The Easy Way To Cook Sweet Potatoes On The Grill
Sweet and a little smoky, grilled sweet potatoes are delicious. However, when cooking sweet potatoes on the grill for the first time, it's not uncommon for them to end up burnt on the outside, still rock hard on the inside — or both. To get his expert tips on how to cook sweet potatoes correctly, Food Republic caught up with chef and cookbook author Michael Symon at the Nassau Paradise Island Wine & Food Fest.
Symon says his trick for making perfectly grilled sweet potatoes is a two-step process. "I would just put a pot of water and boil them on the grill or boil them first, then slice them," says Symon. He then coats them in olive oil and finishes them on the grill.
Unlike other vegetables that work well on the grill and cook quickly (think: zucchini or bok choy), sweet potatoes are incredibly dense and have a higher sugar content, so they need extra time to cook and burn quickly. Boiling them first helps speed up the cooking process so that they are the optimal texture when they hit the grill.
How to achieve perfectly grilled sweet potatoes
When asked whether he uses tinfoil to cover the sweet potato, Michael Symon says it's unnecessary. He only recommends using aluminum wrap when making sweet potatoes in a double-baked potato recipe style.
To achieve perfectly grilled sweet potatoes, don't forget about seasoning. Symon likes to season his sweet potatoes before and after grilling them. "Kosher salt before they go on, crunchy salt when they come off," he suggests. However, if double-salting your sweet potatoes seems like one step too many, adding salt to your water when you pre-boil them will enhance their flavor and help them cook more evenly. Then, you just have to finish them with some type of salt — preferably crunchy.
Other seasonings you can experiment with include a sprinkle of brown sugar, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. Some fresh rosemary or even a dash of poultry seasoning also tastes fantastic. Add these seasonings to your sliced, boiled sweet potatoes before they hit the grill and enjoy.