Dutch Oven Honey Glazed Carrots
Dutch Oven Honey Glazed Carrots are a deliciously sweet vegetable side dish, perfect for the holidays or any time of the year.
The holidays are coming and with that, comes all of our favorite foods. I don’t know about you, but we tend to take all the healthy vegetables and douse them in butter, sugar, wrap it in bacon, or all of the above.
But it’s just one meal a year, right? We can skip watching our girlish figures for one day.
Carrot Side Dish Recipe
We absolutely love making these honey glazed carrots because it’s one of the easiest dishes to prepare with very little effort. You can make them in either the Dutch oven or a large 12″ skillet.
Normally, we use common every day orange carrots throughout the year. However for the holidays, we like to get a little fancy, so we used rainbow carrots.
The assortment we got contained orange, purple, yellow, and white. Red carrots were the only ones not available.
Do different colored carrots taste different?
Yes, they do, but not wildly so. And they have different nutrients too.
Orange carrots are the sweetest, which is why they’re the most popular. Purple are sweet as well and have a lovely orange center. White and yellow are fairly mild or mellow in flavor.
How to make Dutch Oven Honey Glazed Carrots
If you don’t have a Dutch oven or want to use it, you can use a 12″ cast iron skillet or any other skillet of your choosing. You will want to use a pot or pan that is both oven and stove safe (otherwise, you’ll have to clean two pans/pots).
Toss a stick of butter into the dutch oven and put it in the oven. Turn on the oven to 350°F to preheat. We all know it’s best to cook in heated cast iron, might as well melt the butter in it while it’s warming up.
Once the butter has melted, toss in the carrots, stirring well to coat them in the butter.
Season with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme. Mix the carrots as well.
Pour in the honey, stirring as you go to evenly coat the seasoned carrots.
Sprinkle the brown sugar over the carrots (as evenly as possible), pop on the lid, and toss it all in the oven for at least 45 minutes. If you’re making only a half-batch, 30 minutes is sufficient. Conversely, they could take up to an hour to cook, it all depends on how thick they have been sliced and how many pounds you are actually cooking.
Remove from the oven once the carrots are fork tender. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the carrots to a serving bowl, cover, and keep warm.
Place the Dutch oven on the stove and turn the heat to medium-high. Bring the buttery-sauce to a high simmer and allow it to reduce. This took about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the sauce has thickened to the desired consistency, remove from heat and pour the glaze over the carrots, stir, and garnish with fresh thyme.
Holiday Side Dish Recipes
If you’re looking of other recipes to adorn your table this holiday season, then I’ve got you covered. I teamed up with several blogger friends, who all have created holiday side dishes.
Don’t forget to check out the other awesome Holiday Side Dishes posted today:- Balsamic Mustard Brussels Sprouts from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Broccoli Cheese Casserole from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Cheddar Green Bean Casserole from Kate’s Recipe Box
- Cranberry Leek Wild Recipe from The Complete Savorist
- Easy Southern Succatash from Blogghetti
- Herbed Hasselback Potatoes from Family Around the Table
- Honey Roasted Carrots with Thyme from Sweet Beginnings
- Hot Honey Skillet Corn from Our Good Life
- Okra Casserole from The Spiffy Cookie
- Par-Baked Dinner Rolls from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Pepper Bacon Mac N Cheese from Simply Inspired Meals
- Roasted Garlic and Herb Mushrooms from Cook with Renu
- Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon from Renee’s Kitchen Adventures
- Sauteed Chayote Squash with Onions and Bacon from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese from Palatable Pastime
Dutch Oven Honey Glazed Carrots
Equipment
- 5 qt. Dutch oven or larger
- 12-inch cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter 1 stick
- 2 lbs carrots sliced; orange or rainbow
- ½ tsp salt to taste
- ½ tsp black pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme stems removed, leaves only
- 1 cup honey
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Place the butter in the Dutch oven (or skillet).
- Put the cast iron in the oven and pre-heat the oven to 350°F
- Once the butter has melted, while the oven is still pre-heating, remove the cast iron.
- Add the carrots to the melted butter and stir well.
- Season with salt, pepper, and thyme, stirring well
- Pour the honey over the seasoned carrots, stirring as its poured.
- Cover the carrots with brown sugar.
- Cook in the oven for 45-60 minutes, or until the carrots are fork tender
- Once the carrots are cooked, transfer them to a serving bowl, cover, and keep warm.
- Over medium-high heat, bring the honey sauce to a high simmer.
- Reduce for 5 minutes, stirring occassionaly, until the liquid resembles a syrup.
- Pour the hot syrup over the waiting carrots, stir well.
- Garnish with fresh thyme and serve.
Nutrition
This post has been updated from its original May 16, 2017 publishing with new content, photography, clarified recipe card, and links to other recipes.
I love that this is made in a dutch oven, I love cast iron cooking. Your site looks really interesting.
How gorgeous with all of the carrots! Thanks for clearing up the question about whether or not they taste differently.
These are delicious. Reducing the sauce at the end was a great tip to make it into a lovely glaze.
I love how colorful this dish is! Plus I think honey is the perfect pairing with carrots, yum!
Love all the different colored carrots in this dish. We love glazed carrots and the different colors make it fun.
Love the different colored carrots and the thyme in this dish. Can’t wait to try it.
Such a colorful dish that would really brighten up any dinner menu. I’ve never even seen white carrots!
This is the perfect quick and easy way to jazz up carrots on busy weeknights. I also love that you used rainbow carrots!
These honey glazed carrots were cooked perfectly and tasted amazing!! My kids gobbled them up and asked for seconds!
Love the colorful carrots. This recipe is so good! The brown sugar added just the right amount of sweetness. My husband loves carrots and he gave this dish a thumbs up!
Simple yet flavorful and elegant. This is a perfect side dish for any meal.
I thought there was other veg in their too before realising it was different colours of carrots. They look yummy!