When it comes to grilling food, Vietnamese people prefer grilling with charcoal or wood because they give a distinctive fragrance. However, nowadays not every household has charcoal or wood. Don’t worry, you can grill sweet potatoes using an air fryer or an electric rice cooker, and it still tastes delicious without the risk of burning the skin. The sweet potatoes will be fragrant, sweet, and easy to eat without wasting the charred skin like when grilling with charcoal or wood.
How to choose good sweet potatoes
To get good sweet potatoes, you should choose ones that are medium-sized, not too big, so that they grill evenly and have a good fragrance. After washing the sweet potatoes, soak them with a diluted solution of saltwater to remove all dirt and bacteria, then cut off the two ends to make them fit better in the pot. Sweet potatoes can be round and plump or long and tapered. Round and plump sweet potatoes are often called female sweet potatoes, while long sweet potatoes are male sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes that are evenly tapered are usually sweeter.
There are many types of sweet potatoes, such as purple sweet potatoes, honey sweet potatoes, Japanese sweet potatoes, white sweet potatoes, etc. If you want to get creamy sweet potatoes when grilling, you should choose honey sweet potatoes which are softer. Japanese sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, and white sweet potatoes are fragrant and denser when grilled.
Avoid choosing sweet potatoes with black spots on the skin, strange odors like musty smell, rotten smell, or moldy smell.
Grilling sweet potatoes with an electric rice cooker
After washing the sweet potatoes, use a stick to poke a few holes around them to ensure they heat up and cook evenly when grilling. If you have a high-frequency electric rice cooker, put the sweet potatoes in and select the grill mode, the sweet potatoes will grill themselves. If your house uses a regular electric rice cooker, apply a little cooking oil at the bottom of the pot, then put the sweet potatoes in, turn on the “cook” button, and wait for the sweet potatoes to cook. When the cooker switches to the “warm” button, use a chopstick to test, if the sweet potatoes are soft, they are cooked. If you prefer the sweet potatoes to have a crispy skin, turn on the cooking mode again.
Grilling sweet potatoes with an air fryer
– Preheat the air fryer to 200 degrees Celsius for a few minutes before grilling. Then put the sweet potatoes in, adjust the temperature to 160 degrees Celsius. Leave them for about 15 minutes, then flip the sweet potatoes and increase the temperature for another 15 minutes. After that, check if they are cooked through, increase the cooking time as needed, depending on the size of the sweet potatoes.
Grilling sweet potatoes with a microwave
After washing and drying the sweet potatoes, use a toothpick or fork to pierce them. This will help them cook faster and prevent them from exploding in the microwave, especially purple sweet potatoes or Japanese sweet potatoes that may explode after being cooked. Wrap the sweet potatoes with kitchen paper to grill them for a better result. However, do not use aluminum foil as it can create sparks and cause a fire in the microwave. Then place the sweet potatoes on a plate and put them in the microwave, choose the grill mode for about 8-10 minutes, depending on the size of the sweet potatoes.
Grilling sweet potatoes with an oven
If you have an oven, arrange the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet and preheat the oven for 5 minutes before putting the baking sheet in. Set the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grill for about 20 minutes, then you can check and flip the sweet potatoes if they are not cooked through yet.
Grilled sweet potatoes are delicious and enticing, especially in winter. You can easily use these simple methods to make hot and grilled sweet potatoes at home.
