Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes are fluffy, creamy, perfectly tender, and unbelievably easy to make! This recipe for Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes includes tried and true timing based on the size of the sweet potatoes, ensuring perfect results every time.
![Instant Pot Sweet Potato Baked Sweet Potato on white plate topped with butter and cinnamon.](https://amindfullmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Baked-Sweet-Potato.jpg)
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes, along with hard-boiled eggs, jasmine rice, and chicken stock, are one of the most repeated staples I use my Instant Pot for.
While not technically baked, the moist heat of the Instant Pot creates a perfect baked sweet potato, just as it does for Instant Pot Baked Potatoes! They are soft, velvety, and super creamy.
Seriously, Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes are PERFECTION!
Why You Will Love Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes
- Super Easy. Scrub, prick with a fork, and pressure cook! That's it! Instant Pot Baked Sweet Potatoes are one of the easiest recipes to make in the Instant Pot and the result is absolute perfection!
- Minimal Clean-Up. 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.
- Best Texture. Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes are fluffier, softer, and creamier than oven-baked sweet potatoes.
- Keeps the Heat Out of the Kitchen. When the temperatures rise, you may not want to turn your oven on to prepare baked sweet potatoes. With this recipe for Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes, the heat is sealed inside the pressure cooker, rather than permeating your kitchen.
How to Make Baked Sweet Potatoes in the Instant Pot
The following tips are provided to help you achieve perfect results. You will find the detailed instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- To the inner pot, add cold tap water and place the trivet inside the inner pot. The trivet will keep the sweet potatoes elevated above the water, so they don't become waterlogged.
![How to Cook Sweet Potatoes in Instant Pot Trivet in empty Instant Pot.](https://amindfullmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Instant-Pot-with-Trivet.jpg)
- Place anywhere from 1 to 8 scrubbed sweet potatoes on the trivet of your Instant Pot. It is okay if they are stacked on top of each other and will not affect the cooking time.
![Instapot Sweet Potatoes Raw Sweet Potatoes in Instant Pot.](https://amindfullmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Baked-Sweet-Potatoes.jpg)
- Use the manual or pressure cook button to cook the sweet potatoes on High Pressure for 18 to 27 minutes depending on the size of your sweet potatoes.
- Once the cooking time has elapsed, allow pressure to release naturally for 5 to 10 minutes, and then turn the valve to release any remaining pressure.
- Remove your sweet potatoes from the pressure cooker and serve as desired.
![Perfect Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes Tender sweet potatoes cooked up in Instant Pot.](https://amindfullmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sweet-Potatoes-in-Instant-Pot.jpg)
Determining Cook Time
Just like regular potatoes, sweet potatoes come in all different shapes and sizes. And the sizes will determine the cooking time. First, be sure to select potatoes similar in size so that the cooking time will be the same for all of your sweet potatoes. Secondly, determine the cooking time for sweet potatoes based on the diameter (the width) of the sweet potatoes.
- Small Sweet Potatoes (2 inches in width or diameter): 18 minutes on high pressure
- Medium Sweet Potatoes (3 inches in width or diameter): 22 minutes on high pressure
- Large Sweet Potatoes (4 inches in width or diameter): 27 minutes on high pressure
∗ important to remember ∗
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 cooking time!
- Always use the trivet to keep the sweet potatoes from sitting in the water--this will keep the sweet potatoes from becoming soggy.
Serving Suggestions
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes make the perfect side dish for a Steak, Baked Salmon, or Slow Cooker Pork Roast. You can simply top the sweet potatoes with butter and a bit of salt and pepper or with cinnamon sugar for a steakhouse version of a baked sweet potato.
Besides using it as a simple, healthy side dish, there are a lot of different ways to serve Instant Pot sweet potatoes.
- Top with yogurt and nuts for a delicious Breakfast Sweet Potato.
- Use the flesh of the baked sweet potato to make sweet potato puree to use for Sweet Potato Casserole or Sweet Potato Oatmeal.
- Stuff the baked sweet potatoes with taco meat or pulled pork for a healthy main course.
More Sweet Potato Recipes
- Instant Pot Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potatoes
- Instant Pot Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chili
- Tex-Mex Chicken and Sweet Potato Skillet
- Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos
- Sweet Potato Pancakes
If you tried out Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes, I would love for you to leave a comment below.
![Baked Instant Pot Sweet Potato on white plate topped with pat of butter.](https://amindfullmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Sweet-Potatoes-Instant-Pot-360x360.jpg)
Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1-8 sweet potatoes scrubbed clean
Instructions
- For a 3 or 6-quart pressure cooker, pour 1 cup of cold/room temperature water into the inner pot. For an 8-quart Instant Pot, pour 1.5 cups of cold/room temperature water into the inner pot. Add trivet to pot.
- Scrub sweet potatoes and pierce them several times with a fork or knife. Place the sweet potatoes on the rack, and place the lid on the Instant Pot.
- Cook on high pressure for 18 minutes for small potatoes, 22 for standard, and 27 for large. To set the cooking 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 5 to 10 minutes before releasing pressure manually.
Equipment Needed
Notes
-
- 18 minutes on high pressure for small sweet potatoes (2 inches in width or diameter)
- 22 minutes on high pressure for medium sweet potatoes (3 inches in width or diameter)
- 27 minutes for extra large sweet potatoes (4 inches in width or diameter)
Nutrition
This post was originally published in December 2017 and updated in 2023.
John
This looks great! I saw below that you can also cook 1 or 2 sweets. Do you have to adjust the time at all?
Thanks!
John
Kristen Chidsey
Hi John! I have not needed to adjust the timing for just 1 or 2 potatoes. Ironically enough, I have to add time when cooking just 1 or 2 russet potatoes.
Kelly
I just tried this with 6 medium sweet potatoes, so I cooked them for 20 minutes, and let the pressure release for 20 minutes. Oh my gosh! They are so creamy! Thank you! I am eating a lot of sweet potatoes on this diet I am on. I will never use the microwave to cool them again. And the skin just slid off!
Kristen Chidsey
IP sweet potatoes are the BEST! So glad you gave them a try Kelly!
Jeanette
Delicious! Soft and fully cooked as promised. Thank you so much.
Kristen Chidsey
You are so welcome Jeanette! I am so glad you enjoyed!
Sherry
The best sweet potato!! I love sweet potatoes ... hot, cold, breakfast, dessert... doesn’t matter. The instant pot makes it impossibly easy and perfect. I just got an instant pot a couple of months ago and hardly a day goes by without using it. I refer to your webpage often. Thank you for sharing your recipes and knowledge. It is most appreciated.
Kristen Chidsey
Thank you so much Sherry for taking the time to let me know how much your enjoy these recipes---it makes my heart so happy!
CJ Black
Super easy and very little cleanup. They cook very well and have a great texture. I was skeptical and expected them to be mushy, but they came out just like baked.
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed CJ! Thanks for leaving a review!
Carol
Delicious and very moist. Great game easy recipe. 😊👍
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed the sweet potatoes Carol!
Teri
Love the detail you give!!! Thank you so much for making this easy!!!!
Kristen Chidsey
You are so welcome Teri! I am so glad my tips made this easy for you to understand--that is my goal!!
Clarissa St Louis
Yum yum just bought 9-1 viva instant pot. You have helped translate uses. Thanks
Kristen Chidsey
I am so happy my explanations helped Clarissa! I hope you love your Instant Pot!
Addie
Hi, Kristen
Can I cook just two potatoes!
Kristen Chidsey
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.
Addie
Thank you, that's great.
What happens if I only want to cook two russets? Do they take longer?
Kristen Chidsey
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.
Susanne
Thank you. I really appreciated your insight. I like my sweet potato casserole to be creamy.
Gina
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.
Kristen Chidsey
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.
Megan
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.
Kristen Chidsey
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!
Erika
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. 😁
Kristen Chidsey
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.
Dora
This works for me and is my new favorite way to cook sweet potatoes! Cuts cooking time in half! Thank you!
Kristen Chidsey
YAY!! Thank you Dana for sharing your success.
Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts
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 😀
Kristen Chidsey
Absolutely Claire! Especially when it is 100 degrees out.
Christina
There were so easy to make in the Instant Pot! It's my new go-to recipe.
Kristen Chidsey
YAY!!! That makes me so happy Christina
Amanda
Such a great idea to cook sweet potatoes this way, especially in those hot summer months!
Kristen Chidsey
YES Amanda perfect for the hot months for sure--or when I am using my oven for other items