Chipotle Sweet Potatoes Recipe

Alton Brown makes mashed sweet potatoes with chipotle peppers & hot sauce.

Alton Brown: Anything a white potato can do, a sweet potato can do. For instance, you can bake them in the oven, just they way you would do in baking potato, just out on the rack. The problem is that, even at 350 degrees, this takes a very long time, and the process tends to mute the sweetness of the root. Other options? Well, you could certainly boil them. That's fast. Problem is that since sweet potatoes lack the waxy texture of boiling potatoes, and since they are packed with water and sugars, they waterlog very easily. That's not good eats. The other option, of course—steaming. Not only is steaming convenient, it is fast, it is easy, and it is predictable. And best of all, steam does not wash away either nutrients or flavors, which is a very good thing, indeed. Now here we have two large sweet potatoes, cut into cubes. The more uniform the cubes, the more even the cooking. This ends out being about 20 ounces, or four cups, going into a pot containing one quart of water. We'll lid that up and set our friendly, neighborhood timer to 20 minutes. There. Nice and soft, but not wet or gushy. Now, we're just going to dump this water, put the hunks back in, then add some butter, and some salt. Then we mash. If you're looking for a finer texture, you could use a ricer or a food mill. You could even use an electric stand mixer, if you want, but you'd be making library paste. See the problem is that the little starch granules in sweet potatoes just can't handle that kind of abuse. Yeah, that's good. Of course, if they really do have porcine potential, what they should be able to handle is a little bit of heat. Chemical heat, that is. Hmm. Ah, chipotle chilies. Basically, smoked jalapenos packaged with a viciously-hot concoction, albeit delicious concoction, called Adobo, okay? Now, since these are canned, they have been fully cooked, and are ready to deploy. Male: Mashed sweet potatoes? That's great, Mr. Brown. Really. Terrific. Really. Alton Brown: But? Male: We did a whole season of dinner theater mashers off-Broadway. Alton Brown: Oh, you're afraid of typecasting. Fine, does this taste like typecasting to you? Male: Mmm. Mmm! Wow! Hey! That would be great with a steak! Alton Brown: Indeed it would. It would be nice with some onion rings on top, too. Male: That sounds risky! Avant-garde! Independent! I like it! But won't that require special makeup? Alton Brown: You just leave that part to me.