Sweet potatoes are high up on my totem pole of necessary “weekly staples”. Not the want category, but the “NEED” level one. I can’t sing enough praises to this healthier cousin of white spuds for helping this girl curb her carby, sweet cravings. If you can believe it; I used to hate on sweet potatoes without actually having truly tried them. WHO knew that slicing and dicing them into cubes OR fries and adding extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, pepper, PLUS my secret spice mix (deets in this recipe!) could be such a game changer. But it is. Read: you must try these.

If you must know, fries are my ultimate savory weakness. I love them as much as I love a cup of coffee in the morning- and that’s saying a lot. Most days, I don’t necessary have a sweet tooth; but ANY day is a good day for fries. These sweet potato fries bring 2 things to you:

1. the best spice mix, EVER!
2. tricks to make oven-baked fries “crispy”

The reason why standard fries are crispy as hell is because they’re bathed in oil at REALLY high temperatures. Job done. So trying to make oven-baked fries crispy is not always easy; but am here with four tried and tested tricks that will amp your fries at-home technique. Homemade fries are a much healthier alternative, because you can control the kind of oil you use and the amount of oil you use. Both things you relinquish completely when you buy fries versus rolling up your sleeves and making them yourself.

For this recipe you can use either extra virgin olive oil or high-heat avocado oil; I’ve tried both with great results. Flavor-wise, I think I prefer extra virgin olive oil. But hey, it’s time to disclose our first trick. After you use your oil of choice to coat and toss the fries when seasoning them, give them one final spray right before you put them into the oven. This will make them even crispier; especially on the ends and top.

The second trick is pretty easy, you bake your fries at 400F for 2-30 mins, but you finish them off in the broiler (broil on high for 3-5 mins) but make sure your oven rack is not too high in the oven and close to the broil burner, or they will burn pretty quickly. Nothing too crazy, right?

The third trick is to always let them cool, preferably on a baking rack the way you would with sweet treats like cookies so that they can harden and not get soggy if left on a hot baking sheet for too long. They’re nice warm, yes. So you can re-warm them right before serving for an even crispier effect. And friends, if you happen to make these the night before (and manage to not eat them all) refrigerate them in a glass tup with a lid and warm them up in the oven right before serving them the following day. I can’t tell you how well this final trick works. And no, they don’t taste like old fries. Especially if you give them a nice spritz of avocado or EVOO right before throwing them back in the oven.

But wait; THERE is a fourth trick. Updating this blog post to share the fourth tried and tested hack to the crispiest  fries of your life, because it is, perhaps the most important one. You will need 1 heaping tablespoon of: cornstarch! Cornstarch is a thickening agent and helps get the sides your fries nice and crunchy. I typically use cornstarch in my soups and gravy; to get it nice and velvety.. well, it takes these fries to the finish line- I promise!