Incredibly fork-tender Candied Yams bathed in a glossy fragrant buttery brown sugar glaze with a zesty hint of lemon and orange. And sensational flavors from warm spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger- bring holiday goodness in this amazing side dish. It doubles as a dessert because of its glistening caramel-like finish.
Southerners are known for serving wholesome food in a, let’s say, unhealthyish fashion. They either served it fried, like this Southern Fried Corn, or sweetened, like this Sweet Potato Casserole. But I do love how they roll! 😉
And it gets better than that! Because this pretty pop of orange side dish that can also double up as a dessert will surely add vibrant color to your Thanksgiving holiday table.
Southern Candied Yams
These candied yams here make a great sweet side of wholesome veggies. And what makes this extra special are the flavors that coat very well in every sweet potato chunk.
And yes, these yams are the same thing as sweet potatoes. If you’d like to try true yams, check out my African Yam Soup recipe.
Aside from the brown sugar, I also added two tablespoons of maple syrup for an extra depth of sweetness. And I also squeezed in some lemon and orange juice to balance the sweetness.
The result? A skillet of heavenly candied yams with warm and cozy flavors from cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla. 👌
Recipe Ingredients
As much as I’d like to stick to the traditional recipe, I just can’t resist adding my own personal touch. Presenting Candied Yams version 2.0. 🤩 Here’s what you’ll need:
- Yams – Our side dish superstar here is incredibly rich in fiber, minerals, and vitamins. Aside from being nutritious, they are also pretty versatile, making them an excellent choice for desserts and soups. Yes, they are sweet potatoes. True yams are a different vegetable and taste more like Irish potatoes.
- Butter – Oh, you’ll surely fall in love with its rich buttery flavor. Plus, it creates a beautiful caramel-like sauce when combined with sugar.
- Brown and White Sugar – Not only do they add sweetness to our dessert-like side dish, but they also give our sauce a nice amber color and thick consistency.
- Maple Syrup – It’s sweet like caramel with added earthy and woody flavor profile. However, it may be hard to get where you are. In that case, honey, corn syrup, or light molasses make a great substitute.
- Ginger, Cinnamon, Allspice, and Nutmeg – Feel and taste the holiday with these spices to complete our classic holiday comfort food. Their warm and cozy flavors will surely bring warmth to your soul. Truly comforting, indeed!
- Orange and Lemon Juice – But of course, the citrusy flavors from orange and lemon juice will add character to our candied yams while adding cheerful contrasting flavors as well.
- Vanilla – It just won’t taste the same without this must-have flavor enhancer, which you can easily make at home with only two ingredients. Yes! That’s right! Try it now with my Homemade Vanilla Extract recipe.
- Pecans – The nutty surprise is a bonus treat adding more texture and crunchiness to our sweet side dish. You can also easily replace it with your favorite nuts such as walnut, cashew, almond, and pistachio.
Recipe Variations
- Plain and Simple – Sometimes, going back to the basics is pretty relaxing, too. Simply omit the added spices, and you’re good to go.
- Bourbon-Infused – Take our candied yams recipe to a higher level with a splash of bourbon or rum, and you’ll surely love the added boozy kick. 😋
- Marshmallows – Enjoy the soft pillowy goodness with gooey marshmallows on top. Yes, please!
- Streusel Toppings – Make it more festive with buttery, crumbly streusel toppings. Using a fork or pastry cutter, mix ½ cup of flour, ½ cup of brown sugar, 4 tablespoons of cold butter cut in small cubes, and ¼ cup of chopped pecans until it forms crumbles. Simply sprinkle them on top of candied yams and bake them until golden brown.
- Hot and Spicy – Oh yes! The contrasting flavor of sweet and spicy is genuinely one of a kind. The added twist of a dash of cayenne is surprisingly G-O-O-D!
- More Spices – You can also swap or add more spices, such as cloves and star anise, for more flavor variations of this yam recipe.
Tips and Tricks
- As much as possible, choose longer and thinner yams (sweet potatoes) to make it easier to cut in the same sizes.
- Make sure to cut your yams in uniform chunks so they’ll cook evenly.
- Make it fancier and festive with marshmallows or streusel toppings.
- Add more flavor twist with the addition of cayenne pepper or bourbon to your special sweet sauce.
- To make it ahead, coat the sliced uncooked yams with butter sauce and store them covered in the fridge for up to two days. When ready to serve, bake them as directed.
Serving and Storage Instructions
Make-Ahead Candied Yams
- Cut and Toss – Cut the yams and toss them in buttery sugar glaze.
- Store – Transfer them into a clean and dry sealed container and store them inside the fridge for up to two days.
- Bake – When ready to serve, simply bake them as instructed.
NOTE: The butter sauce may solidify when refrigerated, and it’s actually normal because of the butter. It’ll melt again while baking.
Storing Leftover Candied Yams
- Cool – Let the candied yams cool completely before storing them in a sealed container.
- Refrigerate – They can stay fresh for about 3-5 days refrigerated.
- Freeze – Extend the shelf life for about 3-6 months by freezing your leftover yams. However, there’s a big chance that they’ll turn into mush after thawing and reheating. Make sure to remove as much air as possible to avoid this.
Reheating
- Microwave – Reheat on medium power at 30-second intervals until warm.
- Stove – Heat the greased or non-stick skillet on medium-low, occasionally stirring to prevent scorching at the bottom of the pan.
- Oven – Cover the baking pan with foil and reheat in a 350°F/177°C oven for 15-20 minutes or until heated.
FAQs
In the States, candied yams and candied sweet potatoes are the exact same thing. That means you can use them interchangeably. True yams are not even close to sweet potatoes. They’re more like Irish potatoes and come from a completely different family, which is nice to know if you can’t eat regular potatoes.
My recipe doesn’t require boiling the yams first before baking. Yes! Since they are already sliced and soaked in sugary liquid, they’ll cook just fine when baked.
Candied yams are a popular holiday side dish made with sweet potatoes coated in a luscious buttery and sweet sauce. Depending on your taste preference, you can always add spices such as ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice or enjoy them plain.
For this recipe, they are considered the same thing. However, true yams are quite different from sweet potatoes. Both are very nutritious and versatile; however, sweet potatoes are, well, sweeter and have a more delicious flavor. True yams, while not being so flavorful, are richer in carbohydrates and calories. Try them out in my Ogbono Soup recipe.
What Goes Well with Candied Yams?
Our Southern Candied Yams here are, without a doubt, a must-have in every Thanksgiving and holiday dinner. With that said, we can go all out and serve it with these equally remarkable dishes below to complete our holiday menu.
- Roast Turkey Breast
- Southern Baked Mac and Cheese
- Parmesan Crusted Baked Asparagus
- Brown Sugar Glazed Ham
- Kale Salad
More Sweet Potato (Yam) Recipes to Try
More Thanksgiving Side Dishes to Try
- Green Bean Casserole
- Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
- Cornbread Dressing
- Cranberry Sauce
- Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes
How to Make Candied Yams
Prepare the Yams
- Preheat Your Oven to 350℉/177℃.
- Wash, Peel, and Cut – yams or sweet potatoes into about ½ an inch thick, keeping each piece close in size for even cooking. (Photos 1-3)
- Set Aside – Place in a 13×9 casserole dish, then spread the yams out in an even layer. Set aside while you prepare the butter sauce. (Photo 4)
Make the Butter Sauce
- Add Butter – in a medium skillet or sauce and place over medium heat. (Photo 5)
- Season – As soon as butter melts, add brown sugar, granulated sugar, maple syrup, ground ginger, cinnamon spice, allspice, and nutmeg. (Photo 6)
- Boil and Simmer – Bring mixture to a boil, frequently stirring with a wooden spoon until sugar is completely dissolved, about 3-4 minutes. (Photo 7)
- Pour the Orange and Lemon Juice – Remove saucepan or skillet from heat and then add orange juice and lemon juice. (Photo 8)
Pour the Butter Sauce and Bake
- Add the Butter Mixture – Pour the butter mixture over the yams, making sure every inch of the yams is covered with sauce. (Photo 9)
- Cover and Bake– Tightly cover the dish with aluminum foil paper. Bake in a preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, then remove foil, stir, and spoon sauce over yams.
- Uncover and Bake – Return dish in the oven and continue cooking, uncovered, for an additional 30 minutes or until yams are fork tender and sauce thickens slightly. (Photo 10)
- Garnish – Remove, stir in vanilla extract and serve warm, sprinkled with roasted pecans, optional.
- Enjoy!
Watch How To Make It
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This blog post has been updated with new photos, additional write-up, and a video.
Candied Yams
Ingredients
- 3-3½ pound or 1360-1587 grams sweet potato or yam
Glaze
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter
- ½ cup (100 g) brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 3-4 tablespoon s (45-60 mL) maple syrup
- ½-1 teaspoon (1-2 g) ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons (4 g)cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) allspice
- ½ teaspoon (1 g)nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) orange juice
- 1-2 tablespoon (15-30 ml) lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- ½ cup (65 g) chopped pecans, optional
Instructions
Prepare the Sweet Potatoes (Yams)
- Preheat the oven to 350℉/177℃.
- Wash, peel, and cut yams or sweet potatoes into about ½ an inch thick, keeping each piece close in size for even cooking.
- Place in a 13×9 casserole dish, then spread the yams out in an even layer. Set aside while you prepare the butter sauce.
Make the Candy Glaze
- Add butter in a medium skillet or sauce and place over medium heat.
- As soon as butter melts, add brown sugar, granulated sugar, maple syrup, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.
- Bring mixture to a boil, frequently stirring with a wooden spoon until sugar is completely dissolved, about 3-4 minutes.
- Remove saucepan or skillet from heat and then add orange juice and lemon juice.
- Pour the butter mixture over the yams, making sure every inch of the yams is covered with sauce.
Bake the Candied Yams
- Tightly cover the dish with aluminum foil paper. Bake in a preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, then remove foil, stir, and spoon sauce over yams.
- Return dish in the oven and continue cooking, uncovered, for an additional 30 minutes or until yams are fork tender and sauce thickens slightly.
- Remove, stir in vanilla extract and serve warm, sprinkled with roasted pecans, optional.
- Enjoy!
Tips & Notes:
- As much as possible, choose longer and thinner yams (sweet potatoes) to make it easier to cut in the same sizes.
- Make sure to cut your yams in uniform chunks so they’ll cook evenly.
- Make it fancier and festive with marshmallows or streusel toppings.
- Add more flavor twist with the addition of cayenne pepper or bourbon to your special sweet sauce.
- To make it ahead, coat the sliced uncooked yams with butter sauce and store them covered in the fridge for up to two days. When ready to serve, bake them as directed.
- Please keep in mind that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
Dee says
Oops. Rattled on and forgot part of my main message. Imma, thank you for these recipes. Each and every one of them look so delicious and I want to try them all.
Bet everyone seeing your recipe photos would like to have a seat at your table. Just wish I could grab some from my screen. Blessings.
imma africanbites says
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Dee. I truly appreciate it. I agree, true yams are hard to come by here in the US. But you had me on that purple/blue sweet potato though. It’s been a while since I last had one. And yep, guess these tech guys need to step up their game and do that phone feature.
Dee says
Southerner here-born and bred AND love to cook and to eat! LOL. OK, in North Carolina, where I live, some people call these yams but the vast majority just call them sweet potatoes. Needless to say, NC is the #1 producer of sweet potatoes in the United States. Sometimes in the grocery stores they may be labeled yams, but, again, we still know they are sweet potatoes. True yams are hard to find in the US. They are only “candied yams” when cooked in the sweet syrup-thus the word candid (some people just call them candid sweet potatoes).
I have always known they are not true yams (from Africa) but different vegetables and in different categories. Supposedly, calling them yams began with the African Slaves because of the similarities of the two tubers.
To add to the confusion, there are many, many varieties of sweet potatoes—Beauregard, Jewel, Covington, and
Garnet to name a few. The flesh of a sweet potato can be yellow, white, orange, and even purple/blue. All are sweet potatoes but yes, still sometimes, erroneously, labeled “yams”. So technically, our southern sweet potatoes are not yams but over time have been “called yams”. Say yam here and we know you mean sweet potato.
Hope this all makes sense to the newcomer to our sweet potato. Imma is correct on yam and sweet potato. Whatever you want to call them, they are truly delicious. Oh, did I say they were also very nutritious? Thanks Imma for this recipe. It is so very similar to our Candid Yam recipe and sure to be a hit for the sweet potato yam. Give them a go and you will call them delicious too!
Hilda M. says
I made these candied yams but used sweet potatoes instead for Thanksgiving and they were a big hit with my kids.
Thank you Immaculate for the recipe. I plan on making these every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
P/S
I tried Browning the butter and the dish was so delish, I would definitely recommend.
Thank you Imma, for another great recipe.
ImmaculateBites says
I am so glad to know that! 🙂
Diana Dickey says
I loved this recipe, thank you!
ImmaculateBites says
Thanks for taking time out to let me know.
Nicole says
Enjoyed this recipe.
Immaculate Bites says
Thank you, Nicole 🙂
Faye says
How rude and harshly critical; if you noticed a difference between the two tubers, simply overlook the issue. No one that visits the site should have to endure a long and subtly insulting rant about horticulture. Especially if one is not an expert in the field.
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Sian,
Agree . Sweet potatoes and yams are sometimes used interchangeably and often mislabeled in most supermarkets in the US.It’s sometimes hard to tell the difference, especially if you are getting the orange variety. They are definitely not related . “Real” yams are the ones grown in tropical countries- Africa in particular- real starchy , white or yellow in complexion.
Christmas is a Holiday too! One of my favorite times of the year , especially as a child .
Am so honored that that you would take time out to share your thoughts with us. Annd SUPER happy that you gave it a try !
Thank you so much!!!!
Junior says
Actually I had a discussion with a couple of US farmers and they said in the US “Yams” are a cousin of sweet potatoes that do not get mushy when you cook them. Kind of like the ones in Cameroon which stay firm after boiling. Meanwhile sweet potatoes in the US become extremely soft and easily mushy when you cook them.
A good analogy for when in the US is to treat sweet potatoes like banana, while yams are like plantains in terms of consistency after cooking.
I do want to try this recipe but i have only seen US Yams once in my town and i am pretty sure if i use US sweet potatoes it will get all mushy