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Candied Sweet Potatoes Recipe

Let me show you how to make my favorite easy Thanksgiving side: candied sweet potatoes! They’re soft, buttery, extra saucy, caramelized, and sweet. I especially love this Thanksgiving side dish because you can prepare the elements of this recipe ahead of time AND purchase the ingredients in advance, too.

Forever my favorite Thanksgiving side dish, these classic candied sweet potatoes make an appearance on our holiday table every year. (I’m surprised I haven’t shared the recipe with you before—these are the best!) In fact, we love them so much that we don’t limit this recipe to only once per year. I love these for Christmas, Easter, or a random Sunday night throughout the year. They’re full of flavor and as far as Thanksgiving side dishes go, they’re REALLY easy.

These Candied Sweet Potatoes Are:

  • Soft & buttery
  • Caramelized on the edges
  • Absolutely packed with flavor: vanilla, brown sugar, maple, cinnamon, & ginger
  • Even better with orange zest, rosemary, & sea salt
  • Your new favorite Thanksgiving side dish too

I also appreciate that you don’t have to pre-cook the sweet potatoes. Unlike sweet potato casserole and sweet potato dinner rolls, where you boil and mash the potatoes, this candied sweet potatoes recipe simply needs thick slices of peeled potatoes. Easy enough, right?

And the best part of all? You can purchase all of the ingredients NOW so you aren’t rushing around Thanksgiving week.

How to Make Candied Sweet Potatoes

Let me quickly break down the steps before leaving you with the recipe.

Buttery Brown Sugar Maple Sauce

These sweet potatoes would be nothing without the magical sauce. A recipe that we’ve been tweaking and perfecting over the years, the combination of ingredients is perfection.

Here are the ingredients you need:

The sauce thins out as it bakes due to the water content in the potatoes, but quickly thickens as it cools. Thick or thin, you’ll want to slurp up this sauce with a straw. Plus, it tastes fantastic with those other Thanksgiving dishes on your plate too! 😉

Finishing Touches for Candied Sweet Potatoes

When I made these candied sweet potatoes earlier this month, I added orange zest to the sauce. This is totally optional, but it added an element of FRESH to the entire dish. Likewise, adding chopped fresh or dried rosemary after the dish bakes is equally refreshing. And to balance out the sweet, I love a sprinkle of flaky sea salt all over the top.

This dish has it all: sweet, salty, fresh, buttery, saucy, soft, and caramelized. It doesn’t get much better than this:

Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 1 min
Total Time 16 mins
Cuisine:
Courses:
Servings: 8
Description

These perfect candied sweet potatoes are soft, buttery, extra saucy, caramelized, and sweet. I especially love this Thanksgiving side dish because you can prepare the elements of this recipe ahead of time AND purchase the ingredients in advance, too.

Ingredients You’ll Need
  • 5 medium 5-6 sweet potatoes (3-4 lbs)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g)
  • 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
  • 1/4 cup (60ml)
  • 1 cup (200g)
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 optional: teaspoons orange zest
  • optional for garnish: chopped fresh or dried rosemary, flaky sea salt
Instructions
  1. 1
    Peel then slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place in a greased 9×13-inch or other 3 quart baking dish. Sprinkle salt on top and toss to coat. I just use nonstick spray to grease.
  2. 2
    Preheat oven to 375°F (191°C).
  3. 3
    Cut stick of butter in half. (Helps it melt easier.) Combine all the butter, water, maple syrup, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until the butter has melted. Stop stirring and bring to a gentle boil. Boil for 2 minutes without stirring. Remove sauce from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. (And orange zest, if using.)
  4. 4
    Pour sauce over potatoes and toss to coat.
  5. 5
    Bake for 1 hour, stopping and stirring the sweet potatoes every 20 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, I cover the dish with aluminum foil so the potatoes bake evenly.
  6. 6
    Remove from the oven, sprinkle with rosemary and sea salt (if using), then cool uncovered for 10 minutes before serving. The sauce is thin right out of the oven but thickens as it cools.
  7. 7
    Cover and store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Sauce will be thick after refrigeration, but thins out as you warm the leftovers up. Simply warm in the microwave.
Keywords: brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger, maple syrup, nutmeg, rosemary, sweet potatoes, vanilla extract
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