It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving to make sweet potato casserole. This Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole recipe is easy and made in the potato’s skin.
For more ideas of what to cook, check out all of our recipes.
We never have sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving. We have mashed potatoes, and that’s enough potato for us. But sweet potatoes, sugar, marshmallows, pecans … who wouldn’t want that? Well, anyone who hates cleanup because that pan is sticky and hard to clean. But worry not. You can still enjoy those flavors, and easy cleanup, when you make our Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole.
This stuffed sweet potato casserole is made entirely in the potato’s skin, which means there’s no casserole pan to clean after dinner is done.
We also bake these sweet potatoes in foil. Sweet potatoes take a little longer to bake in foil than out of foil because the foil needs to heat up first, but foil immensely reduces your cleanup time.
And that’s worth it.
Baked Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe
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Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole Ingredients:
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 1/8 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup pecans
How To Make Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole:
Pre-heat your oven to 400 F.
While you’re waiting, wash your sweet potatoes.
Since sweet potatoes grow in the ground, you want to make sure you clean the skins really well. You can use a vegetable brush to help you scrub them.
Stab them with a fork.
Rub a little olive oil around the outside of the sweet potato.
Wrap the sweet potatoes in a sheet of foil and put them in a cake pan with high sides.
Bake for 60 minutes until the sweet potatoes are fork tender.
Unwrap the sweet potatoes and cut them in half. Face the cut side up.
Slightly mash the sweet potato with a fork.
Cut the butter into cubes and distribute it between the sweet potatoes.
Sprinkle the brown sugar between the sweet potatoes.
Chop the pecans and top the brown sugar with the nuts.
Finally, fill the sweet potato with mini marshmallows.
Put the sweet potatoes back in the oven for 3 minutes, until the marshmallows start to brown.
If you want, you can broil them for 1 to 2 minutes to char the marshmallows.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt.
Serve warm.
How to choose a ripe sweet potato
Of course, you want to use a ripe sweet potato to make this Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole. But how do you know how to tell if a sweet potato is ripe?
Size
First, go with small or medium potatoes. Those ones will be less starchy and will be tastier when they cook.
Skin
Pick sweet potatoes that have flat skin. Wrinkles, blemishes, bruises, etc. are proof that the sweet potato is past its prime.
Texture
Make sure the sweet potato is firm when you squeeze it. If the sweet potato is soft, and especially if any liquid oozes out, it is past its prime.
Color
Sweet potatoes come in a variety of colors. So of course, the skin can be a variety of color when it’s ripe. But, if the skin is a dark brown or black, that means it is past its prime.
Can you store sweet potatoes in the fridge?
Sweet potatoes are shelf stable and should be stored in a cool, dark area for a couple weeks. Don’t wash them before storing them because too much moisture on them can cause rot.
Don’t store sweet potatoes in the fridge because this can cause them to harden and not cook properly when you’re ready for them. If you absolutely need to keep them in the fridge, store them in water to keep them moist and cook them as soon as possible (like within a day or a couple days at maximum).
You can’t freeze raw sweet potatoes, but if you blanche them first, you can put blanched sweet potatoes in a freezer-safe bag or container and then freeze them.
What temperature do you cook sweet potatoes to?
The thing that turns people off from sweet potatoes is that sometimes, when you think they’re done, you cut them open and they’re still hard inside.
According to this, sweet potatoes should be baked to about 205 to 212 degrees F.
Do you need to bake sweet potatoes in foil?
Sweet potatoes can be baked without foil. I prefer to bake sweet potatoes in foil because it’s just a lot cleaner. Put the foil-wrapped sweet potatoes in a cake pan and you don’t need to scrub the pan.
Keep in mind that baking sweet potatoes in foil, instead of out of foil, will increase your cooking time. The foil needs to heat up before the sweet potato will start heating up. So if you do use foil, adjust your cooking time to account for that.
Why do you use a fork to poke holes in sweet potatoes before baking?
This is actually a safety thing. Potatoes (white, Idaho, sweet, the whole lot of them) get really hot internally when they’re baking. So you need to use a fork to poke holes in the potato before you bake it.
The holes give the steam forming inside somewhere to go.
If you don’t poke holes, you run the risk of the potato actually exploding.
The steam inside can build up more pressure than the skin of the potato can handle. And the pressure will push through the skin and it will explode all over. It doesn’t happen often, but it can happen.
That potential explosion can happen in either the microwave, oven, air fryer, etc. So no matter what cooking method you’re using for potatoes, poke holes in them.
Do sweet potatoes take longer to bake than other potatoes?
Give or take, sweet potatoes and other (white, Russet, etc.) take fairly the same amount of time to bake.
But it seems like sweet potatoes always take so much longer to bake in the oven, right? Here’s why.
Sweet potatoes are generally larger than Russet potatoes. Because of the size difference, sweet potatoes take longer to bake than other potatoes.
But, if all things were equal, and you had a sweet potato and Russet potato of identical sizes, they would take the same amount of time to bake.
Just to clear up (or confuse) things, sweet potato fries will bake quicker than fries made with Idaho potatoes.
Why?
Because the sweet potato has more sugar in it. So that sugar will caramelize on the surface of the fries and will brown (and eventually burn) faster than other fries will crisp.
What can you serve Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole with?
Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole is a great Thanksgiving side dish. But you don’t have to make a turkey with all the trimmings to enjoy it. We actually just have this as a side dish on random Thursdays.
Some of our favorite main dishes to go with Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole are:
- Slow Cooker Ginger Marmalade Chicken
- Pan Seared Steak
- Easy Chicken And Veggie Bake
- Herb Roasted Turkey Breast
- Sheet Pan Chicken Vesuvio
- Oven-Roasted Chicken
Want more sweet potato recipes?
If you’re looking for other sweet potato recipes, be sure to check out our Ultimate List of Sweet Potato Recipes with over 110 different recipes on it.
Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole
It doesn't have to be Thanksgiving to make sweet potato casserole. Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole is easy and made in the potato's skin.
Ingredients
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 1/8 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup pecans
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 400 F.
- Wash your sweet potatoes. Stab them with a fork. Rub a little olive oil around the outside of the sweet potato. Wrap the sweet potatoes in a sheet of foil and put them in a cake pan with high sides.
- Bake for 60 minutes until the sweet potatoes are fork tender.
- Unwrap the sweet potatoes and cut them in half. Face the cut side up. Slightly mash the sweet potato with a fork. Cut the butter into cubes and distribute it between the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle the brown sugar between the sweet potatoes. Chop the pecans and top the brown sugar with the nuts. Finally, fill the sweet potato with mini marshmallows.
- Put the sweet potatoes back in the oven for 3 minutes, until the marshmallows start to brown. Optional: Broil them for 1 to 2 minutes to char the marshmallows.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt. Serve warm.
Nutrition Information
Yield
2Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 376Total Fat 21gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 12gCholesterol 31mgSodium 145mgCarbohydrates 46gFiber 5gSugar 26gProtein 4g
Have you tried this Stuffed Sweet Potato Casserole yet? Comment below and let us know.
Beverly
Thursday 16th of November 2023
Wow, I have never seen this done before. Great idea.
EsmeSalon
Thursday 9th of November 2023
Love sweet potatoes, but must admit that I have never added marshmallows before, so will have to try this soon.
Harold Burton
Friday 18th of June 2021
Meals like this have been saving my hide this summer with baseball every night! Love the addition of the pecans! Pinned :)
Alisha Ross
Friday 24th of January 2020
Looks delicious ! I was wondering if you could post recipes for school lunches? I’m trying to eat healthier while trying to balance out homework and exercise and I would like some simple, quick and healthy lunch recipes. Thanks ?
drugstore diva lisa
Wednesday 29th of January 2020
Thanks for the suggestion. You know, I never think about posting lunch recipes, so that's a great idea!
Lorelai @ Life With Lorelai
Thursday 26th of February 2015
Oh what an awesome way to bring Thanksgiving to an everyday meal! Please come share your blog posts over at the Home Matters Linky Party! We'd love to have you for a visit. The Door Opens FRIDAY. http://lifewithlorelai.com/2015/02/26/home-matters-linky-party-26/ :)
~Lorelai Life With Lorelai