Best for: The winter street-cart sweet potato, from your coals.
Kao hongshu is China’s winter street smell: whole sweet potatoes roasted in barrel ovens on street corners until the skins char and the flesh collapses into something syrupy. At home, the grill’s coals do the barrel’s work — the potatoes roast in foil at the edge of the fire, slowly, until they slump. It is cooked differently from this site’s Korean grilled sweet potatoes, which sit on the grates; these are ember-roasted whole and eaten with a spoon.
Grill: Indirect medium heat at the edge of the coals; 400°F, covered. Equipment: Grill, heavy-duty foil, tongs.
Ingredients
Rest: 5 minutes. Total: 1 hour.
- 4 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 1/2 lb total), scrubbed and dried
- 1 teaspoon neutral oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fine table salt
- Honey or brown sugar, for serving (optional)
Directions
Heat the grill to 400°F with the coals banked to one side. Rub the sweet potatoes with the neutral oil and the salt.
Wrap each potato in foil and set them on the indirect side, at the edge of the coals.
Close the lid and roast for 45–50 minutes, turning a quarter turn every 15 minutes, until the potatoes slump and feel completely soft when squeezed with tongs.
For the street-cart finish, unwrap the potatoes for the last 5 minutes of cooking so the skins dry and spot with char.
Rest for 5 minutes — the centers are molten and keep cooking.
Split the skins, fluff the flesh with a fork, and serve in the skins, with honey or brown sugar at the table if you like.
Grilling tip: The slump is the test: a roasted sweet potato that still holds a firm shape needs ten more minutes, whatever the clock says.
