Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Bacon

Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes are studded with bacon for a salty, sweet fall side you’ll want to serve with just about everything!

Why We Love Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes

• I could eat sweet potatoes all year long multiple times per week. I freaking love them so much! (My childhood self would be shocked.) These Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Bacon are at the top of my happy food list.
• Roasted potatoes are a great side dish option. Since you can make the other components of this recipe while the potatoes are in the oven, this is a great recipe for weeknights or holidays that’s low-stress.
• These sweet potatoes are great for the next morning for breakfast. Warm them up in a skillet or the microwave and pop a couple of sunny-side-up eggs on top with some toast. Boom.

Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Bacon

PRODUCE: You’ll need sweet potatoes and yellow onion for this recipe. I like garnet sweet potatoes because the orange color is so pretty. Yams would work great too.

MAPLE SYRUP: For the sweet potato glaze, we’re using maple syrup. This is one of those times it’s worth it to splurge on the good stuff.

PANTRY: Grab some olive oil, salt, and pepper. We’re keeping the seasoning simple to let the rest of the ingredients shine.

BACON: While you don’t HAVE to add bacon to these sweet potatoes, it’s a pretty fantastic combination. If you want to get a little crazy, pepper bacon would add a nice kick to balance out the sweetness of this side dish.

How to Make Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Jump to Recipe

STEP 1 Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and put them in a large mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, salt, and pepper to the bowl and then toss to coat the potatoes. Pour them into a baking dish and roast for 40 minutes.

STEP 2 When there are 20 minutes left on the cooking time for the potatoes, start the bacon and onions. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook the bacon until it’s crispy. Then transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of bacon grease and then add the onions to the skillet. Cook until they’re softened and starting to brown slightly.

STEP 3 Once the sweet potatoes are done cooking take then out of the oven. Add the bacon and onions to the baking dish and then pour the syrup all over the top. Gently stir everything together and season with salt and pepper as needed before serving warm.

Tips & Tricks

• You can add more or less syrup to your liking on the sweet potatoes. If you have some people that like their potatoes really sweet, have a side over syrup on the table so your dinner guests can add more if they like.
• If you’re leaving out the bacon, use 1 tablespoon of butter to cook the onion instead.
• Want to add a little spice to balance out the sweetness? Add some red pepper flakes to the sweet potatoes when you add the bacon and onions.
• During the holidays, I like to prep ahead as much as possible. You can do that with this recipe too. Chop the sweet potatoes and let them hang out until you have room in the oven. Cook the bacon and onions and pop them into bowls and set them aside for later. Once the potatoes are roasted, briefly heat up the bacon and onions in the microwave and then stir it all together. Super easy.

Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes Recipe FAQ

Do sweet potatoes need parboiling before roasting?

You do not have to boil your sweet potatoes before roasting. It depends on the recipe though.

Here, we’re cutting the potatoes into smaller cubes so they roast in a timely manner. If you’re making large slices of potatoes, you may want to parboil them first to cut down on the cooking time. So check your recipe first.

Why do they put marshmallows on sweet potatoes?

A marketing company sold Americans the ideas years ago in a recipe booklet and it become a thing. Some people like it, and some people don’t. I’m on the “no marshmallow, thanks” team, but you do you.

What tastes good on top of a sweet potato?

At most steakhouses, you’ll find things like brown sugar, cinnamon butter, caramel sauce, and/or marshmallows as available toppings. I’ve made a sweet potato breakfast hash topped with eggs, put them into an amazing loaded potato salad, made sweet potato pie, and used shredded sweet potatoes as a quiche crust. So experiment a little. There’s not much that isn’t good with sweet potatoes.

Other Recipes You May like

• Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Dressing
• Creamed Spinach with Bacon
• Easy Turkey Gravy
• Thanksgiving Turkey
• Pumpkin Bread
• Honey Bun Bread Pudding
• Parmesan Roasted Red Potatoes