Little known fact: the recipes I feature here don’t always turn out perfectly the first time! Take today’s recipe. The first time we made it we were serving it with a roasted chicken. All four of us (Eric, Kelly, Gilbert & myself) were in the kitchen helping prepare the meal. There was a lot going on, what with baking the potatoes, making the sauce for the potatoes, and grating the cheese for the potatoes plus chopping the ingredients for the stuffing for the chicken, stuffing the chicken, and roasting the chicken. In all that activity, we forgot a key step in making the smashed sweet potatoes. We forgot to put the cheddar cheese into the dish!

Turns out, adding the cheese is a crucial step to making these potatoes! We all loved the flavor, but were surprised and disappointed by the thin, runny texture of potatoes. We spent some time over dinner brainstorming ways to improve the recipe. It wasn’t until we were cleaning up after dinner and putting away the leftovers from the meal that we discovered the grated cheddar cheese in the fridge, waiting to be added to the potatoes. Oops! That sure explained a lot!

Fortunately, we have lots of sweet potatoes from our CSA, we always have cheddar cheese in the house and chipotle peppers in abodo sauce is readily available in grocery stores. We got it right the next time! The flavor and texture of the potatoes came out perfectly!

Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Chipotle Cheddar Mashed Sweet Potatoes (adapted from onceuponachef.com)

We used just one HUGE sweet potato from the CSA for this recipe!

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds sweet potatoes
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup half & half
• 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
• 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from the can of chipotle peppers
• 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (4 ounces) grated cheddar cheese

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Prick each potato several times with a fork and transfer it to the baking sheet. Bake the potatoes until they are tender, 60 to 75 minutes, turning the potatoes over halfway through the baking time. Let them cool slightly, then scoop the flesh from the skin of the potatoes, discarding the skins.

Bake the sweet potato.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the half & half, chipotle peppers, chipotle sauce, and salt and bring it all to a simmer. Remove the mixture from the heat.

Heat the half & half with the chipotle pepper.

Using a potato masher, fork, or an electric mixer on low speed, mash the potatoes until they are coarsely puréed. Add the cheddar cheese and chipotle sauce to the mashed potatoes. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Add the chipotle mixture to the sweet potatoes & cheese.

Serve the potatoes warm.

This has a great smoky kick to it!

It was a winner on the second time around!  ~Linda

Chipotle Cheddar Mashed Sweet Potatoes (adapted from onceuponachef.com)

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds sweet potatoes
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup half & half
• 1 tablespoon minced canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from the can of chipotle peppers
• 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (4 ounces) grated cheddar cheese

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Prick each potato several times with a fork and transfer to the baking sheet. Bake the potatoes until they are tender, 60 to 75 minutes, turning the potatoes over halfway through the baking time. Let them cool slightly, then scoop the flesh from the skin of the potatoes, discarding the skins.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the half & half, chipotle peppers, chipotle sauce, and salt and bring it all to a simmer. Remove the mixture from the heat. Using a potato masher, fork, or an electric mixer on low speed, mash the potatoes until they are coarsely puréed. Add the cheddar cheese and chipotle sauce to the mashed potatoes. Add salt & pepper to taste. Serve the potatoes warm.