Crockpot Candied Yams

If you're looking to save oven space and have the perfect thanksgiving side dish, make these amazing slow cooker candied yams. A blend of warm spices, brown sugar, and butter coat the tender sweet potatoes in a sweet glaze, it's one of my favorite recipes for the holiday season.

The side dishes are probably the best part of thanksgiving dinner. Sure, I love my juicy thanksgiving turkey...your's is juicy too, right? And well seasoned? If not, you need to try dry brining your turkey, it'll change your life.

Anyway, yes, I love a good, juicy turkey, but what really makes the holiday meal are the different things that we serve on the side. And in my personal top three are candied sweet potatoes (which we call candied yams here in the south).

This is a southern style recipe, meaning there are no gooey marshmallows for a topping, instead we have just a few simple ingredients from the pantry to make beautiful glazed sweet potatoes all done in the slow cooker.

Which means you have more space in your oven and on your stove top to handle the rest of Thanksgiving and Christmas (and Easter!) with ease.

So if you're not able to make my grandma's old fashioned candied yams recipe due to the oven space, try this crockpot recipe instead!

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Jump to:

• Equipment
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Variations
• Serve with
• Storing and Reheating Instructions
• FAQs
• More Holiday Sides
• 📖 Recipe

Equipment

Slow Cooker - crock pot recipes need their slow cooker!

Vegetable Peeler - you need to peel the sweet potatoes before chopping them up.

Ingredients

Fresh sweet potatoes - I like using the beauregard or garnet yam, they're sweet potatoes that are bred for sweet dishes like sweet potato pie and candied yams. Find medium-sized potatoes with a smooth, firm brown skin. No pockmarks, wrinkles, or war-wounds!

And for all that is holy, do not substitute true yams for sweet potatoes, they are not the same thing and are not to be used the same way.

Brown Sugar - dark brown sugar will give you a sweet, syrupy brown sugar glaze with a rich hint of molasses.

Spices - I use nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves, but pumpkin pie spice can be used.

Butter - salted or unsalted works.

Kosher salt - the salt is definitely noticed when it's missing!

Instructions

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

This recipe is so simple and easy you can set the kiddos to do it.

Peel the raw sweet potatoes with a vegetable peeler, then chop them into bite sized pieces.

Put the sweet potato pieces, brown sugar, spices, butter, and salt all into your crock pot, close the lid, and set on high for 3-4 hours, stirring everything up around 2-3 hours in.

And boom, now you have perfectly delish and easy slow cooker candied yams.

Variations

If you like that vibrant citrus note, add in a ¼ cup of orange juice!

For a very fall flavor with less sugar, substitute half of the brown sugar for real maple syrup.

Serve with

Serve your beautiful southern candied yams with all the holiday fixins: dinner rolls covered in butter, slices of juicy roast turkey or honey ham, and definitely with plenty of baked mac and cheese.

Storing and Reheating Instructions

Store the crockpot sweet potatoes and their syrup in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

To reheat, place the candied yams into a casserole dish and warm them in a 325 degree F oven for 10 minutes, until warmed through.

FAQs

More Holiday Sides

• Southern Baked Mac and Cheese
• Garlic Butter Dinner Rolls
• Southern Green Beans with Ham Hock
• Garlic Rosemary Roasted Potatoes