Spicy Breaded Sweet Potato Fries

Howdy!

Today I am excited to share with you a recipe that I have been working on for a while.  My goal was to come up with sweet potato fries that were healthy and crispy.  I came pretty close and I am still pleased with my original Crispy Sweet Potato Fries recipe, but today’s recipe has an actual crunch to it!

I did a sampling a couple of weeks ago with three sweet potato fry variations.  I did one with crushed cornflakes, one with just egg white, and one with panko bread crumbs.  The cornflakes were nice and crispy, but I found the cornflake taste, was a little over powering of the sweet potato.  The egg white one was ok, but not the crisp I was looking for, but it did have a nice flavor.  The third one was with panko breadcrumbs.  It turned out crispy, had a crunch when you bit it and the flavor of the bread crumbs was not overbearing at all!  It was the winner!!!  This is a bad picture, but here is what all three looked like when I took the photo a couple of weeks ago.  You can see why they never made it to my blog.  Not very pretty.

I found a few key things that make the fries perfectly crisp.  First thing you need to do is slice your potato into fry shape, then soak the sweet potato in water for 30 minutes.  Doing this gets out the starch.   Dry them off then dip them in a foamy egg white and water bath.  Making sure you whip the egg whites until it’s foamy and bubbly.  This gives the potato a nice coating without getting soggy, plus it adds to the crispness.  Once you dip your potato in the egg whites, I took the potato and dipped it in a panko bread crumb mixture which included all my spices.  Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until they are nice and crispy.  The cooking time really depends on how thick you cut your fries.  I cut mine pretty thin, since I was hungry and I didn’t want to wait forever for them.

Since I like my food more on the spicy side, I decided to add a pinch of cayenne pepper, ground pepper and Cajun seasoning to my breadcrumbs.  It made for a nice kick of heat, but not to spicy, at least I don’t think so.  But for me that wasn’t enough heat.  I served these with a side of ketchup with Franks Hot Sauce mixed in it.  Oh man!  I love this combination!!  These fries were perfect and satisfied my french fry craving.  I like that you can make these without deep-frying them, though I would imagine they would friggen out of this world deep-fried, but I don’t need that extra fat, not to mention the mess deep-frying makes!  I  have to tell you I am very HAPPY with this recipe and will be making these again and again!!  Can you believe a sweet potato fry that is baked and crispy!!  I LOVE it!

You have no idea how excited I was to share this recipe with you!  I couldn’t wait to make them again and have a little better pictures to share with you.   Every time my Husband and I go somewhere for a burger or hot dog I look for sweet potato fries.  I get so disappointed when they are not on the menu.   I do order them if they are deep-fried, because I love the taste so much, but I am sooooooooo happy that I can make these at home completely guilt-free.  These fries will go perfect with my at home burgers or sandwiches or just to eat a big plate of them for a stand alone dinner.  I have been known to make fries and just eat that as my meal.  I know, I know, but they’re good!  he he

I’m off, yet again!  Have a great day!

Toodles,

Jennifer