These slow cooker glazed carrots are a super easy side dish that’s perfect for a casual dinner or a holiday gathering!
Sweet and savory brown sugar glazed carrots are coated in butter and sugar and cooked to tender perfection. Your whole family will love these slow cooker carrots!
One thing you’ll always find in my fridge is a bag of carrots. They’re cheap, healthy, they last for weeks, and they’re my go to when I need an easy veggie side. These slow cooker glazed carrots are the perfect side dish for a busy weeknight or for Thanksgiving dinner. Glazed carrots is a classic dish that never goes out of style and making it in the crock pot is just so easy. It also frees up oven space if you’re preparing a big holiday meal!
How to make glazed carrots
These slow cooker carrots are made with sliced carrots, brown sugar, butter and some spices. That’s it!! Everything goes into the slow cooker for about 3 hours and what comes out is tender carrots in the most delicious sauce. I add a little parsley at the end just for color, but you can skip that step if you like. After my carrots are cooked through, I typically like to thicken the glaze a bit, although this is also an optional step. I thicken the glaze by removing the cover of the slow cooker and cooking the carrots for another 15 minutes. This step helps to reduce and thicken the sauce which helps it cling to the carrots.
For this dish, you can use full sized carrots that have been peeled and cut into rounds, or you can use a bag of baby carrots if you prefer. I think the carrot coins are prettier, so I always go that route. My kids love these glazed carrots too, this recipe is one of their favorite side dishes! These slow cooker glazed carrots will definitely be on my holiday table this year, they’re easy, cheap, beautiful and delicious. How can you go wrong with that?
More easy side dishes
- Honey Roasted Carrots
- Pomegranate Brussels Sprouts
- Broccoli and Cheese Casserole
- Bacon Ranch Green Beans
- Green Bean Bundles
Slow Cooker Glazed Carrots
Ingredients
- 2 lbs carrots peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
- Place the carrots in a slow cooker. In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Pour the brown sugar mixture over the carrots and toss to coat.
- Cook on HIGH for 3 hours or until carrots are tender. If you'd like to thicken the glaze, remove the cover and cook on HIGH for an additional 15 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
I have made this recipe every Thanksgiving for the last several years. My house always smells so good every Thanksgiving morning while the carrots are cooking away. I usually end up cooking them closer to 5 hours and they’re never mushy. I also add extra cinnamon. It seems like this recipe goes over well with people that aren’t even big fans of carrots. It’s an easy way to get an extra veggie in when you have so many carb heavy dishes at Thanksgiving.
Is any water needed for this recipe? I just don’t want to burn them. Thank you!
No water needed but you can add a bit if you want it won’t hurt anything.
A new Friendsgiving/potluck staple!!! I made this for my office thanksgiving potluck and it was a hit!! I chopped the carrots the night before and then made the glaze the morning-of. I doubled the recipe and used a 7qt crockpot and it was ready in 3 hours. Definitely keeping this recipe for the future.
I also have always added minced onion.
As for sweetener, I switch it up. My mom’s recipe from 60+ years ago called for molasses, but I’ve used honey, maple syrup, or confectioner syrup (an old Good His keeping cookbook called for this)
I make these Thanksgiving and they are a big hit even for those who don’t like carrots. I noticed someone said they used maple syrup. Is that instead of the brown sugar? I assume you could use honey also
You can substitute honey or maple syrup for the brown sugar in this recipe if you want.
Yes, I have used almost every type of sweetener. Molasses., brown sugar, confectioner sugar, honey, maple syrup. It is always a big hit on Thanksgiving.
Hi! If I double the carrots, would I double the salt? Thanks!!!
Yes you would!
Thanks Sara!!
An easy and delicious holiday side dish.
Excellent recipe!
I am going to back off on the cinnamon to a 1/8 tsp on my next batch.
Otherwise it was delicious for sure.
I’m using a small crock pot will this still work for 8 people
What size? It needs to be a minimum of 4 quarts.
Hi and happy Thanksgiving! Love all your recipes. I am making the carrots in crockpot. 6 lbs should cook Mayb 4 hrs? Not sure…. Thanks again
It really depends on the size of your crockpot. I recommend using a 6 quart crockpot if you’re tripling the recipe. This will allow for the hot air to circulate evenly and 4 hours would be fine. If you’re using a 4 quart crockpot, it may take longer as the carrots will be piled deep into the pot and there won’t be room for the hot air to circulate, it would be more like 5 hours.
Could I do baby carrots instead? Same cook time?
Yes that’s fine!
Would this recipe work with parsnips as well as carrots?
Yes that works!
Our family LOVES this recipe – thank you!! If you double the amount, do you double all of the glaze ingredients as well?
Yes you’d double the glaze!
Hi.. I want to use a bag or 2 of frozen crinkle cut carrots. Do I need to change the cooking time to longer?
If anything you’d reduce the time since frozen carrots are pre-cooked.
I added a half a cup of real maple syrup to the sauce and OMG after this world delicious gave it another little kick
Do you add brown sugar and maple syrup or do you use instead?
I love this recipe. The carrots are simply delicious!!! Thank you for publishing it!
I plan to double the recipe in order to feed 16. I’m confused on the cooking time. Is the cooking time for 8 servings the same as 16? The time does not change when you update the recipe above to 2x, but in the notes/responses below you say to add an hour? Hopefully you can answer this soon as I need to cook these carrots two days from now. I also noted that some people said the 1x recipe needed about 20 extra minutes. I await your guidance.
Thank you.
It really depends on the size of your slow cooker. If you have a 6 quart slow cooker and there’s still plenty of room for the hot air to circulate, it should cook in about the same time. If you’re using a 4 quart slow cooker and it’s completely full without much room for air to circulate then you’d need to add an hour.
I’d like to make keeping carrots whole. How would I adjust cooking time?
If you’re using whole full size carrots it would take significantly longer, I’d double the cooking time.
A hit! This recipe is going in to my “Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes”!! The grown-ups and the kids loved these delicious carrots! The crockpot recipe was easy-and saved oven and stovetop space! Perfect vegetable side dish!