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Keeping things comforting, but healthy with my Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins. Kind of like cheesy nachos, but instead of chips, we’re substituting crisp sweet potatoes skins…so better! Made simply with sweet potatoes, chicken, chipotle chilies, spices, a touch of lime, spinach, and a generous amount of sharp cheddar cheese. Each homemade, oven-baked, sweet potato skin is delicious…and pretty healthy too. Think crisp on the outside, soft on the inside. Stuffed with sweet and spicy chicken that’s full of protein and perfectly balanced. Each sweet potato skin makes for the perfect weeknight dinner that easily doubles as lunch the next day.

overhead photo of Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins

What I love so much about fall food is that it’s comforting, cozy, warming, and typically on the heartier side. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a good salad (though I do prefer warm, roasted salads over cold salads). But I think it’s obvious that I really shine when it comes to cozy, comfort food. In fact, I want one of my upcoming cookbook titles to be Half Baked Harvest Cozy. What do you think…cookbook #3…before cookbook #2 even rolls out? Yeah, I have issues.

Point is, I love cozy recipes. I even love the word cozy. And I really just love fall food.

BUT, sometimes fall recipes can get to be a bit on the heavy side. I prefer to lighten them up a little and get back to a more balanced, healthy dinner. To me, that still includes cheese, but also includes plenty of vegetables, lean chicken, and flavorful spices to keep us warm and our metabolism running quickly.

sweet potatoes after baking
chipotle chicken and chickpeas in baking dish
Enter in my go-to, healthy yet comforting, fall dinner – Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins

These are SO GOOD.

I’ve been making a version of these for years and years, but this year I added a few things. Things like crunchy chickpeas (because I’m obsessed with them), a touch of onion, and I also kicked up the spices.

I could not love these skins more. And? They are so simple and easy to make. They do take some time, because baking sweet potatoes just takes patience. But all the prep and hands-on time is under 20 minutes. Easy.

overhead photo of Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins before baking
To make these sweet potato skins

Start with the sweet potatoes themselves. I like to bake the sweet potato whole, directly on the oven grates. Cooking the potatoes this way allows them to soften in the center, but also keeps the skins from getting soggy.

While the skins are baking, also bake the chicken and the chickpeas together in the same baking dish. As the chicken cooks, the chickpeas crisp. I do want to note two things here…

First, if you don’t like chickpeas, you can very easily omit these from the recipe entirely. Most of my family really dislikes any kind of bean, so I never even add the chickpeas when they’re around.

Second, if you are vegetarian, you can leave out the chicken and use double the amount of chickpeas. The cooking times will be the same. Also? Black beans would be equally delicious, but they will not crisp like chickpeas.

overhead photo of Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins on baking sheet after baking

Now, and this is key, the chicken is where all the flavor is at. It’s seasoned with chipotle chiles, garlic, and spices like oregano, cumin, and chili powder. I also threw in some lime zest for a little citrus zing.

It’s that sweet and spicy combo that I love so much.

During the last few minutes of cooking, toss some baby spinach in with the chicken. I love the added greens and the spinach pairs well with the flavors happening in these sweet potato skins.

overhead close up photo of Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins

Next, scoop some of the sweet potato flesh out of the skin. Bake another 10 minutes until the skins become crisp, and then stuff the chicken into the sweet potatoes. Then add as little or as much sharp cheddar cheese as you’d like and bake. About 10 or so minutes later your kitchen will smell heavenly and your skins will be ready for eating. The smell of sweet potatoes baking is truly the most comforting smell and so very “fall”.

These are best enjoyed warm. Preferably with cilantro and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt. Super simple, but so delicious. Between the sweet potatoes and the cheese, this is one of the coziest fall dinners. And it just so happens to be healthy, score!

Kind of like cheesy nachos, but instead of chips, we’re substituting crisp sweet potatoes skins…so better!

side angled photo of Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins with beer in background

These skins are great any night of the week. But they feel especially great for Thursday, Sunday…or Monday night football.

And the biggest bonus…the leftovers. They make for such a delicious lunch the following day.

Love a two for one recipe!

overhead photo of Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins with skins broken in half to expose the filling

If you make these healthy chipotle chicken sweet potatoes skins be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!

Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins

Author: Tieghan Gerard
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 709 kcal

Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.

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Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

  • 1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork. Bake directly on the rack until tender, 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool.
    2. At the same time, cook the chicken. Place the chicken, and chickpeas – if using, in a baking dish. Add the olive oil, garlic, chipotle chiles, chili powder, onion powder, oregano, cumin, lime zest, and a pinch each of salt and pepper, gently toss to coat. Transfer to the oven and bake 20-25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, scatter the spinach over the chicken and cook 5 minutes, until wilted.
    3. Shred the chicken using 2 forks, then toss with the chickpeas, spinach and any oil left in the baking dish.
    4. Scrape the sweet potato flesh out of the peel, leaving 1/2 inch thick layer of sweet potatoes. Brush the skins with a little olive oil and bake for 5 minutes, until crisping. Remove skins from the oven and stuff with the chicken. Top with shredded cheese. Return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Serve with fresh cilantro and greek yogurt, if desired.
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horizontal photo of Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins
This post was originally published on September 19, 2019
3.96 from 802 votes (738 ratings without comment)

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Comments

  1. Followed your recipe last night for dinner and OMG delish!! The chipotle sauce was amazing. Great Recipe!!

    Reply

  2. This looks amazing! One question about the chipotle sauce. Do you chop the peppers on the first step? The instructions simply read “add the peppers”. I’m hoping to make this tonight so I can’t wait to hear back!

    Reply

    1. We love this recipe, and it has become a regular on our menu. I suppose you could do it different ways, but we always finely mince the peppers before adding to the other ingredients.

      Reply

    2. Hey Eric!! I AM SO SORRY!!!
      Yes, chop the peppers. Hope you love this and again, sorry I did not get back to you yesterday.

      Reply

    2. I just mix the sweet potato back in to the stuffing mixture, actually. I also add a can of rinsed black beans to it, and it’s super tasty! Might want to mix in a little bit of the adobo sauce to keep the spiciness up.

      Reply

  4. These were super good! I made a few small changes as I didn’t have all the ingredients. I didn’t use any cumin and I used mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar. But I think even if I hadn’t made any changes these still would have been awesome!

    Reply

  5. I found myself without sweet potatoes, and discovered that the chicken/spinach mixture topped with the cheddar is also amazing on a tortilla. I packed two for my DH to take to work and he took the time to text me and say “You can make those taco things anytime! They were crazy good!” 🙂 The kids liked them too. Alas, no leftovers.

    Reply

  6. These are SO good! I ended up mixing in a can of black beans as well and it was a-ma-zing! I also added the sweet potato flesh back into the mixture and added a little extra adobo sauce to keep the spiciness up. One of my absolute favorite dinners now!

    Reply

  8. This is SO GOOD! I made it last night and ended up eating some of the leftovers for breakfast. It’s a new favorite. My boyfriend doesn’t like sweet potatoes so it might be a challenge to get him to try it, but I think if (when) he does try it, he’ll love it! Or at least like it. But I love it!

    Reply

  9. I started to make this, but didn’t have a use for the rest of the sweet potato, so instead of making it into skins, I put all of the baked sweet potato in a casserole dish, and then layered it the same as your recipe called for, baked again to melt the cheese, and then served it in a tortilla to take a little edge off the spice. DELICIOUS! i would have never put this flavor combination together on my own. Thanks for the recipe!!!

    Reply

  12. I made these recently for my family, and they (and I) LOVED them! I think next time I will try them with black beans instead of chicken for a delicious meatless meal.

    Reply

  13. I am loving this idea but I’m not really into chipotle. I am not so good at cooking with spices (I’m more of a baker). Do you have a different spice idea that would still go well with all of the other ingredients?

    Reply

    1. Hey Julie!
      I think you could probably just leave the chipotle out and these will still be great. No need to add anything in its place. Hope you love these!

      Reply

    2. Yup- we just left out the chipotle all together. The kid doesn’t like spicy 😉 But even without, hubby said it was one of the best things he ever ate- and he used to be a cook!

      Reply

  14. I made these tonight, and they were literally one of the best things I have ever had in my life. This recipe contains some of my favorite things (sweet potatoes, cheese, cumin), so I expected to like these, but my goodness, amazing, truly amazing, and easy.

    Reply

    1. Oh, and I half cooked the sweet potatoes in the microwave for 7 minutes first to speed things along, worked out perfectly.

      Reply