The Ultimate Last-Minute Side Dish.
Just when you thought that side dishes don’t get any simpler than a green salad, along came these glazed carrots. Calling for just three ingredients and ready in about 15 minutes, our glazed carrot recipe is made for busy weeknights, harried holidays, and everything in between. Cooked carrots feel like the forgotten side dish, a thing so obvious—we always have carrots, butter and brown sugar on-hand, don’t you?—that it’s overlooked. But no more! Carrots are so inexpensive, so healthy, and these brown sugar glazed carrots are so easy, this simple, no-brainer recipe has a pretty stratospheric ROI.
“Glazed Carrots” is Kind of Just a Glitzy Way of Saying Sautéed Carrots
And now you know! While some glazed carrot recipes call for oven time, or pre-boiling the carrots, we’re all about keeping things simple as can be. And we’re NOT all about mushy, lifeless carrots. A quick sauté is all you need—your carrots will be cooked, but not overcooked. Their sweet flavor will be perfectly preserved, brought to life with a glaze comprised of:
- Butter! It always comes down to butter, doesn’t it? When a recipe has just three ingredients, that means two things. 1) the recipe will be easy. 2) don’t make any subs! So, use real-deal, unsalted butter—no substitutions, please.
- Brown sugar! Brown sugar—either light or dark is fine—complements the sweetness of the carrots, and helps to give them their shiny glaze.
- A little salt and pepper. OK so we fibbed a little—if you count the salt and pepper, this is a five-ingredient recipe. But we don’t count them, because they’re just a given! Right? That’s TMP math for you.
How to Make Glazed Carrots
A little sweet, a little savory, and just the right amount of crisp. Most importantly, they require none of that precious Thanksgiving day oven space. Three ingredients, and a few minutes on the stove and you've got yourself a lovely little accompaniment that will give all the traditional stars of the show a run for their money. Now that's my kind of side dish. Here’s how to cook them:
- Peel the carrots and cut super thick ones in half lengthwise.
- Melt the butter and add the carrots.
- Cook slowly, stirring sometimes. Let the carrots cook—their natural sugars will sweeten as they cook, making them into something resembling lightly caramelized carrots—and the butter brown.
- Finish with a sprinkle of brown sugar. Stir it in over the heat, so that it melts into the browned butter and creates a glaze thick enough to coat the cooked carrots.
- You did it! Add a little salt and pepper to taste, and pop that beaut on the table.
Tools You’ll Need:
- Sharp knife.
- A good vegetable peeler.
- A big skillet.
- Tongs are handy for turning the carrots as they cook.
Other Easy Side Dish Recipes—No Oven Time Required!
If you’re planning to make these glazed carrots for Thanksgiving, then it’s quite possible that your favorite thing about the recipe is that it doesn’t call for ANY oven time at all. Here are a few other stove top side dishes you might like, too!
They’re Basically Buttered Carrots—What’s Not to Love?!
If you don’t think that this is one of the best carrot recipes ever, we’ll eat our hat. Or maybe just your leftovers, because we’re crazy about these carrots. If you so just so happen to make these tag us @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy crocking!
