Forget Brown Sugar: Stuff Sweet Potatoes With This Juicy Meat Instead

Roasted sweet potatoes usually get treated with brown sugar before they go into the oven. It's an age-old trick used to caramelize the vegetable and turn it into something closer to dessert. But you can transform a sweet potato into a main dish almost as easily; just skip the brown sugar and stuff it with pulled pork. 

The slow-cooked meat will add extra protein, create more texture, and create a bread-less version of a pulled pork sandwich. Start with a sweet potato that's already been baked and sliced open lengthwise. Stuff the opening with as much pulled pork as you can fit. The juices will soak into the sweet potato and create a bite full of southern-style flavor.

If you pair sweet potatoes with the right kind of pulled pork, you'll get sugary notes without adding any brown sugar to the potato itself. The sweeter varieties of barbecue, like Memphis-style and Texas-style, use brown sugar in the seasoning for pulled pork, so the meat will have already been marinated in a little brown sugar before it reaches your sweet potato. If you decide to stuff your sweet potato with a homemade version of the barbecue meat, add a pinch of brown sugar to the pulled pork. That will tie the meal together and make it even more of an outstanding comfort food.

A pulled pork-stuffed sweet potato is already a tantalizing situation for your taste buds. But all kinds of topping combinations can take it to the next level. Home chefs are adding a layer of roasted marshmallows between the sweet potato and pulled pork, for instance. That creates a personal, protein-packed sweet potato casserole infused with plenty of southern comfort. Maybe your sweet potatoes are begging for Tex-Mex toppings, like beans, sliced avocado, and grilled corn.

Sauces are also ideal — store-bought barbecue sauces can add their own levels of heat and flavor profiles, and hot honey can give a spicy upgrade to sweet potatoes. Finish with cool, crunchy, and zesty garnishes. Sour cream, colby Jack cheese, diced pickles, purple onions, and onion greens all add a nice splash of color and crunch. Crispy fried onion strings are also a great topping to add to a pulled pork stuffed sweet potato for a showy garnish that adds plenty of contrast.