For Thanksgiving dinner, I served this, and my family absolutely loved it. It has already been asked for Christmas dinner because it is easy and gorgeous to look at on the table. You can change this recipe however you wish by varying the amounts of bacon and onions.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 35 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch chunks
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 5 slices smoked bacon, chopped
- 1 pound onions, thinly sliced
- 1 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Toss the sweet potato chunks, olive oil, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl, and spread the sweet potatoes out onto a large rimmed baking sheet.
- Roast in the preheated oven until browned and tender, about 40 minutes; stir after the first 20 minutes.
- Cook the bacon until crisp and brown in a large skillet over medium heat, about 10 minutes; transfer bacon to a bowl, but leave the grease in the skillet. Cook the onions in the bacon grease until browned, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low, and cook the onions until very soft, brown, and sweet, another 10 to 15 minutes. Stir often. Mix the onions with the bacon in the bowl, and set aside.
- Pour the maple syrup into the hot skillet with the thyme, and bring to a rolling boil. Boil the syrup until reduced by half, 3 to 4 minutes. Place the roasted sweet potatoes and onion-bacon mixture into the skillet, and stir to coat the vegetables with maple glaze. Transfer to a serving dish.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 288 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 52 g |
| Cholesterol | 8 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 378 mg |
| Sugars | 24 g |
| Fat | 8 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Everyone loved it! Delicious!
A favorite savory side dish for many this Thanksgiving in addition to our traditional ‘sweet’ sweet potatoes – we will definitely make again next year!!
I also used dried thyme – putting in 1 teaspoon in a 1/3 sized batch of these. I did not find the thyme flavor overwhelming.
Made this for Thanksgiving last year and LOVED it! Just wish there was someone else in my house who loves sweet potatoes like I do! Oh well, Thanksgiving is coming up again!
Tasty. Made it for Thanksgiving pot luck . Everyone raved! Less sugary, less calories than Candied Yams!
I made it tonight exactly as listed. We loved it. It is a nice change from the usual sweet potato dish. I will make this one of my signature Holiday side dishes. Thanks!
I just made this for my family’s Christmas dinner this afternoon. Of course I had to try a bite before packing it up to take to the party. Beautiful blend of sweet and savory.
I read several reviews that said they had made this without the maple syrup. So I made half a recipe with and half without. My company was split on which way they liked it best but they definitely liked it!
Used sugar free syrup and my wife loved it.
This dish is very tasty and it’s such a nice change. The right balance of sweet and savory, but still allowing the flavor of the sweet potato to shine through. We cut back on the onions slightly. Also, rather than add the potatoes and bacon/onion mixture back into the skillet to coat it with the glaze, I just pour the glaze into the bowl that the mixture was in. I gently mixed everything together and then transferred everything to a crock pot to keep the food warm. Next time, however, I will cut then onions into thin strips instead of the thin rings. It should allow the onions to separate a little easier rather than end up as clumps of onion next to the potato cubes.
I followed the recipe as written. I found that I was unable to reduce the syrup to half as specified in the recipe. I cooked it as directed but it did not reduce so I tried cooking a little longer. It still did not reduce. I finally used it as is. Next time I would use less because most of it just ended up sitting in the bottom of the bowl, a waste of expensive syrup. I also found the long pieces of sliced onion which ended up looking stringy unattractive. Next time I would thinly slice them and then cut them into shorter pieces so that they mixed better with the potato pieces. Overall good taste but some flaws in the instructions.
I was looking for an alternative to the syrupy sweet traditional sweet potato casserole and thought this would be it. If you are looking for a very sweet dish, this is it. If you are looking for a non-sweet or “slightly” sweet dish, omit the maple syrup all together. If I make this dish again, I will skip the maple syrup completely. As written, this dish is so sweet it’s more like a desert. Tasty, but not what I was looking for.
I only used 3/4 of a pound of onions because a full pound just seemed like so many. Next time I make it I will add the full pound because they cooked down really far and were delicious.
The flavor of thyme was very strong. I would likely cut it back by half. Other than that it was delicious. My potatoes came out caramelized and crispy on the outside.
This was delicious and a perfect side dish to salmon. I’ve used one sweet potato for my chunks and other pieces to make it for 2 servings. I did have trouble with my syrup since it got too thick. But I did add an extra amount to make up for the glaze. It’s so good I would make it again.
I made smaller amount and estimated ingredients as I didn’t measure. I used pure Michigan maple syrup and vidalia onion. Will make this again.
This was delicious. I didn’t have real maple syrup which would make it ever better but Mrs Butterworth made this pretty good too. I also didn’t have any thyme so I improvised with basil and oregano. Next time I make this I’ll make sure to get the sweet potatoes cooked until they are quite browned and crispy. This will make them even better. I would recommend this dish for a special meal or like we had it. With a bbq’ed pork chop regular weekday meal. Yummy.
I made this for Thanksgiving. It was super easy and delicious. I was I worried the maple would make this dish too sweet but it was perfect. The onions helped balance the sweet and savory. I left out the bacon and it was still great. I will be making this again for sure!
It was absolutely wonderful! Made this for family and they fell in love it. Thanks so much for sharing!
I made these for Thanksgiving dinner, and they were a hit! I left out the bacon because I didn’t have any, and made them in a slow cooker, but otherwise followed the recipe. While they were cooking, the Thyme smelled really strong, and I was afraid the flavor would be too intense, but it wasn’t at all. I will definitely be making them again!
I’ve made this for Thanksgiving three years in a row now and it’s perfect. It’s an absolute go-to that I look forward to fixing. As some have said, the fresh thyme is crucial and is what takes this to the next level.