Easy Homemade Tallow Sweet Potato Fries Recipe
Crispy, not soft! Easy homemade tallow sweet potato fries—healthy, small-batch, and perfect with sandwiches or smash burgers.
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Why You’ll Love This
Healthy – Cooking sweet potato fries in tallow gives our bodies essential vitamins only found in animal products while avoiding industrialized seed oils.
Easy – Frying sweet potatoes at home takes only a few minutes to create a quick healthy side.
Crisp – Sweet potatoes fried in tallow are crisp and crunchy due to the high smoke point of beef tallow.
Want To Learn To Render Your Own Tallow?
Check out my full post on How To Make Beef Tallow where I share a step by step guide to rendering beef fat.
In this post I cover:
- Why Rendering Your Own Tallow Is Worth It
- How To Store Tallow
- My Top Tips On Rendering Beef Fat
- Step by Step Guide to Rendering Beef Fat into Tallow
Is Tallow A Good Frying Oil?
High Smoke Point: Beef tallow has a high smoke point, around 400ºF, making it an ideal oil for frying potatoes without producing carcinogens.
Rancidity: One of the properties of tallow is that it resists oxidation and can be stored long term on the pantry shelf. Unlike most of the seed oil counterparts on the market today.
Is Tallow Healthy?
There are different types of tallow but suet is the most prized especially for cooking. Suet renders hard and white and has a the least beefy flavor when rendered making it ideal for tallow fries.
Nutritional Benefits: Suet particularly is 70-80% saturated fat which means it’s comprised of short chain fatty acids. These fats have antimicrobial properties, are readily absorbed by the digestive system and contribute to the health of our immune system. (Source: Nourishing Traditions) If you want to learn more about cooking with tallow check out my post How To Cook With Tallow.
How To Make Crisp, Not Soft Fries
Making crispy homemade fries comes down to a few key things.
- HOT HOT OIL – Hot oil will cook your sweet potatoes thoroughly without softening the exterior. Don’t cook fries Low and Slow. Thankfully the high smoke point of tallow allows you to crank the heat on the fries.
- THIN NOT THICK – Thinner sweet potato fries cook quicker and crisp well with an even ratio of outside crunch to inside starchy sweetness.
- SMALL BATCHES – Too many fries in the pot can bring down the temperature of your oil and not allow all the surface of the sweet potato to be in contact with the hot oil.
- DOUBLE FRYING – Fry twice, eat once…. but seriously. Frying sweet potatoes twice will let you do a thorough cook on the first fry and then a quick crisp on the second. I personally love double frying because it allows me to get all the fries prepped and ready for dinner and then do a quick crisp when dishing. This way everyone gets hot crispy seasoned sweet potato fries.
Yes, tallow can be re-used for frying. Make sure to use it for frying the same or similar items as to not impart any unwanted flavors from previous meals. Best to use twice to keep fresh oil flavor and crispness.
Cast iron pans, or soup pots work well for frying sweet and regular potatoes. I prefer using a soup pot when frying sweet potatoes, this allows me to use less oil and create a deeper oil reservoir for frying.
How To Make Tallow Sweet Potato Fries
Step 1
Measure out about one cup of tallow and begin melting over medium high heat in a pot.
Step 2
Peel and slice your sweet potatoes, or yams.
Step 1
When the oil is hot and beginning to bubble (around 300º) add in your first small batch of fries. Cook 3 minutes until soft.
Step 2
Remove sweet potato fries from tallow and set aside to cool.
Step 1
Double fry for 1-2 minutes more once you have finished all the fries. This will make them crispy.
Step 2
Remove from tallow and immediately season with salt or a seasoning mix.
Serve sweet potato fries as a side to sandwiches, burgers or with a lemon paprika aioli. Learn to make your own aioli with homemade mayonnaise here, it only takes one minute! Check out some other recipes that use beef tallow.
Some of my favorite ways to use tallow other than cooking is through tallow skincare – Check out my recipes for both Tallow Moisturizer and how to make your own Tallow Sugar Scrub.
These look incredible! I love that you used tallow, such a nourishing fat that adds amazing flavor. Sweet potato fries made this way sound both crispy and satisfying!
This was the perfect recipe for me because I have almost a literal ton of tallow. Can you do this using home canned sweet potatoes? I’ve seen some frying regular potatoes from home canned though I’ve never tried it. I just wonder if the sugars in sweet potatoes makes frying them in tallow likely or not.
Hi Clair, I’m unsure about frying from canned, my go to with canned potatoes is quick skillet fry for scrambles or something like that. I personally have never fried from home canned. I would love to hear how that works for you.