Baked Sweet Potatoes with Smokey Chipotle Maple Butter

5 from 1 vote

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Smokey Chipotle Maple Butter

These Baked Sweet Potatoes with Smokey Chipotle Maple Butter are soft and moist and drizzled with the most addictive smoky and sweet butter to round out the entire bite!

Prep Time15

Cook Time1

Total Time1 15

Course: Lunch, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Servings: people

Author: Gaby Dalkin

Ingredients

For the Baked Sweet Potatoes

6 sweet potatoes of similar weight and size
4 tablespoons kosher salt
½ cup roasted pecans chopped
Flaky salt for serving

For the Smokey Chipotle Maple Butter

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 chipotles in adobo minced
1 tablespoon adobo sauce
1 clove garlic minced

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with foil.
Wash each sweet potato thoroughly and, while still wet, generously rub kosher salt over the entire surface. Place the potatoes directly on the foil-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining sweet potatoes.
Bake for 45-60 minutes, until the inside is tender and the skin is crisp. Flip the sweet potatoes halfway through baking (around the 25-minute mark) for even cooking. To test for doneness, pierce a sweet potato with a sharp paring knife; it should slide in without resistance.
When ready to serve, slice the top of each sweet potato lengthwise. Using a kitchen towel to protect your hands, gently squeeze from the sides to open it up. Fluff the inside with a fork.
Serve immediately with Smoky Chipotle Maple Butter, a sprinkle of chopped pecans, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the Smoky Chipotle Maple Butter

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), combine the softened butter and remaining ingredients for the butter. Beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until well mixed and fluffy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Use immediately on freshly baked sweet potatoes, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. Let it soften slightly before serving if chilled.

Notes

Pick sweet potatoes the same size. Same size means same cook time. Mismatched potatoes give you one perfectly tender and one still rock-hard at the 60-minute mark.
Prick all over with a fork before baking. Eight to ten holes per potato lets steam escape. Skip this and you risk the explosion-in-the-oven situation, which is a real thing.
Salt the skins before baking. Rub each potato with a thin film of olive oil, then a heavy pinch of kosher salt. The skin gets crispy and flavorful, and the salt seasons the flesh as it bakes.
Bake at 425°F, not 400°F. The higher heat is what caramelizes the sugars in the flesh and pushes them through the skin. You'll see syrupy droplets on the foil at minute 50, that's the sign you nailed it.
Bake on a rimmed sheet, not directly on the rack. The sugars leak. The sheet catches them and saves your oven floor.
Make the compound butter at room temp, never melted. Soft butter creams with the chipotle, maple, and brown sugar to make a spreadable, structured topping. Melted butter just runs off and pools sadly on the plate.
Mince the chipotles fine, not chunked. Big chunks deliver inconsistent heat (one bite blazing, one bite bland). Mincing distributes the smoky flavor evenly through the butter.
Use unsalted butter and salt to taste. The chipotle adobo is salty on its own. Starting with unsalted butter lets you control the final seasoning.
Toast the pecans until they smell like baking. 6 to 8 minutes at 350°F or 4 minutes in a dry pan. Raw pecans have no flavor; toasted ones bloom into the buttery, caramelized topping this dish needs.
Split with a fork, not a knife. Press a fork down the length of the potato and pull the ends together. The flesh fluffs up and creates more surface area for the butter to grab.
Roll leftover butter into a log and freeze. Wrap it in parchment, slice into rounds, freeze. Pull a round any time you bake a sweet potato, a winter squash, or even a steak. This butter is a year-round MVP.

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