Slow Cooker Whole Baked Sweet Potatoes
Whole sweet potatoes cooked in the slow cooker with no foil, no water and no watching, until the flesh is completely soft and the skin slips away. A hands-off batch method for a week of savory meals.
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
For the Sweet Potatoes
- 4 sweet potatoes 8 to 12 ounces each, scrubbed and dried
To Serve
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- flaky sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Load the Slow Cooker
- Scrub the sweet potatoes under cold water with a stiff brush, working into the creases at the ends, then dry them thoroughly with a towel. Surface water only adds to the steam inside the crock.
- Prick each potato twice with a fork so the skin does not split open as it cooks.
- Load them into the slow cooker in a single layer with the largest potatoes against the outer wall, which is where the heat comes from. Add no water, no foil and no rack.
Cook and Serve
- Put the lid on and cook without lifting it: 4 to 5 hours on HIGH or 6 to 7 hours on LOW for 8 to 10 ounce potatoes, 5 hours on HIGH or 7 to 8 on LOW for 12 ounce potatoes, and 5 to 6 hours on HIGH or 8 on LOW for 1 pound potatoes. A full crock of eight adds about an hour. Every peek costs roughly 20 minutes.
- Test by sliding a paring knife into the thickest part of the largest potato. It should meet no resistance at all. There is no color or smell cue in a slow cooker, so this is the only doneness test.
- Split each potato lengthwise and press the ends toward each other to open it up. Add butter, flaky salt and black pepper, or cool them completely and refrigerate whole for the week.
Notes
- The skin will not crisp: a slow cooker steams and nothing inside gets above 212F, so the skin comes out thin and soft and the flesh is wetter than an oven potato. For crisp salted skin, roast at 400F for 45 to 55 minutes instead.
- No foil, no water, no rack: the crock is already a sealed humid pot. Added water gives you boiled potatoes in orange broth.
- Time by size, not by a flat number: see the ranges in the instructions. Low is more forgiving and will hold at done for an extra hour or two.
- Batch cooking: a 6-quart crock holds eight medium potatoes in two layers, biggest on the bottom and against the walls, plus about an hour.
- Storage: 5 days refrigerated whole and unpeeled. Mashed flesh freezes 3 months, whole cooked potatoes do not freeze well. The best reheat is cut side down in butter in a hot skillet.