Brown Butter Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes Recipe (2024)

Recipes By Ingredients
Vegetables
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes

Browned, rosemary-infused butter is enriched with reduced chicken stock and tossed with roasted, caramelized sweet potatoes.

Daniel Gritzer

Senior Culinary Director

Daniel joined the Serious Eats culinary team in 2014 and writes recipes, equipment reviews, articles on cooking techniques. Prior to that he was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine, and the staff writer for Time Out New York's restaurant and bars section.

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Updated February 11, 2023

Why It Works

Par-cooking the potatoes in 160°F (70°C) water enhances the development of simple sugars, leading to sweeter and more flavorful roast potatoes.
Roasting the potatoes on aluminum baking sheets conducts more heat, browning and crisping them better and faster.

We all face the same question each year as Thanksgiving approaches: Do we stick with the classics or do something a little different? And, if we do something different, just how different do we want to get? I came up with a few twists on the classic sweet potato. Here’s a riff on the traditional, but you can also try this savory miso-scallion version or a spicy, smoky sweet potato dish.

In each case, I stick with a technique Kenji has written about before, which calls for par-cooking the potatoes in 160°F (70°C) water. This temperature helps maximize the transformation of complex starches into simple sugars. Above 170°F (77°C), the enzymes that do the heavy lifting shut down, leading to less sweet and flavorful potatoes. Then the potatoes are tossed in oil and roasted until they're nicely browned and slightly crisp in spots.

These potatoes are bathed in a rich and buttery sauce that's been infused with rosemary and a base note of savory chicken stock. I make it by melting the butter in a saucepan, then cooking it until the milk solids turn a deep hazelnut color. As soon as it reaches that brown shade, I remove it from the heat and throw in sprigs of fresh rosemary. They'll sizzle and fry in the hot butter, releasing their woodsy-piney aroma into it (and into your kitchen—it smells great).

Brown Butter Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes Recipe (3)

I don't stop there, though. After that, I pour in a small amount of chicken stock that I've spiked with unflavored gelatin. The gelatin adds a rich viscosity to the stock (especially important if your stock isn'thomemade), which ensures that the sauce doesn't end up with a thin, watery texture.

I return it to the heat at this point and simmer it until the stock is further reduced and syrupy, with a deep, meaty flavor. Then I fish out and discard the rosemary sprigs. To balance out all that richness, I hit it with a splash of fresh lemon juice, plus plenty of salt so the flavor really pops.

When the potatoes are ready, I just toss them with the sauce, and I'm done.

October 2016

Recipe Details