Easy Hasselback Sweet Potatoes Recipe

You probably have two questions when it comes to these Hasselback sweet potatoes: First, how long until you can be eating them? About an hour, with prep and cooking, so not to worry. Second, why are potatoes prepped like this called "Hasselback" anyway? For that, you need to look back to the year 1953. That's the year when a chef (a trainee chef, in fact) at a restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden called Hasselbacken first created a dish using cross-cut potatoes. And according to the restaurant and hotel's site, to this day: "Delicious Hasselback potatoes are a permanent feature on our menu."

For chef and recipe developer Jason Goldstein of Chop Happy, potatoes of all stripe are a taste of home. "Growing up, my mom would always serve a potato with dinner," Goldstein says, adding: "This recipe reminds me of the days growing up in New Jersey." And sure, you can enjoy these tasty (and good-looking) potatoes every day, but Goldstein says they "also go great [as a] Thanksgiving or holiday side ... with grilled chicken or turkey meatloaf."

Once you try the sweet, buttery, and savory side dish that is a Hasselback sweet potato, you will probably decide that waiting for holiday dinners is just too long of a wait, though, and will make them a regular part of the household menu.

It's really no mystery why this is a delicious dish. You've got the great taste of a baked sweet potato as the base, and that's dressed up with butter, sweet ingredients, savory stuff, and salt.

All told, you'll need some sweet potatoes, a full stick of butter, some salt, some pepper, maple syrup, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and some fresh chopped sage. If you want to add any of your own ingredients as garnishes, that's always fine (chopped green onions being but one idea), but don't overdo it, as you may just be gilding the lily.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, then wash and scrub each potato, but do not peel them! Now place the first sweet potato on a cutting board or countertop and place a chopstick on each side of it so you do not cut all the way through the potato. Cut down into the sweet potato crosswise, making as many cuts as you can that keeps each approximately a half inch a part. 

Repeat this cutting for all the sweet potatoes and then put them on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Salt the sweet potatoes (using  approximately 1 teaspoon salt) and make sure to get the insides salted in the process.

Melt the butter in the microwave, heating it for 30 seconds at a time, until it has fully melted, or melt it in a small pan. Next, add to the butter 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, the garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and the maple syrup, and mix everything well.

Now brush most of the butter mixture all over the sweet potatoes and get plenty in between the slices of each potato, but make sure to reserve a couple of tablespoons for later use, as you'll brush it on when the baking is nearly done.

Place the prepared sweet potatoes on the middle rack of your oven and back them for 45 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

After that time has passed, take the pan out of the oven and brush the rest of the butter mixture evenly over each potato. Then sprinkle each with freshly chopped sage. Now place the sweet potatoes back in the oven for 5 minutes to warm up the sage and finish the baking.

Now serve and enjoy! And if you somehow end up with leftovers, Goldstein says you can wrap them in foil and save them for up to 5 days, reheating in the oven for ideal taste. (Preferably with a bit more butter drizzled over when you do!)