Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Ahhh Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes. Who can resist a slightly sweet, slightly crunchy, straight-up delicious sweet potato dish?
Not I. Not I indeed.
Why Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potato screams foodie and healthy all at the same time. That is probably why it has become increasingly popular lately. But you know what is even better?
A scrumptiously delicious sweet potato dish that requires only four ingredients. FOUR. And yes, that includes the sweet potato itself. I call this the scrape-the-pantry dish. And I love scrape-the-pantry dishes.
The loveliness in this Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes recipe lies in the fact that we added just enough flavors to enhance the taste and texture of the sweet potatoes, oven bake it, and then we simply let those sweet potatoes tell the story.
It is after all, the star of the dish.
In other words: Don’t mess with the sweet potatoes. At least not too much anyway.
Ingredients
As I mentioned, one of the many things I love about this Brown Sugar Sweet Potatoes is that it takes only FOUR ingredients.
But it is so good you won’t believe it takes only four ingredients.
Here’s what you need:
- Sweet potatoes – diced into small cubes
- Brown Sugar – do not substitute with granulated sugar. Brown sugar is an important ingredient in this!
- Butter – I like using salted butter for this.
- Pecans – for the crunch!
How to make Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes?
Making this dish is simple. First, cut up sweet potatoes into 1 to 2 inch cubes, or cube-like shapes, and throw them into a large mixing bowl.
Add chopped pecans and brown sugar to the sweet potatoes. Then, since it is, after all, the holidays, we melt butter and pour it onto the sweet potatoes.
If you are not making this during the holidays, just pretend like it is the holidays after all.
It works for me all the time. 🙂
The real reason why butter is needed (besides the fact that butter is AMAZING) is that it acts as a glue.
It helps the rest of the stuff stick to the sweet potatoes. Therefore give it a good stir to evenly coat the sweet potatoes with butter.
Spread the sweet potatoes onto a baking sheet, and avoid overlapping them.
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for ~40 minutes.
The remove and behold the loveliness.
At this point your kitchen should also smell like brown sugar and butter goodness. And it is quite glorious I must say.
Tips and Tricks
A few things to note!
- Make sure sweet potatoes are around the same size so that they cook evenly. The bigger pieces they are, the longer it will take to cook.
- Potatoes should not overlap or be over crowded on the baking sheet if not potatoes wouldn’t caramelized as well.
- To make cleanup easier, you can place potatoes on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, and throw away the foil when you are done baking.
Look at the melted brown sugar and butter creating this sticky glaze and clinging on dearly to the sweet potatoes. The sticky goodness do stick to the baking sheet so don’t forget to scrap it up while it is still warm!
One of my favorite parts of this is when you bite into it, you get the soft crunch of the toasted pecans.
With just four ingredients, you get sweet, salty, and a slightly crunchy texture wrapped around the sweet potatoes.
Irresistible!
How to serve it?
Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes is a perfect, traditional side dish to ham, chicken, steak, pork… just about any kind of meat or protein.
It’s also a fantastic side dish for a smaller, easy Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday dinner.
In addition, it also be served as a side to sandwiches, or added onto a bed of lettuce as a salad.
And if you must, it is totally acceptable to grab a fork and just eat it by itself. I may or may not have done this multiple times in the past…
So many options, and so delicious in every way!
Other Sweet Potato Recipes!
Dedicated to my fellow sweet potato lovers!
- Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans
- Spicy and Sweet Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- Sweet Potato and Kielbasa Hash
- Turkey Sweet Potato Chili
- Holiday Praline Yams (Sweet Potato) – by my blogger friend, Kathleen from The Fresh Cooky!
Other Easy Holidays Recipes!
We love to bring you no-fuss, straight-forward dishes for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. And this Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes is definitely one of them.
Here are a few more easy holiday recipes that I think you will love!
- Instant Pot Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese
- Fall Harvest Salad
- Honey Butter Rolls
- Apple Cinnamon Galette
- Honey Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
- Caramelized Onions Sautéed Green Beans
DID YOU ENJOY THIS RECIPE? Please comment below and give us a 5-star rating! This will help others find this recipe on Google and Pinterest. We very much appreciate your help! 🤍
Brown Sugar Pecan Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes ~ 1.5 lbs
- 4-5 tbsp salted butter
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
- Scrub sweet potatoes, peel, and dice into 1-2 inch cubes. Transfer potatoes to a large mixing bowl.
- Melt salted butter and chop up pecans.
- Add brown sugar, chopped pecans and melted butter to sweet potatoes. Mix well to evenly coat sweet potatoes.
- Transfer sweet potatoes to a baking sheet, and spread them out. Do not overlap the sweet potatoes.
- Bake for ~40 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are tender.
- Serve warm and enjoy!
Loved the recipe. The post is really helpful as it fully explains the nature of the dish. Would definitely love to try it, so thanks for posting it.
You are welcome! I hope you enjoy!
I made this as my contribution to Thanksgiving, and it was a hit! It was my favorite side. And it was so easy to make. Several people requested the recipe. I really liked the texture and flavor of the pecans with the sweet potatoes. I will be making this again soon.
I’m so happy you all liked it! And thank you for sharing the recipe with others! Appreciate the kind review! 🙂
I wasn’t even looking for a recipe but when I stumbled across this,
I knew I had to try it! Although I haven’t made it yet, I can already taste that yummy goodness.
Hi Cheri, thank you so much! Let me know how it goes and I hope you like it!! 🙂
This sounds delicious. Can it be made the day before ??
I think fresh would always tastes the best, but if you make it ahead, I recommend heating it up in the oven (cover with foil when heating so the top doesn’t burn)!
Just made these today and boy are they delicious. Thank you for the easy recipe. My family will love these sweet potatoes. I love trying new recipes and I thought this was to simple, but was I wrong. Absolutely delicious. Sooooo good.
Yay! So happy to hear that! It’s pretty amazing how delicious this is being so simple isn’t it! 🙂 Thanks for your kind review!
Can you substitute the butter with olive oil?
Yes!
Wow, we loved these sweet potatoes and the fact they were so easy! We’ll be making these for Thanksgiving for sure.
That’s awesome! I’m so glad! 🙂
Can these be made in a casserole dish or does it need to be spread out on a sheet pan?
Spreading it out will give it a nice slightly crispy texture! If they are overlapped in a casserole dish it may not get as crispy and you may have to cook it longer.
This recipe worked-out well for us! I made 1 1/2 times the amount. I added 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk as I had it left-over from baking. I also added a topping (brown sugar, pecans, flour, salt). I baked multiple dishes at one-time, so I kicked-up the temperature to 385. This was easy to prepare, not mushy, and delicious. Thank you!
Love your add-ons! Yum! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
My daughter hosted Christmas dinner this year for the very 1st time. She wasn’t interested in cooking growing up. She made your sweet potato recipe and it was perfect! THE best I’ve ever tasted, so I asked her fir the recipe. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! PS… even her dad ate them and he asked if I could make them too (he usually doesn’t eat them)! Ok
That’s wonderful! I’m so glad you all enjoyed it! I love how simple this is as well! 🙂
Excellent recipe, especially because of a few ingredients and the ease of putting together.
Love hearing this, Deborah! Easy and yummy is the way to go! 🙂
Made this today for Easter dinner and it was awesome! Couldn’t stop eating them!! This recipe is a keeper.
That’s great! Thank you for giving it a try!!
Walnuts instead of pecans ?will that work.
Yes!
Made these last year for the holidays and forgot to post, the simplicity of this dish defies the complex taste! We will be making again!
I LOVE how easy and yummy this dish is as well! Thank you for sharing!
This was delicious. I made it for dinner this weekend and it was easy to make. Thanks for all the info in the post too!
Glad the information was helpful and you found the recipe easy and yummy! 🙂
I just loved this recipe! The savory contrast to the sweetness makes it addictive and with a two-person household, I can make as much as we’ll eat.
I love the savory sweet combo too! Thank you for sharing!
These were delicious. Love the pecans and roasting sweet potatoes really levels up the flavors. Love that this comes together so quickly. Thanks for a great recipe.
My pleasure! Happy to hear that you liked it!
Simply PERFECT! This is the best combination of flavors for a fall side dish.
YAY! That’s what I like to hear!
Love this spin on sweet potato casserole that still features those classic flavors but with whole, chopped sweet potatoes over a mash. Looks perfect for the holidays!
Yes! Much healthier and JUST as yummy!!
DId a test run on these to see how they were – 5 STARS! They are going on my Thanksgiving table this year! Thank you!!
That’s what I love to hear! Enjoy this for your Thanksgiving dinner!