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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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
Please do NOT substitute yams for sweet potatoes. a true yam is a tough, starchy tuber with a bark-like skin and white flesh that is native to Africa and parts of Asia, used in savory dishes. They are not the same thing and cannot be swapped.
Sweet potatoes are often called yams because Black folk in the United States call them yams. In the 1800's, trafficked Africans thought the sweet potato looked similar to the familiar yam they had in Africa. You can also find sweet potatoes packaged as 'canned yams'. Those cannot be used in this recipe.
More Holiday Sides
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Crockpot Candied Yams
Ingredients
- 5 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoon butter, salted or unsalted
Instructions
- Put all of the ingredients into your slow cooker.
- Set the slow cooker on 'high' for 3-4 hours, and cover with its lid.
- Stir all the ingredients after 2 hours and put the lid back on.
- At 3 hours, check the candied yams for tenderness. If not soft, keep cooking for another hour.
- Serve the candied yams hot.
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