These Glazed Carrots (with the best honey and brown sugar glaze) are such an easy side dish – and they are so quick to make on the stove. Perfect for holiday dinner like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter – or to make Sunday dinner extra special!
A couple of years ago I started making these Crock Pot Glazed Carrots, but I really needed a quick and easy version I could make without much planning ahead.
Now I frequently make this quick and oh-so delicious recipe for Glazed Carrots right on the stove – which is very handy for when the slow cooker takes too long, and the oven is too full to make Honey Roasted Carrots!
Ingredients you’ll need
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!
Ingredient notes
- Carrots: Use medium-thick carrots for best results and presentation.
- Sweetener: Feel free to use all honey, or all brown sugar. I appreciate the sweetness of the sugar combined with the flavor of the honey, but the dish turns out great with either!
- Orange juice: This is a great way to add a little extra depth and tanginess to the dish, without making it too sour.
- Parsley: I don’t really use parsley when I add ground cinnamon to the carrots, but love it with the more savory seasoning. Feel free to go according to your personal taste here!
Recipe variations
- Baby carrots: Baby carrots work well with this glaze. I find it difficult to get baby carrots cooked evenly in a skillet though, so I recommend following the instructions on the bag for the first part of the recipe. Once the baby carrots are almost tender, transfer them to a large skillet with the glaze ingredients, then continue the recipe as written.
- Liquids: Instead of orange juice, use vegetable broth or water; or 1 tablespoon lemon juice with 1 tablespoon water.
- Seasoning: This is where this recipe gets very personal – I know some people prefer very savory seasoning with glazed carrots to offset the sweetness, while others prefer to keep things mild. I like either, so I’ll season to suit the occasion and other dishes on the menu. Here I’m using a touch of garlic powder and ground ginger for a more savory flavor. You can also use ground cinnamon instead of the garlic powder, it goes great with the ginger and with the carrots! Alternatively, a pinch of dried thyme is delicious for a more herby flavor (with or without garlic powder).
How to make Glazed Carrots
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, season, then cook them until they’re almost tender. This will take about 10-20 minutes, depending on how firm you like the carrots.
Please note, they will continue cooking for another 15 minutes in the glaze, so they shouldn’t be fully cooked at this point – just crisp-tender.
If you like your carrots very buttery, I recommend cooking them 20 minutes at this point. If you dislike overly cooked vegetables, stick to 10 minutes.
2. Add the orange juice, brown sugar, honey and butter to the skillet. Stir well, then allow the carrots to simmer in the glaze over medium to medium-high heat (the glaze has to be bubbling in order to reduce, but must not cook vigorously!) for around 15 minutes, or until thick and sticky.
Stir frequently in the beginning, then stir constantly for the last 5 minutes to keep the glaze from getting burned. If it seems to darken, reduce the heat.
Please note: The glaze will be very runny at first, but simmering it for 10-15 minutes will reduce it to a thick, sirupy glaze that nicely clings to each carrot coin. Trust in the process, do NOT crank up the heat to high (the glaze WILL burn and turn bitter!), just allow it the time it needs.
3. Once the glaze has thickened, immediately serve the carrots – either with or without chopped parsley stirred in. The carrots taste best served hot.
Recipe notes
Cooking time: While this recipe is simple and easy to prepare, you do need to allow it its time.
Carrots need their 15 minutes in the skillet until they start to soften, and the glaze needs 10-15 minutes over medium to barely medium-high heat until it has thickened and reduced enough to coat the carrots.
Don’t rush the process, or you can easily mess up the dish.
Make ahead instructions:
- Cook the carrots up to 3 days in advance and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use
- When ready to serve, place the carrots and glaze ingredients in a large skillet and gently simmer until the carrots are hot and the glaze has thickened.
Quick tips
- Slice the carrots as evenly as possible, for even cooking.
- Do not undercook the glaze – there should be very little liquid left at the bottom of the pan, most of the glaze should be sticking to the carrots when it’s done.
- Do not use too much heat on the glaze. It should be bubbling, but not vigorously cook. It can burn and turn bitter easily!
Serving ideas
These go really well with a holiday dinner – both with my Crock Pot Pineapple Ham or my Crockpot Honey Glazed Ham, but also with a turkey dinner (try an air fried turkey breast or a slow cooker turkey breast for a smaller gathering).
But the carrots also delicious on a weeknight with some mashed potatoes or instant pot mashed potatoes and Crock Pot Cranberry Pork Chops, oven baked steak or even with a
Recipe video
PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.
Printable recipe
Perfect Glazed Carrots
Recipe details
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 pound medium-thick carrots peeled, trimmed and sliced on the diagonal into ⅜-inch thick coins
- ¼ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger optional; see notes for seasoning tips
- 1/16 teaspoon garlic powder OR ground cinnamon to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons runny honey
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- chopped parsley optional, to serve
Instructions
- Prep: Heat oil in a large cast iron skillet or other heavy skillet over medium heat. Add carrots, season with salt, garlic powder, ground ginger and black pepper.
- Cook carrots: Cook, stirring often, for about 15-20 minutes, or until carrots are starting to soften but still retain a bite.
- Make glaze: Add butter, brown sugar and orange juice to skillet and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring often at first and constantly for final 5 minutes, until glaze forms around carrots.Glaze will seem too runny at first, but WILL thicken while simmering. Glaze should be visibly bubbling throughout, but never vigorously cooking – burning turns it bitter!
- Serve: Serve carrots immediately with chopped parsley, if you like.
Notes
Ingredients notes
- Sweetener: Feel free to use all honey, or all brown sugar instead of both.
- Baby carrots: Baby carrots work well with this glaze. Follow instructions on bag for cooking carrots. Once baby carrots are almost tender, transfer to a large skillet with glaze ingredients, then continue recipe as written.
- Liquids: Instead of orange juice, use vegetable broth or water; or 1 tablespoon lemon juice with 1 tablespoon water.
- Seasoning: A touch of garlic powder and ground ginger work great for a more savory flavor. Ground ginger and ground cinnamon are tasty and more sweet. A pinch of dried thyme is delicious for a more herby flavor (with or without garlic powder).
Recipe tips
- Slice carrots as evenly as possible, for even cooking.
- Do not undercook glaze – very little liquid should gather at bottom of pan when dish is done, most of glaze should stick to carrots.
- Glaze will be very runny at first, but simmering for 10-15 minutes will reduce it to a sirupy consistency. Do NOT crank up heat to high (glaze WILL burn and turn bitter!), just allow it the time it needs. Process can’t be rushed.
Nutrition
More recipe information
Recipe first shared on 11/18/2019. Updated on 03/21/2023 with new text, new photos and an improved recipe.
Cynthia B says
These carrots are DELICIOUS and so easy to make. My whole family loves them. I am definitely making this dish again!
Nora says
I’m so glad, Cynthia!
Rhonnie says
The carrots may be excellent but requiring an email to print the recipe, and not allowing unchecking the “notes” makes sure I will never use your recipes again. I’ll just screenshot. You don’t need my email.
Nora says
Asking for an email to print a FREE recipe is hardly too big of an ask, especially if you’re doing it to support the independent creator of said recipe. Funny how people seem to think it’s way too much to type in their email to get a free service, but will type in their email AND a comment to complain. And if you’ll never use my recipes again, luckily you won’t need to screenshot either. Have a nice day.
Loris says
Excellent! Hubby generally doesn’t like glazed carrots, but this one he loved, next time I’ll double…or triple it
Uta Haley says
Made this recently for our Thanksgiving and they were gobbled up! I should have made a double batch. I added in orange zest and some fresh ginger. Very tasty!
Barbara Parker says
I ad some left over ginger stem ball syrup so I used that instead of honey, brown sugar or ground ginger. it worked very well. I used cinnamon and no garlic. served with salmon.
Jeanette says
I’ve used this recipe for several years. I get the question…what is that different taste I get? Guess what, it’s the ginger. Very few times do you use ginger in a dish like this. We love it. I like this recipe especially because I can cook the carrots ahead. Time saver!
Nora says
Ha! I love it, Jeanette. The ginger works so well, doesn’t it!
carol says
I love this tasty and easy recipe for carrots. Next time I will try the crock pot but I didn’t have time so I loved having both options! Flavors blend very well. Perfect. I am bringing it as a side dish for our neighbors next door.