CrockPot Baked Sweet Potatoes with Chili, Cumin and Lime


Day 296.

This is a Tyler Florence recipe. He pricks sweet potatoes with a fork, rubs equal parts cumin, chili powder, and kosher salt all over the skin, wraps the potato in foil and throws it on the grill.

This is the same thing. Instead of the grill, you can use your crockpot. I made regular baked potatoes earlier in the year, and was pretty confident that this would work nicely.

The Ingredients.

--4 large sweet potatoes, washed well
--1 tsp cumin
--1 tsp chili powder
--1 tsp kosher salt
--2 to 4 limes

The Directions.

I comfortably fit four sweet potatoes in a 6.5 quart crockpot. I couldn't have fit another.

Scrub the skin of each sweet potato with a vegetable brush under running water. Pat dry. Use a fork to prick the skin of each potato--maybe 6 times.

In a small bowl, combine the dry spices.

Lay out a length of foil big enough to encompass one sweet potato. Put the potato in the middle of the foil, and rub 1/4 of the spice mixture on the potato skin. A bunch will fall off. That's okay.
Wrap the foil all around the sweet potato. Repeat for each of your potatoes.

Put them all into a large crockpot and cover. Cook on high for 6-8 hours. The potatoes are done when a knife inserts easily and the potato flesh is fluffy. Ours cooked for 6.5 hours.

Squeeze lime juice on before eating.

The Verdict.

Delicious. I loved the flavor and the kick of lime. Adam didn't use the lime, because he thought the flavor was so good he didn't want to screw with it.

The chili, salt, and cumin made the skin tasty, but didn't really penetrate through to the inner flesh.

The kids didn't have any.

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Posted by: Stephanie O'Dea | A Year of Slow Cooking at October 22, 2008

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What they say about this article

  1. Sounds great - I'll try it this weekend!

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  2. Anonymous10/22/2008

    Brilliant! I must-must-must try this!

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  3. Stephanie:
    I was getting ready to make Candied Chicken AKA Brown sugar Chicken and my crock- pot smashed to the floor, thank goodness there wasn't any food in it yet. I am looking for a recommendation on a new crock-pot. Any thoughts...
    TIA
    Dina

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  4. Anonymous10/22/2008

    mmmmm...i love sweet potatoes. i dont know if i could wait for them longer than the 10 minutes they take in my microwave. im an instant gratification type of person, lol. the flavors do sound really good though. i wonder if chili powder is hot like a chili or just flavorful?

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  5. Sounds great. I think I might peel the sweet potatoes and toss with the spices (because I'm a spice freak and I like everything highly seasoned!)

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  6. Since you liked that, you may really like this mashed sweet potato recipe (limey, spicy):

    http://tinyurl.com/yqng9q

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  7. I wonder about the tin foil -- is it really necessary? Essentially the potatoes are cooking in their skins...hmmmm. Call me Martha Stewart, but I'm not fond of foil touching the food directly.

    I'm thinking this would be so good, with the potatoes chunked up and some chicken thighs....

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  8. You sure come up with some different stuff! I'm always glad to read your reviews after you've tried it, otherwise some recipes (like this one) normally I wouldn't give a second look. I'm used to sweet potatoes being sweet. LOL.
    I can't tell you how many times you have saved me from a dinner that was the same old thing.
    Thanks for sharing.

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  9. Thank you for doing this blog. Sometimes, it's that little bit of sunshine in a not so great day. Your kid's reactions to orange food seem pretty typical!

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  10. I didn't know you could eat sweet potato skins!
    I don't think I would wrap in the foil either. I never have when I bake sweet potatoes.
    Using the crock-pot would be so much better than using the oven for 1 1/2 hours.

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  11. I am so going to do this today. I've had 3 sweet potatos sitting on the counter for a week and I was wondering how I should eat them. Thanks for the great recipe!

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  12. Anonymous10/22/2008

    Its going to be hard to get any flavor to penetrate a sweet potato. What I would do instead is mix your spice into butter and top the potatots with that. yum.

    I like to add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom. yum again!

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  13. I just found your blog. I am pretty sure I am going to be obsessed about it. I LOVE the crock pot. My favorite recipe - pot roast with Italian stewed tomatoes, one onion, beef broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder. Cook it over night (so like 20 hours) on low. AMAZING!

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  14. Maybe you could slice the potatoes open before cooking them and rub the seasonings on the inside as well as the outside. Then it would penetrate more. Anyway, this sounds like a delicious recipe - I absolutely love sweet potatoes!

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  15. Anonymous10/22/2008

    Your blog has really inspired me to take charge of the kitchen. I tend to be domestically challenged, so my husband does a great deal of the cooking. The problem is... we're gone from the house (at work) for close to 10 hours a day. Do you know any crockpots that are programable? As in, I could program it to start at a certain time (for those recipes that only take 5ish hours)?

    PS - I'm trying the taco soup tonight!

    - Hopeful Crockpotter

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  16. THIS SOUNDS WONDERFUL!

    thanks for the recipe!

    heather

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  17. My kids love sweet potatoes and will eat them everyday if they could. I'm going to have to try this out.

    P.S I love your blog and I can't wait to try your pumpkin lattes

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  18. Anonymous10/22/2008

    Wait...you eat the sweet potato skin?? I thought regular potato skins were edible but sweet ones weren't. Hmmm....I'll have to try them! Thanks!

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  19. Heather - re: "programmable" timer for the Crockpot.

    I've wondered the same thing many times, but until your post, I'd never considered the solution might be as close as the hardware store! How about using one of those programmable outlet control things that are usually used to turn lights and and off when you're away so bad guys don't know you're not home!

    Geez oh pizza, of course it seems they would work for Crockpots, too! Thanks for asking the question, I'm going to check this out further and likely try it. I live alone and only use the little Crockpot most of the time; when I do bring out the (ancient) big one, I still have the same timing issues.

    STEPH - Look how you inspire us; not just with food; but in ways you couldn't have imagine almost a year ago! Thanks for your commitment to his blog.

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  20. Oh, yum!
    If you want to get your kids to eat sweet potatoes I have a suggestion:
    Mash "regular" potatoes. Mash sweet potatoes. Swirl them together, add some cinnamon, deliver to table.
    I swear, so delicious! :)

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  21. Sounds yummy! Sweet potatoes are very good for you too! I'm cooking the rotisserie style chicken that you posted the other day...it smells wonderful. I took a taste test and it was sooo moist!

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  22. i've gotten alot out of this site although i never comment!

    you're amazing...just cooking everyday...seriously impressed by your consistancy.

    it's the home stretch now...hang in there!!!

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  23. Anonymous10/22/2008

    I'll have to try this recipe - thanks for sharing - there are few things in here I wouldn't have guessed to throw in

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  24. Anonymous10/23/2008

    I am a home school mom of 5. Cooking had become a drag, but your site has given me new ideas. I actually get excited thinking about cooking dinner again. You're a miracle worker!

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  25. Does the sweet potato skin get crispy in this recipe, or does it get soft and mushy?

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  26. Hi Meagan,

    this skin isn't mushy, but it isn't completely dry either. If you unwrap the potatoes and let them sit on a plate for a bit, they'll dry and the skin will be more like an oven-baked potato---dry and wrinkly.

    xox
    steph

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  27. Anonymous10/23/2008

    Yummy. I only eat the skins if they are organic - those tubers are the dirty dozen which are best to buy organic. We eat sweet potatoes about once a week and roast them with olive oil and kosher salt - oh I'm hungry now

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  28. Anonymous10/23/2008

    Mmm. I am currently making sweet potato fries with this spice combo for lunch in my toaster oven. It has great potential, so hopefully they turn out as tasty as I expect!

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  29. Thank you SO much for all of your recipes and the hard work you do posting everything up here for all of us!
    I know you're excited about the end of your crock-pot year, but I am not looking forward to the end at all. Where will I go for all of my crockpot/kitchen amusement?
    And btw, I've been using my crockpot so much that I had to call in to customer service to get the crock replaced at least 6 times! I am now in the market for one that doesn't break so often, hehe!

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  30. I just want you to know we are now on a first name basis in our house. I say to my boys, "Let's see what the crockpot lady made today!" My 5yo son says, "Why do you call her that? You don't know her name?" I told him your name was Steph, but I thought they wouldn't know who I was talking about. Later in the day, He asks me if we should make potatoes like Steph did. I say, "Steph who?" and he says, "You know, with the limes from the picture!" I just wanted you to know!

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  31. hope they are better than the Russet potatoes I made yesterday, not so good!
    Will try, Love the sweet potatoe!

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  32. Yum - we love sweet potatoes, lime, and cumin! I just need to figure out a way to not use foil...

    Stephanie, do you think it would be possible to roast a pumpkin/winter squash in the crockpot? (Like this: http://www.elanaspantry.com/how-to/how-to-roast-a-pumpkin-in-10-steps/ ) How long would you roast it on low versus high and would you add water?

    Thanks! And the fondue looks fabulous, too! I used to make fondue chocolate and peanut butter for all my study breaks in college. They were a huge hit!

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  33. Hi Stephanie,

    Your sweet potatoes look great! I never would have thought to cook them in the slow cooker like that. Thank you for the idea.

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  34. Thanks for the great idea. I just made them!! Instead of using the spices, I just sprinkled on some cinnamon. They were amazing.

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  35. Hi Stephanie--Just wanted to report that I made this chili last week for our support group meeting and it was a big hit! I did make a few changes. Because I wanted to double the recipe without a trip to the grocery store, I ended up adding some chickpeas instead of all kidney beans. I used butternut squash puree for half of the amount of sweet potatoes required. I cut the sweet potatoes into smaller pieces. Anyway, the results were terrific--thanks so much!

    Shirley

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  36. Anonymous8/18/2009

    I made these last week. I found the most gigantic sweet potatoes at walmart, only two would fit in the bottom of my 6qt oval crock, the third had to sit on the top of the bottom two. The ones on the bottom got cooked very well, the one on the top was still a bit firm. Cant wait to try again with sweet potatoes that are a bit smaller.

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  37. Made these tonight and love, love, LOVED them. Sweet potatoes and lime were meant to go together, but I didn't realize it until now! And this gives me a way to bake potatoes for a weeknight while I'm at work -- previously impossible to achieve. Thanks!!!

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  38. ranalloc@yahoo.com10/23/2011

    what do you think if you cut the potato into quarters and put the spices all over the potato, put it back together to form a whole potato and wrapped it and cooked it?

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  39. Anonymous10/25/2011

    Hi Stephanie! I'd like to start off by saying how much I absolutely ADORE your blog. We won't talk about how many hours I killed browsing through recipes last week after I discovered it.

    I tried these sweet potatoes tonight, but with a little twist - GREAT success!! You said that rubbing them with the dry spices really only flavored the skins, so my idea was to mix butter (a heaping tbsp per potato) with the spices (I used chili, cumin, and galangal - no salt) and rub the potatoes in the spicy buttah, as I referred to it in my head while I was making it. I wrapped the potatoes (2 of them) individually in foil after pricking each with a fork a few times and let them cook on low in my 4-quart for 6.5 hours. I saved some extra spicy buttah in case the flavor still didn't seep through.

    When I got home from work, they were BEAUTIFULLY cooked!! The flavor definitely came through nicely, although I added a little more of the spicy buttah for extra kick. I'm going to keep trying some different rubs (maybe oil next time) for the sake of experiment, seeing as I eat sweet potatoes often. I will update you if I find a better way.

    Thanks for the great, creative recipe. I look forward to trying more of them!! :)

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