Old Fashioned Candied Sweet Potatoes Recipe

Southern baked candied yams are a classic southern dish that is the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving table. Fork tender sweet potatoes chopped up and baked in the oven covered in a buttery, spiced brown sugar glaze. This soul food style recipe is a holiday tradition that's been in my family for generations!

“There is an idea prevalent that anybody can cook sweet potatoes, this is a very great mistake, and the many, many dishes of illy cooked potatoes that are placed before me as I travel over the South, prompt me to believe that these recipes will be of value.” - George Washington Carver

Let's get real: southern Thanksgiving food is the top-tier pinnacle arena of the ultimate comfort food. Getting stuffed on pie, juicy turkey (if you haven't had a juicy turkey, you need to try dry brining one!), different takes on potatoes, and some sort of greens cooked with smoked meat if your family really leans into their soul food.

But let me tell you about one of my favorite dishes on the table: candied sweet potatoes (which black folks call candied yams) has been on our holiday table every single year for generations.

My grandma taught me how to make these old fashioned sweet potatoes when I was a little girl, peeling potatoes and covering them in butter, spices, and brown sugar, before they went into the oven.

Yes, y'all. These are my Grandma Reid's yams, the best old fashioned southern candied sweet potatoes you will ever eat. Sweet, well-rounded in flavor, with a rich, buttery syrup, they're baked in the oven until the sweet potatoes are tender and the brown sugar mixture has given them a shiny candy coating.

It's a southern tradition wrapped in simple ingredients and a candied glaze with a buttery caramel toffee flavor that really sings this time of year.

Don't think that we only make them for Thanksgiving, either. It's the perfect holiday side dish that goes phenomenally with Christmas dinner and Easter, too.

Want to impress your southern in-laws? Make these candied yams to bring over for a sunday dinner, watch how they'll love you even more!

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Jump to:

• Equipment
• A little bit of Sweet Potato History
• What are candied yams?
• A Guide to Choosing Sweet Potatoes
• Key Ingredients
• Instructions to make Candied Sweet Potatoes
• Pro Tips
• Serve these Candied Sweet Potatoes with...
• Storage and Reheating Instructions
• Frequently Asked Questions
• More southern Side dishes
• 📖 Recipe
• Old Fashioned Southern Candied Sweet Potatoes

Equipment

Casserole dish - a baking dish that can hold the sweet potatoes in an even layer. I use a 9-by-13 inch baking dish.

Vegetable peeler - you'll need to remove the skin from the sweet potatoes.

A sharp chef's knife - a dull knife will make chopping the potatoes dangerous.

A little bit of Sweet Potato History

Sweet potatoes, which originated in South America (modern Peru, actually), have tan skin, orange flesh, and grew well in Southern U.S. soil as a crop (and are now farmed mostly in North Carolina and Louisiana).

Black folks who were enslaved at the time would farm and create dishes like sweet potato pie with them, which is why they are so common as an ingredients in Southern and Black American cuisines.

The origins of sweet potato dishes come from Europe around the 16th century, but unfortunately they never wrote down which potato they used while making sweet potato recipes so we aren't sure which type of potato they were using.

The orange flesh sweet potato wasn't officially called the 'sweet potato' until the 1740's.

What are candied yams?

Candied sweet potatoes have been a classic holiday side dish for centuries, popular especially in the American South. It's different from the sweet potato casserole with marshmallow topping that's well known in the Northern states.

It's the soul food version: chopped up or sliced sweet potatoes that are coated in a mixture of butter, brown sugar, spices, and sometimes other ingredients like orange juice, that are baked or slowly cooked to become fork tender and syrupy.

I really love my grandma's candied yam recipe, because baking the sweet potatoes brings out their natural sweetness and bakes the candied glaze right onto the potatoes.

In my opinion it's the best way to make candied yams, but that may be because it's the way my grandma makes them. I'll admit I'm biased.

A Guide to Choosing Sweet Potatoes

Before we get into it, we need to clear the air: candied yams are not made with real yams. They're made with sweet potatoes.

The true yam is not indigenous to the United States, but originate in Africa and Asia. They're a starchy root vegetable with brown bark-like skin and tougher white flesh, used in savory dishes.

So if you see the sign 'yams' at the grocery store, and you'll usually see the white flesh from where the yam was chopped exposed, with darker brown bark-like skin, that is a real yam, not the sweet potato you're looking for.

The three most common sweet potato varieties in the U.S. are the Beauregard, the Jewel, and the Garnet. All of these are fantastic to use in this recipe, with some slight changes in each potato.

Beauregards are really common to find at the store and sweet with brown skin.

Garnets have more moisture, which is great for baking in sweet potato pie, for yams, or sweet potato fries, and have a purple-ish reddish skin.

Jewels are somewhere in the middle.

When picking out sweet potatoes at the store look for ones that are small or medium in size, larger ones are starchy and tougher. They should feel firm and have smoother skin with no stab wounds or cracks or wrinkles.

Store the potatoes in a dark, cool environment. Light makes them think they're outside and they'll try to sprout. A bottom cabinet or dark corner of your pantry (or in a box in that back corner of the pantry) will do great.

Key Ingredients

Sweet Potatoes - Remember: choose small or medium sized potatoes that feel firm with smooth skin. Large sweet potatoes are too starchy. No wrinkles or war wounds!

Brown Sugar - Bonus points for dark brown sugar (if you have run out of brown sugar, don't worry! I have a DIY brown sugar recipe using granulated sugar).

Unsalted Butter - You can use salted butter if that's what you have on hand, I just like unsalted because you can control the salt content better.

Spices -  Ground cinnamon is a must, but I also add ground ginger and freshly ground nutmeg. Classic fall flavors. You can totally use cloves or pumpkin pie spice as well. Don't forget a hearty pinch of salt. All sweet things need a little salt to balance out all that sugar.

Vanilla Extract - Whenever I forget the vanilla it's always a taste of 'something is missing but I can't put my finger on it'. Don't forget the vanilla!

So simple and yet such a delicious family recipe. Honestly, that's what soul food is all about.

Instructions to make Candied Sweet Potatoes

Full ingredients, measurements, and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

This is an easy candied yams recipe, no need to run to the specialty stores or do anything crazy. It's probably going to be the most simple dish you'll make on Thanksgiving day, coated in a delicious sugar syrup and flavored with vanilla extract and warm spices.

As you see, with just a handful of ingredients you have fork tender sweet potatoes and the perfect addition to your thanksgiving dinner.

The best part is that you just leave it alone in the oven for about an hour and boom, it's done! Super important when you're already so busy making the rest of your holiday meal.

Pro Tips

You can really make this your own: add in orange zest, sub some of the brown sugar with maple syrup, or add other spices. A little cayenne for some heat won't hurt you!

I really feel that you get so much flavor by roasting in the oven versus cooking them on the stove top. Baking the candied yams caramelizes the sugars not only on the outside but inside the sweet potatoes themselves and evaporates away the excess moisture within them, so it intensifies the flavor instead of watering it down.

Serve these Candied Sweet Potatoes with...

There's magic that occurs when the candied yams and the southern baked mac and cheese touch on your Thanksgiving plate. I'm so serious!

All the classic holiday foods work well with candied yams: a juicy roast turkey, a beautiful prime rib, or my mama's holiday cornish hens.

Don't forget the other sides, too!

Storage and Reheating Instructions

Storage: Cool your southern candied yams to room temperature before transferring them into an airtight container. Keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Reheat: Reheat the candied sweet potatoes in a casserole dish in a low oven (325 degrees F) covered in aluminum foil until warmed through and the buttery syrup has melted again.

Frequently Asked Questions

More southern Side dishes

• Cranberry Sauce with Brandy
• Slow Cooked Southern Green Beans
• Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread
• Sister Schubert Yeast Rolls Copycat Recipe