- October 8, 2021
- Gluten Free
Smoked Sweet Potatoes
Turn off the oven and fire up your grill to make these addictive, loaded sweet potatoes on your smoker. A simple way to switch up this classic comfort food side dish!
If you love sweet potatoes, then this is a recipe you have to try! I don’t think I’ll ever go back to baking my sweet potatoes after experimenting and finding the perfect technique for this recipe on my smoker.
This side dish is a great addition to your weekly meal rotation (it pairs so well with these smoked chicken thighs or even with a perfect reverse seared steak). I believe this would also be a super simple way to make a killer holiday side dish as well to serve up with my champagne brined turkey recipe or this double smoked ham as well.
You can serve these up with a little butter chives or go with a full on stuffed sweet potato (like I did here) with some gooey toasted marshmallow and some easy air fried pork belly over the top (because I am EXTRA).
While this recipe is truly simple to follow, I will share helpful tips and techniques for making the perfect sweet potatoes on the grill. Grab all the detailed information below or jump to the recipe at the bottom of the page and get to smoking!
“School” Supplies:
- Butcher Paper
- Fork
- Tongs
- Oven Mitts
- Pairing Knife
- Meat Thermometer
“Class” Notes:
Use my culinary notes below to guide you through this recipe, help answer any common cooking questions, and help you have a successful and delicious cook. Enjoy!
Loaded Smoked Sweet Potato Ingredients:
- Sweet Potatoes: Use similar sized sweet potatoes for this recipe (this helps with even cooking)
- Olive Oil: I use this on the outside skin. It just helps get it a little crispier and allows the rub to adhere.
- BBQ Seasoning: I love adding some seasoning to the outside skin, simply for some added smoky flavor. I like this sugar free all purpose BBQ rub or this Cajun BBQ dry rub. Simply adding a little smoked paprika, salt, and pepper works great too.
- Optional Toppings: Besides some basic butter and a few chives, I added some pork belly (you can use my air fryer method or my smoked pork belly method if you prefer) and some marshmallows.
Why do I need butcher paper for this recipe?
Butcher paper is a great way to speed up the cooking process of your potatoes, but still allowing for the smoke to penetrate into your potatoes.
Traditionally, whenever we wrap meat in butcher paper it’s done to create an environment that traps moisture to essentially steam the meat and get it through a stall process. While this isn’t a brisket, potatoes are dense root vegetables that take a long time to cook through.
While foil would give you the same outcome, you should avoid using it with this recipe because it may not allow as much of the smoke flavor to pass through to the potato while cooking. Butcher paper will also add a nice flavor too!
How to grill sweet potatoes?
I approached this recipe in a similar way that I would if I were baking in a traditional oven. In order to do this, you need to set your charcoal smoker or pellet grill up for indirect heat. Use a lighter to medium bodied wood chip.
I preheated my Big Green Egg to 350 degrees F. Prep your potatoes by making sure they’re clean and dry. Add a little olive oil to each of your potatoes and season the outside skin with the BBQ seasoning.
Wrap each potato tightly in butcher paper. Place them onto the grill grates with the end of the paper side down to keep it in place. Allow them to smoke and cook for about 45-60 minutes.
Check your potatoes by poking them with the end of your thermometer probe to check tenderness. At this point, I like to unwrap the potatoes and allow the skin to crisp up at this point while they finish cooking (about another 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the potato).
When they are tender and cooked through, remove the potatoes and place them on a baking sheet. Allow them to rest 5-10 minutes before slicing into them for serving.
How do I know when my smoked sweet potatoes are cooked?
Testing for doneness is best done by using a pork, thermometer probe, or sharp knife. Insert the sharper ends into the potatoes center, they should slide in easily so the inside feels like softened butter.
While this is a useful method, I like to also check for an internal temperature. According to several culinary texts, potatoes are cooked and tender when they hit a temperature between 205 F. – 212 F.
Tips of Serving and Pairing:
Here are some helpful tips for serving these potatoes and what to pair them with as well-
- Slice into your potatoes and fluff with a fork
- If adding the marshmallows, place some inside with bacon or the pork belly and place back on the grill for 5-10 minutes to allow the marshmallows to melt and brown.
- Pair with main dishes like ribs, pulled pork, and chicken recipes.
If you love sweet potatoes – Check out this recipe for roasted spicy cumin sweet potatoes and these low carb sweet potato pie bars.
Smoked Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4 Sweet Potatoes medium sized
- 4 tsp. Olive Oil
- [4 tsp. BBQ Dry Rub]
- Butcher Paper
- Optional Toppings: Marshmallows crispy pork belly, pecans or butter
Instructions
- Preheat your grill to 350 F. and set it for indirect heat.
- Clean your sweet potatoes and dry them. Lightly oil each potatoes skin and add some BBQ dry rub to the outside.
- Take each potato and roll it in a piece of butcher paper (do not use foil) tightly.
- Place the potatoes wrapped in the paper onto the grill grates, seam side down. Let them smoke for about 45-60 minutes.
- Check them around that 45-60 minute mark for tenderness. You can use a thermometer probe, sharp fork or knife to check the potatoes to see if they are soft in the center. If they need more time, unwrap the potatoes and nest them into the paper and continue cooking another 20-30 minutes until they reach tenderness or a temperature between 205 – 212 F.
- Remove the sweet potatoes from the grill and let them rest 10 minutes before slicing into them. Add butter and fluff with a fork or if you decide to add marshmallows place them inside the sliced potato and then back onto the grill for another 5-10 minutes to melt the marshmallows.
- Once they puff up and or brown, remove from the grill, top with the pork belly and pecans and serve!
Notes
Nutrition
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