Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots

My brown sugar glazed carrots recipe is made in one skillet and bathed in a sticky-sweet brown sugar glaze! This dish is super quick to fix on the stovetop and uses only a handful of easy to find ingredients. It’s easy enough for a weeknight meal but special enough to be included in your favorite company meal.

No bland vegetable sides here — the sweetness of the brown sugar brings out the natural sweetness in the carrots, making it the dessert of side dishes! Your family will love this simple side dish! When you make this for dinner, I guarantee you won’t hear any family members complain about eating their veggies! You’ll just hear the heartwarming silence of happy eating.

This is great serve alongside things like sauteed asparagus (with the perfect amount of garlic!), copycat KFC coleslaw, or my favorite, Paula Deen corn casserole! And when you’re looking for a cool carrot dish, please don’t miss my really yummy carrot salad.

Let’s make these!

What I Love About This Recipe

This is a great way to get some of your 5 servings of fruits and veggies! The whole family loves them and the entire batch of these carrots is always devoured.

Are These The Same As Caramelized Carrots Or Candied Carrots?

They absolutely are. In this recipe, the brown sugar is what classifies them as caramelized and/or candied. Read the ingredient notes below on how to adjust the sweetness and make them more or less sweet to customize them for your family.

Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots Ingredients

It’s carrots, sugar, and butter — what could go wrong? Nothing, if I have anything to say about it!

• Colorful Carrots: I typically use your standard orange carrots for this dish, but don’t be afraid to grab the colorful carrots too! Purple or white carrots would look amazing in this dish and taste just as good.
• Sugar: Want your dish even sweeter? Use dark brown sugar for its higher molasses content. Want your dish less sweet? Use light brown sugar and only do a few tablespoons instead of 1/4 a cup.
• Herbs: What fresh herbs should you add at the end to get a really KAPOW flavor with your carrots? I love rosemary, parsley, and thyme, but you can shake things up with whatever you have in your herb garden!

Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead

• How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? You can keep your cooked carrots in the fridge for up to five days. Any longer, and they start to get questionable on the safety front, so don’t risk it. This recipe is so easy to make you can always whip up more!
• Can You Freeze Them? Yes! These carrots will be kept in the freezer for 3 months. I love storing a bunch of these in portioned containers to have on hand for dinner sides.
  • To reheat, thaw or microwave until thawed, then resuscitate on the stovetop. What makes this dish so yummy is that crystallized sugar glaze, so you definitely want some of that!
•  Make-Ahead Tips: This recipe whips together so quickly and it’s very dependent on each step, so there isn’t much you can do in the way of prepping it ahead of time — other than freezing it, as mentioned above! But you can have fresh, chopped carrots on hand. Raw-cut carrots will last up to three weeks in your fridge!

Serving Recommendations

This brown sugar carrots recipe goes well with everything. Yes, absolutely everything! Nice crockpot pork tenderloin, smothered chicken, million dollar chicken casserole, crockpot pork chops (with a luscious mushroom gravy!), crockpot pulled pork, grilled chicken marinade, chicken tortilla casserole, or my amazingly tender, Swiss steak — yum!

I mentioned some delicious go-withs in the intro but there are so many more! Try my butter swim biscuits, Bisquick cornbread, au gratin potatoes, make ahead mashed potatoes, or my nearly famous, funeral potatoes!

Oh, and a super quicky…try my buttered potatoes! They’re more delicious than you can believe!!!

How To Make Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots Recipe

1. In a skillet large enough to hold the carrots, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to smoke lightly, add the carrots and season with salt and black pepper.  Stir the carrots to coat with the oil and seasonings. Continue to cook the carrots on medium-high, stirring them often, for 3-4 minutes
2. Add brown sugar to the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Add water, only if needed, about a tablespoon at a time, if the brown sugar begins to burn. Continue to cook until tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. When carrots are tender when pierced with a fork, add the butter and rosemary. Transfer the carrots to a serving bowl and serve.

Recipe Variations

• You can toss in some more veggies and make roasted potatoes and carrots!
• Ramp up the sweet factor by adding raisins, dates, or my fav, dried cranberries.
• Pop the whole dish in the oven and make roasted carrots with brown sugar glaze!
• Or swap the sweetener from brown sugar to honey, maple syrup, or agave.

More Of My Favorite Vegetables

• Southern Green Beans
• Roasted Garlic Asparagus With Feta (one of my most popular veggie recipes for over a decade!!)
• Simple Roasted Peppers
• Roasted Broccoli
• Strawberry Spinach Salad
• Pea Salad
• Roasted Green Beans (with Pancetta and Shallots! YUM)
• Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole
• Fajita Veggies
• Southern Collard Greens Recipe

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Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots

Sticky-sweet glaze makes veggies downright divine in this brown sugar glazed carrots recipe that takes your favorite orange vegetable!

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Kathleen

Ingredients

• 1 (16-ounce) bag whole carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• few tablespoons water -if needed
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary chopped

Instructions

• In a skillet large enough to hold the carrots, heat the olive oil (2 tablespoons) over medium-high heat. When the oil begins to smoke lightly, add the carrots (16-ounce) and season with salt (1/4 teaspoon) and black pepper. Stir the carrots to coat with the oil and seasonings. Continue to cook the carrots on medium-high, stirring them often, for 3-4 minutes.
• Add brown sugar to the pan and reduce heat to medium-low. Add water, only if needed, about a tablespoon at a time, if the brown sugar begins to burn. Continue to cook until tender, about 5 to 8 minutes. When carrots are tender when pierced with a fork, add the butter (2 tablespoons) and rosemary (1 1/2 teaspoons). Transfer the carrots to a serving bowl and ENJOY!

Fans Also Made:

• 
  Cheesy Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• 
  Easy Broccoli Salad Recipe
• 
  Sauteed Asparagus
• 
  Three Bean Salad Recipe

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