Christmas

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Maple Smoked Bacon and Beer

by:
November 12, 2009
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0 Ratings
Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Maple Smoked Bacon and Beer
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

I created this recipe in honor of San Diego Beer Week, a 10-day beer fest celebrating San Diego's craft beers. I wanted to make a savory dish with beer, other than chili or stew, and settled on seasonal sweet potatoes. I love that this recipe is easy to make yet has layers of flavors -- it's sweet, salty, smoky, and tangy. It's great with beer buddies like pork and beef and goes really well with chicken sandwiches and salmon burgers too. —Food Blogga

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 large orange-fleshed sweet potatoes or Garnet yams
  • olive oil for brushing potatoes
  • 6 strips maple smoked bacon
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 teaspoons light brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup beer, preferably ale or dark ale
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • a few cranks of freshly ground black pepper
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil, for easy clean up. Wash potatoes and pat dry. Rub flesh with a little bit of olive oil. Place flesh side down on the prepared baking sheet
  2. In a large skillet over medium heat, add bacon. Cook, turning frequently, until browned and crisp, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper-toweled lined plate to drain. Cool completely. Chop finely, reserving one slice for garnish.
  3. Once the potatoes are cooked, remove from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes. Scoop out the flesh and set aside.
  4. In a large skillet over medium-low heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter. Add sliced onions and brown sugar; stir occasionally, until the onions caramelize and turn a deep golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Add beer and cook 2 minutes. Add maple syrup. Stir well and cook 3-4 minutes. Add roasted potatoes and bacon to skillet. Stir well. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Garnish with reserved bacon.
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5 Reviews

Mike D.
Mike D. December 17, 2017
Be sure to balance the size of the yams with the size of the onion. Or maybe this is supposed to have an onion-rich flavor. It is pretty tasty (how can you go wrong with bacon?)!
I used sweet potatoes; for orange flesh I think that means yams. And the orange may have a better look than the light colored potatoes. They also absorbed the darker maple colors, producing a less-appealing color as the dish sat on the serving table. I'll be interested to try this again and see how yams do instead.
As to timing: The sweet potatoes took just under an hour in the oven (at a 5200' altitude). Caramelizing the onion took more like 30-40 minutes than 10-12.
Another detail: The potato prep is unclear. Nothing is said about slicing them, but "flesh side down" suggests it. A raw potato is difficult to slice, so I did one sliced and one whole. The sliced one basically fried the surface in the olive oil, which was not a bad thing. The whole potato baked just as nicely (with olive oil on the skin). Either way, the skin could be peeled off more easily than scooping hot flesh out with a spoon.
 
SupperStarter
SupperStarter November 14, 2009
So, I'm definitely a bacon girl! Will put this on my short list of recipes to try!
 
Food B.
Food B. November 18, 2009
Then this is for you!
 
TheWimpyVegetarian
TheWimpyVegetarian November 13, 2009
Love it!! This looks like a great combination of flavors with the beer, bacon, caramelized onions and sweet potatoes! I still have some sweet potatoes left over from my experimenting this week and I think this is where they're going this weekend.
 
Food B.
Food B. November 18, 2009
I'm so happy to hear it! There really are layers of flavors in this dish that just work so well together.