Candied Sweet Potatoes

Candied Sweet Potatoes are a classic Thanksgiving side dish made with slices of sweet potato in a sweet maple caramel sauce that bakes into the potatoes. These candied sweet potatoes practically melt in your mouth!

My grandma made the best dishes at our holiday dinners and her candied sweet potatoes were always wildly popular.

Of course, I was younger and the thought of a sweet potato made me gag, so I never even tried them. <— Big mistake.

Now sweet potatoes are one of my all time favorite foods. We just shared our recipe for mashed sweet potatoes and I’m honestly planning to serve both of these recipes at Thanksgiving. Along with regular mashed potatoes and funeral potatoes. We don’t skimp when it comes to potatoes on our Thanksgiving table.

I think you’re going to love the way these candied sweet potatoes soak up all that sweet caramel sauce and just turn into a creamy, dreamy bite of potato that melts in your mouth.

Ingredient Notes:

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon associate and member of other qualifying programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sweet Potatoes – You’ll need three pounds of sweet potatoes that have been peeled and sliced into 1/2″ thick slices.

Salt – Just a bit to help balance out some of the sweetness!

Sweet Sauce Ingredients – To prepare the sauce for this classic Thanksgiving side dish you’ll need some brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg along with a few other ingredients…

Maple Syrup – I love real maple syrup! Please don’t use pancake syrup here.

Orange Juice – The pop of citrus helps balance out the sweetness of the sauce.

Vanilla Extract – We always use real vanilla, not imitation.

How to Make Candied Sweet Potatoes:

Prepare: Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2″ thick slices.

Arrange: Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray and arrange the sweet potatoes in the dish. Sprinkle the sweet potato slices with salt.

Sauce: Add the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup to a small sauce pan and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.

When it has begun boiling stop stirring and let it boil for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and then whisk in the orange juice and vanilla to finish preparing the sauce for the candied sweet potatoes!

Combine: Pour the maple brown sugar sauce over the potatoes in the dish. Make sure that all the slices of sweet potato are covered in the liquid so that it all bakes evenly!

Bake: Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes before removing the foil and carefully stirring the potatoes. Continue cooking uncovered for another 30 minutes.

The candied sweet potatoes are done when the sauce is nice and caramelized and the potatoes are fork tender! Let it cool for 10 minutes so that the sauce can thicken up a bit and then serve the dish warm!

Variations:

These candied sweet potatoes are great as they are but you can also switch things up with some other ingredients. Here are a few good suggestions:

Marshmallow Topping – Finish the candied sweet potatoes off by topping with a layer of mini marshmallows and placing the dish under a broiler for a minute or two to get the marshmallow nice and browned!

Pecans – If you want to add some crunchy texture and nutty flavor you can top the sweet potatoes with some chopped pecans during the last 10 minutes of baking!

Spices – I like keeping it simple with cinnamon and nutmeg but you could use some other spices for this. Try it with my homemade pumpkin pie spice!

Texture:

These candied sweet potatoes soak up some of that brown sugar sauce as they cook, making them very tender and moist.

They really get creamy and almost melt in your mouth!

FAQs:

• Roasted Sweet Potato Cubes
• Canned Sweet Potato Casserole
• Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries
• Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes
• Sweet Potato Pie

• Crockpot Hashbrown Casserole
• Smashed Brussels Sprouts
• Chocolate Pecan Pie
• Traditional Stuffing with Bacon
• Mashed Potato Stuffing