Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots – made with just 4 simple ingredients. These carrots are sweet, buttery, and packed with fall flavors. The perfect addition to your holiday menu!
Can we talk for a minute about carrots? In particular, cooked carrots? For the life of me, I cannot get my kids to eat them! Or, I should say, I couldn’t get my kids to eat them…..until now. I think it has something to do with the flavor. And the texture. And the fact that I’m convinced I’ve been preparing them wrong for years.
See, for years, I’ve been treating my carrots too much like green beans. In reality, though? They’re much more like sweet potatoes! Lightbulb moment. And the end result is the BEST carrots ever.
Because when you treat them like sweet potatoes, and add things like butter and cinnamon and brown sugar, you bring out their natural sweetness. Which just… works. And just might change the way you (and your kids) think about carrots forever.
what you’ll need for this recipe
- Carrots – 2 pounds of carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
- Butter – 1/2 cup salted butter (or unsalted butter with a pinch of salt)
- Brown Sugar – 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- Pumpkin pie spice – 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
how to make glazed carrots
Slice & boil the carrots. Slice carrots into coins on a diagonal. Add them to boiling water; boil 3 minutes.
Make the sauce. In a large skillet, melt the butter, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. Cook, stirring, until bubbly.
Combine the carrots & sauce. Add the carrots to the brown sugar mixture. Stir to coat; continue cooking 2 minutes more or until carrots are tender.
Recipe Variations
- Use mini carrots instead of regular carrots
- Substitute granulated sugar or honey for the brown sugar
- Substitute any combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves for the pumpkin pie spice
- Add fresh rosemary or thyme
- Add a dash of cayenne pepper for a sweet/heat combo
- Use less sugar for less sweetness
diy pumpkin pie spice
You can make your own pumpkin pie spice by combining 4 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. ground cloves, and 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg. Use 1 tsp. for this recipe, and store the rest for another time!
make-ahead, storage & reheating tips
To prep these in advance, peel and slice the carrots and keep them in cold water in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Leftovers can be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. To reheat, transfer to a small skillet and heat over medium heat 5-10 minutes or until completely warmed through.
More Holiday Side Dish Recipes
Be sure to check out some more of our favorite holiday side dishes!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds carrots peeled and sliced on a diagonal
- 1/2 cup butter salted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- In a large, deep skillet, bring 1 inch of water to a boil.
- Add carrots; boil 3 minutes. Drain.
- In the same skillet, melt butter, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until bubbly.
- Add carrots and cook 2 minutes more, stirring regularly, until carrots are tender.
Notes
Recipe Variations
- Use mini carrots instead of regular carrots
- Substitute granulated sugar or honey for the brown sugar
- Substitute any combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves for the pumpkin pie spice
- Add fresh rosemary or thyme
- Add a dash of cayenne pepper for a sweet/heat combo
- Use less sugar for less sweetness
Yum! These looks great Cathy – I’m ALWAYS looking for new and creative sidedishes. My girls get bored! Can’t wait to try these (and pretend I came up with them all on my own!) Ha!
These are some gorgeous carrots and my daughter would have no problems eating them (sugar for the win!) I love the cookware (you really show off their beauty with those carrots!)
My mom use to make them minis the pumpkin spice. I thing I will try this recipe. I THINK I will like it with the pumpkin spice in it.
These carrots! Whoa! I am guilty of letting about half a bag of carrots go bad because I don’t use them. I am going to have to remember this!
I have a half eaten bag of carrots in my refrigerator right now. I’m going to try these tomorrow. Not sure if I have the pumpkin pie spice though. It looks delicious!
Love your lightbulb moment!
Normally I’m not a big carrot fan, but I could get behind these!
Yum!!! I can definitely get behind treating carrots like sweet potatoes! These look fantastic!
I wasn’t a huge fan of cooked carrots when I was a kid either (though I liked them now), though I have a feeling that my younger self would have loved these brown sugar glazed ones!
My absolute FAVORITE way to serve carrots!!
I just made these & they are delicious. I was out of pumpkin pie spice so I used apple pie spice. Still delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Stephanie! Apple Pie Spice is a great substitution….glad you enjoyed them!
My kiddos would love these!!
Add a spot of orange zest to these. Changes your life.
I made these tonight to test them for Thanksgiving. I cut the recipe in half since it was me, my husband and our 3 year old. They were great! My son loved them. Will definitely be making as a side next week for thanksgiving and will also be a new vegetable I can cook during the week. Super easy
Just curious if using baby carrots would affect the cook time? I canNOT wait to try these!! I plan to make them for Thanksgiving!
Baby carrots don’t have near the flavor that whole carrots do! Besides it only takes a minute to cut them up.
I’ve been using baby carrots for this recipe as long as I can remember. My children have loved these for years now and just asked me for my recipe!!
How many does this serve?
Would you serve these cold or warm because I am traveling for thanksgiving and would like to take these for our dinner
Hi Brooke, sorry I missed this before Thanksgiving. I would definitely serve them warm 🙂
How many does this recipe serve?
Could you boil these in advance and then finish recipient when ready to serve?
I make carrots this way and instead of that spice I add dry mint leaves. Refreshing and yummy too! I will try with the spice. I love finding new ways to serve dishes
Pumpkin Pie Spice …. because a good cook knows how to cook from scratch.
18 parts ground cinnamon
4 parts ground nutmeg
4 parts ground ginger
3 parts ground cloves
3 parts ground allspice
It was a hit at the dinner table. Thanks!
How many does this recipe serve? They sound delicious.
I would say it serves about 8 people as a side dish.
This took it to an entirely different level awesome Thanks!
Hi, I am currently living in egypt and I cant find pumpkin spice or apple. What can I use? Would sugar alone be bad?
You can use cinnamon if you have that.
You can eliminated the spice or use cinnamon in its place. Hope this helps!
Use nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, ginger I’m not sure how much of each but you can star with a dash of each.
At the end of the video on Facebook, what is being poured over the carrots? I don’t see anything in the recipe regarding this.
It’s just the glaze from the pan 🙂
Hi Joanne, it’s just the glaze from the pan.
orange lovely !
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I had been a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast
offered bright clear concept
Do I use light or dark brown sugar for this? Sorry if that’s dumb, I’m a beginner. Thanks, Jane.
I’ve been using baby carrots for this recipe as long as I can remember. My children have loved these for years now and just asked me for my recipe!!
Jane: I recently read in a gourmet cookbook that if a recipe doesn’t stipulate between the usage of dark or light brown sugar, one should always use light brown sugar. I find it to be just a matter of taste. The dark brown sugar just has more molasses in it.
Hi Jane! I’ve always use dark brown sugar and vanilla extract and a dash of milk. I’ve always called them candied carrots so my children would eat them when they were small. ????
Thank you Darlene! Making these today and want to do it right… Happy Thanksgiving!!
These are sooooo good. My family loves them!
These are sooooooo good! My family loves them.
A slice it 2 of fresh ginger root added with the butter gives a nice change.
She be OR 2
I wanna d this for easter! (Shazaam!!)
I really like cayenne pepper too!!
I made this recipe tonight for supper as a side dish. I did not have pumpkin spice so I substituted with cinnamon and a cap full of vanilla extract omg …. absolutely delicious!!!
I have a similar recipe that adds a pinch of cayenne pepper or a couple dashes of hot sauce, sweet with a little heat…yummm
If I had to make them ahead time, like a few hours before dinner, what would be the best way to warm them up?
Lovely I have lots of carrots’ so I’m making your recipe tonight
Thanks for sharing
I have an abundance of fresh carrots and came across your recipe and blog.. First let me say adding the spice is a great idea to change them up. Second, I recognized those pans! Are they not the best pans ever. My husband bought me a set a few years ago and it was truly inspirational with easy clean up. Sadly our house burnt down Jan 1 2018. We lost everything except each other, our two dogs and parrot..
Have you doubled the recipe? How would you change your cook time when you double? Thanks!! Can’t wait to try this for Thanksgiving.
great