The 'Ridiculously Good and Simple' Sweet Potato Recipe Andrew Zimmern Makes for Thanksgiving—and All Winter Long

Potatoes are pretty much a perfect food. You can smash them and mash them and grate them and fry them and bake them and stuff them and whatever way you cook them they're bound to be delicious.

Every time of year is a good time for potatoes, but fall and winter are really prime times for cooking and eating spuds. Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole, roasted potatoes are an excellent match for classic Christmas mains (think big hunks of meat) and Hannukah and latkes go hand in hand.

The last time we sat down with chef Andrew Zimmern, potatoes were a hot topic of conversation. He gave us some genius intel on leveling up your mashed potatoes (bake the potatoes instead of boiling them) but he waxed poetic about one of his favorite dishes, mashed sweet potatoes.

"I love, love sweet potatoes. That is a big part of our family's holiday celebrations," he said. "They're so ridiculously good and simple that we make them constantly. We actually eat them all winter long." As soon as we heard that we knew we had to know more so we could try these leveled-up potatoes in our kitchen—and share the knowledge with you, too.

Related: The Side Dish That's the First to Disappear on Andrew Zimmern's Thanksgiving Table

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How to Make Andrew Zimmern's Best-Ever Mashed Sweet Potatoes

For the hows and whys of making these awesome mashed sweet potatoes, read on. If you're looking for a recipe with specific amounts, check out Zimmer's Whipped Sweet Potato recipe on his website.

• Overcook them. This might sound counterintuitive, but Zimmern can explain. "I purposely overcook them until I see blackening in certain spots on the skin and I see that potato caramel coming out of the potato itself," he says. "That's when I know they're done." But why? "The reason that I do that, number one, is then I know that they're going to be less watery. Sweet potatoes and yams tend to be watery, but I want that smoky, sugary, caramelized flavor in my sweet potato dish. And so by scorching the potatoes, I get that effect."

To create this scorched sweet potato, wash and dry the sweet potatoes (Zimmern usually uses garnet yams, but any sweet potato will work), prick them all over with a fork, place the potatoes on a baking sheet. Roast the sweet potatoes at 375° until you see what Zimmern describes above. (It should take between 75 and 90 minutes, so build in some time.)

• Add two secret ingredients. Zimmern's recipe is very simple, but it's also very specific. After you roast the sweet potatoes, peel them and smash them in a bowl with a fork until they're nice and smooth. The next step: add goat butter and smoked brown sugar. Can you use regular butter and brown sugar? You sure can, but it's not going to be nearly as good.

"The combination of the tart, it's not sour, but the tart flavor of the goat butter and the incredible flavor of smoked brown sugar is just simply unbelievable," he says. Zimmern gets his smoked brown sugar from The Smoked Olive, where you can order an 8-ounce resealable bag for about $15.

And the goat butter? "Goat butter is available in every supermarket," says Zimmern. "I don't go to some fancy supermarket for it. It's always tucked off in the corner where the buttermilk is with the other specialty butter."

See you in the dairy aisle.

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