet potato wedges because it’s really difficult to get them crispy. Keeping a small and uniform shape is important.
- Oil the basket. Make sure you’ve oiled the air fryer basket so the sweet potato fries don’t stick. Tossing them in the oil isn’t enough because of the naturally occurring sugars. A basic vegetable oil is fine.
Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
You’re gonna love this tip for getting a crispy sweet potato fry and it uses less grease. How’s that for a win?
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 medium sweet potato
- 1 tsp. corn starch
- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- ⅛ tsp. salt (or to taste)
Instructions
- Wash and peel potato. Cut potato in half lengthwise and then cut each half in half again, so that you end up with 4 strips of potato, about 1 /4 – 1 /2 inch thick. Then cut the strips into fry shapes. If your potato is longer, you may want to cut it down the middle crosswise and then cut lengthwise.
- Place cut potato strips in a bowl of cool water. Soak for at least 40 minutes. Carefully lift the potatoes out of the bowl, so that you don’t disturb the starch that has settled at the bottom of the bowl. Pat dry with a paper towel and place sweet potatoes into a zip top bag. Add starch to bag and shake until combined. Add oil to bag and shake again.
- Spread out fries in the air fryer basket. An average size sweet potato will take two batches. Cook at 370°F for 8 minutes. Shake basket and increase temperature to 400°F for another 6 minutes. Season with salt to taste.
This post originally appeared in December 2018 and was revised and republished in June 2020.
I made half a sweet potato and enjoyed the fries very much. Very crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. Did not have to cook it at 400 for 20 min. They were almost done after 8 minutes so only cooked them an addition 2.
★★★★★
Great, Sandy! Thanks for letting us know.