The accident that was the sweet potato fry

I wanted to make roast chicken last night for me and BP II as an easy after work meal. The dish kinda fell flat. Usually, when I roast some chicken breasts I use my conventional oven. However, lately I have been using my toaster because it seems more environmentally friendly. I only heat up this little baby oven instead of my big clunky oven. The result I have come to find is that the skin is not as crispy. The chicken is ok and moist on the inside but there is definitely something lacking. I will go back to using my conventional oven and let you know if that makes a difference.



The sides of the dish were corn on the cob and sweet potato fries. The corn was easy. I just boiled, buttered and seasoned with Old Bay (yes, the crab spice but OMG it is delish!). The sweet potato fry was not so easy. UGH! The sweet potato fry. I am not sure why I decided to make this. I really don’t even like fries that much. It was a spontaneous disaster that went horribly wrong. I do not have a fry thermometer so that could be a huge issue. I heated some vegetable oil in a pot and waited until the oil was hot. I tested by dropping a bit of water. If it sizzled, I assumed the water was hot enough. I cut the sweet potato in matchsticks and dropped a few in at a time. I removed the potato when it started to brown, about 5 minutes later. Then laid them on a paper towel to remove extra oil and sprinkled with salt. The result tasted a little soggy but edible. BPII ate his with ketchup.


I probably should have just baked them like I always do but I wanted something different. I will keep away from the frying for now. Anyway, I have included a recipe for baked sweet potato fries below from the Neely’s at foodnetwork.com. These seem like a much better option.



Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sweet potatoes , peeled and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch wide strips
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix together olive oil, paprika and cinnamon. Toss the potato strips into mixture, to coat well, and spread onto baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and brown sugar.

Bake for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes