Air-Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
Sweet potatoes cut thin, tossed in cornstarch (the trick) and smoked paprika, air-fried at 400°F until the outsides go properly crisp — not the limp, soft sweet-potato fries you get at most restaurants. Served with ketchup, because ketchup is the right answer.
Sweet potato fries are the side dish that gets ordered in the spirit of healthful intent and arrives, disappointingly, soft. The problem is that sweet potatoes have more sugar and more moisture than regular russet potatoes, which means they want to steam rather than crisp. Restaurants get around this by deep-frying them, which works but is beyond what most home cooks will do for a Tuesday. The air fryer plus one specific trick — a coating of cornstarch — gets you to actual crisp at home.
The cornstarch is critical. A tablespoon tossed with the cut fries before cooking forms a dry coating that wicks away surface moisture and crisps into a thin shell as it cooks. Without it: soft fries. With it: properly crisp fries that hold their structure for a good fifteen minutes after coming out of the basket.
The photo is the finished plate: deeply orange-tan fries on a ceramic plate, with a small ramekin of ketchup at the edge. They've been seasoned with smoked paprika (you can see the slight darker tint) and a generous pinch of salt. The cuts are deliberately uneven — slimmer ones get crispier, fatter ones stay tender in the middle. Variety is good.
Method
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01
Cut
Peel the sweet potatoes. Cut each into ½-inch-thick planks, then cut
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02
Soak (optional but recommended)
Place the cut fries in a bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. This pulls
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03
Toss with cornstarch
In a large bowl, sprinkle the cornstarch over the dry fries and toss
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04
Air fry
Heat the air fryer to 400°F (200°C). Spread the fries in a single
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05
Serve immediately
Sweet potato fries are at their crispest within 5 minutes of cooking.