Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary Hot Honey
Grilled Sweet Potatoes are easy, delicious, and healthy vegetables that you can enjoy all year long. They are the perfect side dish whether you are planning a summer barbecue, or you want to add them to your Thanksgiving menu. The char marks from the grill give the sweet potatoes a smoky flavor, while the rosemary hot honey drizzle adds a little sweet and spicy kick.
If you like sweet potatoes, you are going to love this recipe. It requires only a few simple ingredients, and you don’t even have to remove the skin. A few minutes on a hot grill or a grill pan, and you have a delicious side dish. Add the hot honey drizzle and watch them disappear!
Combining sweet potatoes with rosemary makes for a great side dish that goes well with any meal. Roasting them, like in my Rosemary Sweet Potatoes, or grilling them as in this recipe are my favorite ways to prepare them. Roasting or grilling brings out the potatoes’ natural sweetness and it goes so well with the herbal flavors from the fresh rosemary.
Ingredients
I love it when I can whip up an amazing dish with just a handful of ingredients that I already have in my pantry. Here is what you will need to make delicious sweet potatoes:
- Sweet Potatoes: Washed, dried, and cut into 1/2″ thick slices. You can peel them if you like, but why not save yourself the extra step! Sweet potato skin cooks up beautifully and adds a little bit of texture.
- Fresh Rosemary: Chopped fresh rosemary works best, but you can substitute dried rosemary. I would just cut back a bit on the amount since dried herbs are more potent than fresh.
- Olive Oil: Use regular olive oil, not extra virgin for this recipe.
- Kosher Salt and Black Pepper
- Honey: Orange blossom honey is easy to find in the grocery store, but you can use anytype of honey.
- Butter: I use unsalted butter so that I can salt the recipe to taste.
- Red Pepper Flakes: If you don’t want any spice in the sauce, you can leave the red pepper flakes out.
- Lemon juice: You will need about 1/2 of a lemon. It really brightens up the sauce.
How to Make Grilled Sweet Potatoes
- Heat your grill or grill pan to medium high heat.
- Toss the sweet potato slices with olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, and chopped rosemary.
- Place the sweet potatoes directly on the grill grates and cook undisturbed for 5-7 minutes. Turn them over and cook another 5-7 minutes or until the potato slices are just tender when poked with a knife or toothpick. Drizzle the rosemary hot honey over the sweet potato slices and serve.
Make the Rosemary Hot Honey Sauce
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then add the honey, red pepper flakes and rosemary. Stir over medium heat just until the honey has completely melted. Don’t let the mixture boil.
- Remove it from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let the honey butter sauce sit for about 10 minutes. At this point you can strain it to remove the red pepper flakes or use it as is.
Cooking Tips
- Oil the grill grates before cooking. This will keep the sweet potatoes from sticking.
- Make sure the grill or grill pan is hot before putting the sweet potatoes on it. A nice hot grill will create perfect grill marks and a nice char.
- For the best texture, don’t overcook the sweet potatoes. The longer they cook the softer they will be.
- You can determine the heat level you want in the sauce. The longer you leave the red pepper flakes in the honey sauce, the spicier it will be. If you are cooking for kids or you just don’t want a hot sauce, you can leave them out altogether. But if you have spice lovers, you don’t have to strain the sauce at all.
Variations
This recipe is so simple that it is easy to alter and change the flavors to suit your needs.
For an even more savory side dish sprinkle the sweet potato slices with garlic powder or add some fresh garlic to the dipping sauce.
If you really want to ramp up the heat, toss the potatoes with chili powder or cayenne pepper.
Instead of slices of sweet potatoes, cut them into thick wedges.
What to Serve Grilled Sweet Potatoes With
Grilling is one of my favorite ways to cook sweet potatoes because it makes them easy to pair with so many main dish recipes. I will admit that I love all recipes that add brown sugar to sweet potatoes, but it does limit what you can serve them with.
This grilled sweet potato recipe is a simple summer side dish perfect for a backyard barbecue featuring savory Grilled Chicken or Smoked Chicken Legs. During the colder months this makes a great side dish for a tender Roast Beef or Marinated Pork Tenderloin.
Storing Leftovers
Any leftover sweet potatoes should be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated. They will stay fresh for up to 4 days. You can reheat them in the microwave or to crisp them up you can put them in a 350°F oven for about 15 minutes.
Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary Hot Honey FAQ
Are Sweet Potatoes and Yams the Same Thing?
Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing. Although you may see sweet potatoes labeled as Yams in the grocery store, it is very unlikely that they are truly yams. Yams are actually very hard to find in grocery stores. They originated in Africa and have a rough brownish skin and pale starchy flesh with a rather neutral taste. While sweet potatoes, which come from South America, have reddish skin with an orange or purple flesh and somewhat sweet flavor. For more information about how we came to confuse Yams and sweet potatoes check out this article at Webstaurant Store Blog.
Do you need to soak sweet potatoes before grilling them?
No there is no need to soak sweet potatoes before putting them on the grill. They can be sliced into rounds, wedges or cubed and just put directly on the grill. You can also leave them whole and cook them as you would a baked sweet potato.
Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary Hot Honey
Equipment
- grill pan or grill
Ingredients
Sweet Potatoes
- 2 Sweet potatoes large
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp Rosemary fresh, chopped
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- ½ tsp Black Pepper
Rosemary Hot Honey
- ¼ cup Honey
- ¼ cup Butter (or ghee)
- 1 tsp Rosemary fresh, chopped
- ½ tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
Sweet Potatoes
- Pre-heat your grill to medium high.
- Wash, dry and cut the sweet potatoes to ½” round slices and place them in a large bowl. Toss the sweet potato slices with olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, and chopped rosemary.
- Place the sweet potatoes directly on the grill grates and cook undisturbed for 5-7 minutes. Turn them over and cook another 5-7 minutes or until the potato slices are just tender when poked with a knife or toothpick. Transfer them to a serving platter, drizzle the rosemary hot honey over the sweet potato slices and serve.
Rosemary Hot Honey
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then add the honey, red pepper flakes and rosemary. Stir over medium heat just until the honey has completely melted. Don’t let the mixture boil.
- Remove it from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let the honey butter sauce sit for about 10 minutes. At this point you can strain it to remove the red pepper flakes or use it as is.
