The Instant Pot makes the BEST Baked Sweet Potatoes! Fluffy, creamy, and perfectly tender, these Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes may not be much faster than oven baked, but they are SO MUCH better with much less clean up!
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes are one of my favorite Instant Pot recipes, along with Instant Pot Beans, Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs, and Instant Pot Yogurt.
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
I am slightly obsessed with sweet potatoes. I eat a sweet potato in some fashion nearly every day, whether it be Sweet Potato Fries, Sweet Potato Hash, or these baked sweet potatoes.
After I perfected a perfectly baked potato in my Instant Pot, I could not wait to try making tender baked sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot.
I was extremely disappointed at first.
With russet potatoes, I can have baked potatoes in less than 15 minutes cook time. So I expected this to be true with sweet potatoes. After all, I can often bake a sweet potato in the oven quicker than a russet potato.
BUT in the Instant Pot, sweet potatoes take time to get their soft, velvety interior. DOUBLE the time a russet potato takes. In fact it is almost the same amount of time it takes to make in the oven.
However, after one bite of Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes–I will NEVER prepare them any other way! They are fluffier, softer, and creamier than oven baked and the clean up is almost non-existent. No more scraping off caramelized juices from the sweet potatoes on baking sheets or worse yet, the bottom of the oven. Any juices that may leak out, go into the water in the inner pot and do not form any sticky mess at all.
Seriously, baking sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot is PERFECTION!
Key Tips for Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes
The process of baking sweet potatoes in the pressure cooker is SUPER simple, but there are a few key tips to keep in mind!
- Select sweet potatoes that are similar in size. This way they will pressure cook in the same amount of time.
- Pierce sweet potatoes several times before cooking–this will prevent the rare occurrence of a sweet potato bursting in the Instant Pot.
- Always add cold water to the inner pot. You will need 1 cup of cold water for a 3 or 6 quart Instant pot and 1.5 cups of cold water for an 8 quart Instant pot. NEVER use warm water as this will change the amount of time it takes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure, which will change the cook time!
- Always use the trivet to keep the sweet potatoes from sitting in the water–this will keep the sweet potatoes from becoming soggy.
How to “Bake” Sweet Potatoes in the Instant Pot
Pour water over the bottom of the pot, and then place in your trivet that came with your instant pot. Remember to use cold/room temperature water and to adjust the amount of water based on the size of your pressure cooker.
Place anywhere from 2-8 scrubbed sweet potatoes on the trivet of your Instant Pot. It is okay if they are stacked on top of each other–this will not effect the cook time.
To make perfect sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot, you will need to cook on high pressure. Hit Manual or Pressure Cooker button your Instant Pot and be sure high pressure is lit up, if not hit pressure level to adjust to read high pressure. Then use the plus minus buttons to adjust the cook time accordingly.
Once cook time has elapsed, allow pressure to release naturally for 8-10 minutes and then turn valve to release to release any remaining pressure. And then serve baked sweet potatoes as desired.
Cook Time for Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Just like regular potatoes, sweet potatoes come in all different shapes and sizes. And the sizes will determine the cook time. First, be sure to select potatoes similar in size. Secondly, determine cook time for sweet potatoes based on the diameter (the width) of the sweet potatoes.
- 18 minutes on high pressure for small sweet potatoes (2 inches in width or diameter)
- 22 minutes on high pressure for medium sweet potatoes (2-3 inches in width or diameter)
- 27 minutes for extra large sweet potatoes (3-4 inches in width or diameter)
How to Serve Baked Sweet Potatoes
I love serving baked potatoes plain with a bit of salt and pepper and my kids love sweet potatoes with a bit of butter and cinnamon sugar.
But get creative with uses for baked sweet potatoes with the following ideas.
- Top with yogurt and nuts for a delicious Breakfast Sweet Potato.
- Use the flesh of the baked sweet potato to make Sweet Potato Casserole or Sweet Potato Oatmeal.
- Stuff baked sweet potatoes with taco meat or pulled pork for a healthy main course.
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 4-8 sweet potatoes scrubbed clean
Instructions
- For a 3 or 6 quart Instant Pot, pour 1 cup of cold/room temperature water into inner pot. For an 8 quart Instant Pot, pour 1.5 cups of cold/room temperature water into inner pot. Add trivet to pot.
- Scrub sweet potatoes and pierce several times with a fork or knife. Place potatoes on trivet (rack) and seal the Instant Pot.
- Cook on high pressure for 18 minutes for small potatoes, 22 for standard, 27 for large. To set cook time, hit manual or pressure cook and then adjust the time using the +/- buttons for the right amount of cook time. (Be sure the Instant Pot is set to high pressure, not low pressure. If low pressure is lit up, hit pressure or pressure level to change to high pressure.)
- Allow pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes before releasing pressure manaually.
Notes
- Cook time is determined by diameter or width of sweet potatoes. Select sweet potatoes that are similar in size. This way they will pressure cook in the same amount of time.
- 18 minutes on high pressure for small sweet potatoes (2 inches in width or diameter)
- 22 minutes on high pressure for medium sweet potatoes (2-3 inches in width or diameter)
- 27 minutes for extra large sweet potatoes (3-4 inches in width or diameter)
- Pierce sweet potatoes several times before cooking--this will prevent the rare occurrence of a sweet potato bursting in the Instant Pot.
- NEVER use warm water as this will change the amount of time it takes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure, which will change the cook time!
- Always use the trivet to keep the sweet potatoes from sitting in the water--this will keep the sweet potatoes from becoming soggy.
This post was originally published in December 2017, but has been updated with a new video in January 2020.
Kristen Chidsey
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Delicious and very moist. Great game easy recipe. 😊👍
I am so glad you enjoyed the sweet potatoes Carol!
Love the detail you give!!! Thank you so much for making this easy!!!!
You are so welcome Teri! I am so glad my tips made this easy for you to understand–that is my goal!!
Yum yum just bought 9-1 viva instant pot. You have helped translate uses. Thanks
I am so happy my explanations helped Clarissa! I hope you love your Instant Pot!
Hi, Kristen
Can I cook just two potatoes!
Hi Addie! Yes, cooking 2 sweet potatoes works perfectly. I have found when cooking russet potatoes, I like to use at least 4 medium or 2 really large, but with sweet potatoes, one or two still work great.
Thank you, that’s great.
What happens if I only want to cook two russets? Do they take longer?
Hi Addie! Because it can take some models of pressure cookers longer to come to pressure with 4+ potatoes, I find I sometimes need to add 2-3 minutes if cooking less potatoes. And they always turn out more consistently soft when cooking at least 4. But here are my instructions for Instant Pot Baked Russet Potatoes.
Thank you. I really appreciated your insight. I like my sweet potato casserole to be creamy.
I think 22 minutes is too long. I had 5 larger sweet potatoes and they came out almost mush. I had even considered bumping them up to the extra large size time, but I’m glad I didn’t. We were rushing to get dinner on we could leave so I didn’t even have time to NPR. They got about 2 minutes of NPR and the rest was IPR.
They were completely soft, the ones on top had molded to the ones underneath. And the ones on the trivet had sorta oozed into the slats. I remembered last time I tried them in the instant pot it wasn’t long enough, and that was probably 15 minutes, so next time I’ll try something between 15-22.
I am sorry these did not turn out perfect for you Gina. I do like my sweet potatoes really soft, but not oozing out. Maybe try 19 minutes next time.
Hello! What is the serving size for the 447 calories in the nutrition facts? That seems high for a plain sweet potato. Thank you for sharing your cooking method. I’m going to try this out tonight.
That is really high! I think that my nutrition calculator was off on that–or was doing the largest sweet potato ever. According to USDA, 1 5 inch sweet potato is 112 calories. I need to change that. Enjoy!
I’m making hasselback sweet potatoes for dinner, but didn’t want to use my stove that long so I popped 6 in my IP and halved your small time so I could slice and finish them in the oven. 9 minutes was more than enough and they were too soft to fan so I did lengthwise slits instead! Were your sweets organic? Mine are and I think they just seem to have a much thinner skin than non-organic.
They’re in the oven now, I’ll update on the finished product later. 😁
Hi Erica! I hope these turned out delicious! So, yes, it may have been that the skin was thinner on your potatoes–and that makes them hard to slice regardless. Maybe next time, try 5 minutes. I am going to experiment with cutting these BEFORE putting in IP to see if that works. I will keep you posted on that, as well.
This works for me and is my new favorite way to cook sweet potatoes! Cuts cooking time in half! Thank you!
YAY!! Thank you Dana for sharing your success.
I would never have thought of making potatoes in the instant pot!!!
This would be perfect for the warmer months when using the oven is the last thing you want to do 😀
Absolutely Claire! Especially when it is 100 degrees out.
There were so easy to make in the Instant Pot! It’s my new go-to recipe.
YAY!!! That makes me so happy Christina
Such a great idea to cook sweet potatoes this way, especially in those hot summer months!
YES Amanda perfect for the hot months for sure–or when I am using my oven for other items