Honey Butter Roasted Sweet Potatoes (Easy Caramelized Side!)

Ingredients

• 2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Flaky or freshly ground sea salt, for finishing

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.
• Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into roughly 1-inch cubes.
• Add the sweet potatoes to the baking sheet and drizzle with the melted butter, honey and olive oil.
• Sprinkle with kosher salt and black pepper, then toss until every piece is thoroughly coated.
• Spread the sweet potatoes into a single layer with a little room between them. Piling them into one giant orange heap will steam them, and we have considerably higher aspirations for these potatoes.
• Roast for 15 minutes, then flip the sweet potatoes.
• Roast for another 10–15 minutes, until tender inside and deeply golden and caramelized around the edges.
• Give them another few minutes if necessary. We want those sticky dark edges. That’s where all the fabulousness happened.
• Finish with a few cracks of sea salt while they’re still hot.
• Serve immediately and try not to eat half the pan while allegedly transferring them to a serving dish..;)

Variations

• Cut them about the same size. Nobody needs to measure individual potatoes, but keeping the cubes roughly uniform means we don’t end up with half raw and half sweet-potato charcoal.
• Give them room. Crowding creates steam. If your baking sheet looks like sweet-potato rush hour, grab a second one.
• Don’t skimp on the finishing salt. Honey + butter + those little hits of sea salt is what takes these from perfectly nice vegetables to “why are we still standing over the baking sheet eating these?”
• Add orange. Toss in a little fresh orange zest before serving or add a small squeeze of orange juice at the end. This is especially fabulous for the holidays — and conveniently makes our gorgeous photo even more appropriate. 😉
• Add cinnamon. If you want a warmer fall version, add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon before roasting. Cinnamon has once again been given optional status instead of being permitted to commandeer the entire vegetable.
• Make them spicy. Add a pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes before roasting. Sweet + salty + spicy is rarely a bad decision.
• Add pecans. Toss chopped pecans onto the pan during the final 5 minutes for some crunch.
• Try maple. Swap the honey for pure maple syrup for an easy maple-butter version.
• Go savory. Skip the honey, add garlic powder and fresh rosemary or thyme, and we’ve wandered into an entirely different but equally fabulous sweet-potato situation.

These are fabulous next to our Honey Garlic Pork Chops, French Onion Chicken, our juicy Garlic Butter Chicken or Hot Honey Salmon when you want something considerably more exciting than another sensible vegetable..;)

And if you’re assembling a bigger spread, add our Lemon Parmesan Asparagus or Crispy Roasted Cauliflower for something green alongside all this buttery caramelized nonsense.

And if you’re building out the whole dinner situation, our Brown Butter Parmesan Mashed Potatoes and Garlic Parmesan Roasted Green Beans can handle the rest of the plate.