What to make with Bacon & Sweet Potatoes
Why they work together
Sweet potato's natural sugar caramelizes beautifully against bacon's smoky salt and rendered fat, and the contrast between the potato's soft, almost custardy interior and bacon's crisp bite keeps every forkful interesting. It's the same sweet-salty-smoky logic that makes candied bacon a classic on its own, just with the sweet potato doing the sugar's job.
How to combine them
Render bacon until crisp and reserve the fat as the cooking medium for the sweet potato, whether roasting, hashing, or mashing, so the smoke works into the potato rather than staying separate. Add crumbled or chopped bacon back in near the end of cooking so it keeps its crisp texture instead of going soft in the potato's moisture.
Classic dishes featuring both
American
- Candied bacon-wrapped sweet potatoes — Sweet potato rounds or wedges are wrapped in bacon and roasted with brown sugar until caramelized.
- Sweet potato, bacon, and brown sugar casserole — Mashed sweet potato is baked with bacon folded through and a sweet, crisp topping.
- Loaded baked sweet potato with bacon and sour cream — A split baked sweet potato is topped with crumbled bacon, sour cream, and butter.
Korean
- Goguma bacon-mari (sweet potato bacon rolls) — Thin strips of sweet potato wrapped in bacon, pan-fried, and glazed in a soy-butter sauce -- a common Korean side dish and lunchbox item distinct from the oven-roasted American version.
Take it further
- Bacon-fat confit sweet potatoes — Slow-cook cubed sweet potato fully submerged in rendered bacon fat at a gentle simmer until silky throughout, rather than a quick roast, for a deeper, more custardy result.
- Sweet potato bacon hand pies — Mash cooked sweet potato with crumbled bacon and fold the mixture into a pastry turnover, shifting the side dish into a hand-held, packable format.
- Sweet potato bacon lunch wrap — Wrap cooled roasted sweet potato and crisped bacon in a flatbread or pack them in a jar for a lunchbox-friendly format instead of serving hot.
- Sweet potato bacon breakfast hash — Dice and pan-fry sweet potato and bacon together with onion until crisp, then finish with a fried egg on top -- a skillet format rather than a baked or wrapped one.
- Sweet potato bacon gratin — Layer thin sweet potato slices with crisped bacon and cream, then bake until the top browns and the potato is tender all the way through -- a sliceable baked format instead of a loose hash or wrap.
Common additions
- Maple Syrup — Drizzled on near the end of roasting to amplify the sweet potato's natural sweetness against the salty bacon.
- Sour Cream — A dollop at the end cools down the richness of the bacon fat, standard on a loaded baked sweet potato.
- Ground Cinnamon — Added to roasted or mashed preparations for warmth that complements the smoky bacon.