These delicious Brown Sugar Roasted Carrots work equally as well for a holiday side dish or an everyday weeknight dinner.
Roasting carrots is the best way to bring out their natural sweetness. In fact, another name for these baked carrots is candied carrots. While they roast, the carrots become glazed and browned.
We also love roasting carrots in the air fryer, (check out Air Fryer Carrots) but I find that the oven is the best way to cook this particular recipe for brown sugar carrots.
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What's So Good About This?
- Brown sugar glazed carrots are a perfect side dish for holiday dinners like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter.
- These baked carrots work just as well to compliment an everyday family dinner.
- Caramelizing carrots in brown sugar and butter makes them buttery, sweet and tender.
- The recipe is super simple to make. Peeling and slicing carrots is the longest step.
- This delicious side dish takes only 30 minutes from start to finish, and 20 of those minutes are oven time.
- Carrots are budget friendly and keep for a while in the fridge, so you can throw this glazed carrot recipe together any time you need a quick vegetable to go with your main.
Ingredient Notes
- Carrots Any carrots will work, as long as they're fresh. To cut down even more on prep time, use baby carrots.
- Brown Sugar Light or dark brown sugar has a caramel, molasses flavour that is the star of this brown sugar roasted carrot recipe.
- Butter Use real butter, of course.
- Garlic You can use fresh or jarred minced garlic, or you can use garlic powder.
- Salt & Pepper
- Parsley For garnish
How To Make It
It couldn't be any easier to make these caramelized carrots.
- Toss all the ingredients, except the parsley, in a bowl.
- Pour everything onto a parchment lined baking sheet and spread into a single layer
- Bake for 20 minutes, turning halfway through.
- Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with parsley, and serve!
Recipe Tips & Variations
- Slice the carrots any way you like, keeping two things in mind: Smaller cuts mean less roasting time, and also more surface area to caramelize. Learn how to cut carrots: https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-cut-carrots.
- Try to slice carrots in a uniform size so that they cook evenly.
- To save time, you can use pre-peeled baby carrots for this recipe.
- Line the baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easy cleanup.
- Parsley is a good garnish pairing for baked carrots, but other good options are cilantro, thyme, sage, or chives.
- If you want more seasoning, try cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, paprika, or cayenne pepper.
Serving Suggestions
Serve these baked glazed carrots with your holiday turkey (try this Cranberry Glazed BBQ Turkey Breast) or ham, and also with everyday dinners. These delicious caramelized carrots go with anything from Pork Chops, Roast Chicken, Baked Salmon, Steaks, or Meatloaf.
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a rating in the comments below and let us know how it turned out. Did you make any changes? We would love for you to share and your feedback is important! Thank you for visiting The Food Blog!
Recipe
Brown Sugar Roasted Carrots
Ingredients
- 1 pound carrots peeled and sliced
- ¼ cup brown sugar packed
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425° Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil
- In a bowl, toss all ingredients except parsley together
- Spread the carrots over the prepared baking sheet in a single layer.
- Bake for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, or until the carrots are fork tender and beginning to brown.
Trish
Sounds delish. Can I make early and re-heat? I want to serve with ham but not burn the ham.
Colleen
Hi Trish. Great question. These would be a perfect side dish with ham. Yes you can make the carrots ahead and reheat them. Enjoy!
Terri
I love this dish - it's the perfect holiday side - so colorful and low-guilt! 🙂
Colleen
I'm so happy to hear that you love this carrot recipe, Terri!
Chenée
The perfect holiday side dish! I love the blend of sweet and savory.
Colleen
Hi Chenee, yes, these carrots are so perfect as a holiday side dish!
Cathleen
This is actually my favourite side dish ever!! Every time I make it over the holidays, it is gone within minutes 🙂
Colleen
So happy to hear this, Cathleen!
Ramona
Omg, my mouth is drooling at the thought of these roasted carrots! I can't wait to make these as a die dish, thank you for sharing this recipe!
Ramona
side dish*
Colleen
😁
Colleen
You're welcome! You'll love these, Ramona!
Tammy
I love brown sugar roasted carrots...perfect side for the holiday season and so easy to make too!
Colleen
Hey Tammy! I'm so happy that you love these carrots. Cheers!
Sadia Malik
I love this carrot recipe so simple and a good side.
Colleen
So glad you love it, Sadia!
Leslie
This recipe is the perfect way to jazz up your veggies! I think my kids will eat this! 🙂
Colleen
Kids always seem to love these carrots, Leslie. Enjoy!
Lauren
Always looking for new carrot recipes - these are delicious!
Colleen
So glad you loved them, Lauren!