Air Fryer Sweet Potato Wedges

These air fryer sweet potatoes are a healthy and delicious side dish, that is ready in no time at all. They are easy to prepare, and only take around 15 minutes to cook in your air fryer, making them perfect for busy weeknights, or any time you need a quick snack.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• Sweet potato wedges are a delicious and healthy side dish. They are packed full of nutrients, and despite the sweet taste, have fewer calories than regular potatoes.
• Cooking sweet potato wedges in the air fryer is healthier than regular frying because you don’t need much oil to get them crispy.
• Air frying will get sweet potato wedges crispier than baking them in the oven.

You might also like to try my recipes for air fryer sweet potato fries or air fryer potato wedges. If you are looking for directions to air fry frozen sweet potato wedges, follow the instructions in this post: air fryer frozen potato wedges.

Scroll down for the printable card for this air fryer sweet potato wedges recipe, or read on for all the details!

What do you need?

Quantities for all ingredients are given in the recipe card below.

Sweet potatoes

Choose any variety of sweet potato. Elongated sweet potatoes will cut better into traditional wedge shapes than round-shaped ones.

Oil

I use light olive oil for this recipe, but you can substitute any cooking oil you normally use with your air fryer. Vegetable oil, corn oil, or avocado oil are all good options.

For a healthier version of this recipe, you can use an olive oil spray and just give the wedges a couple of spritzes of oil, or you can add more oil if you want to give the wedges a really crispy exterior.

Cornstarch (optional)

This helps to absorb any remaining surface moisture and will help the wedges to get really crispy. You can skip it if you don’t have any on hand.

Seasoning

The recipe below uses a blend of paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. You can use smoked paprika for a richer smoky flavor, or cayenne pepper for some heat if you like.

Alternatively, use a store-bought seasoning. You need around 3 teaspoons of seasoning in total.

Kosher salt

Use kosher salt or flaked salt season the wedges after cooking. Salt will draw the water out of the wedges

How to make sweet potato wedges in an air fryer

This recipe is very simple to make, but there are a few key steps to getting the sweet potatoes as crispy as possible:

1. Don’t peel the sweet potatoes. Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes, but don’t peel them. The skin is be the crispiest part, so it is important to keep it.
2. Cut the wedges thin. The thinner the wedges, the crisper they will become. Thick wedges are never going to get really crispy, so try to cut each sweet potato into 10-12 wedges. I halve them lengthwise, quarter them, then cut each quarter into three wedges.
3. Pat wedges dry and dust with cornstarch. Pat the wedges dry with paper towels, or on a clean dish towel, then give them a light dusting of cornstarch, and leave them for around 15 minutes. Cornstarch helps to absorb any moisture remaining on the surface of the wedges, and will crisp up nicely as they cook. You can skip this step if you don’t have cornstarch at home, or are pushed for time, but it really will help with crispiness.

Note: There is no need to soak the sweet potato slices first. Air fryer recipes for white potatoes benefit from removing surface starch by soaking before seasoning. However, my testing of this recipe for sweet potato wedges didn’t find any benefit from soaking the wedges.

4. Oil and season the wedges, but do not salt yet. Save the salt to season the wedges once they are cooked. Adding salt beofre cooking will draw water to the surface of the wedges during cooking making them soggy.
5. Don’t overcrowd the basket. Place the sweet potato wedges in the air fryer basket in a single layer if possible, but don’t overcrowd them. Overcrowded sweet potato wedges will steam each other and never get crispy!
   If you want to cook more than will fit in a single layer you can stack them up a little in the air fryer basket [see photo below], but arrange them carefully so that the minimum amount of each wedge is touching the one below it. The wedges will only develop crisp outer surface on parts that are exposed to the hot air.
6. Air fry hot, and flip often. Air fry the sweet potato wedges at 360°F/ 180°C. If you have stacked the wedges in the air fryer basket, then flip them halfway through the cooking time, and at least once more before the cooking time ends. Flip them so that all sides have been exposed to the hot air, helping them to get crispy.

Serving ideas

When the sweet potato wedges have finished cooking, season them with salt to serve.

Air fried sweet potato wedges are great served as a snack with your favorite dipping sauce, or as a quick and easy side dish to steak, grilled chicken, or fish.

Storage and reheating

Store any leftover sweet potato wedges in an airtight container in the refrigerator and use within three days.

You can reheat these wedges in the air fryer – place the wedges in the air fryer basket in a single layer, and air fry at 360°F/ 180°C until warmed through.

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