Tag: Thanksgiving side dishes

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Bourbon-Spiked Candied Yams with Crushed Pecan Topping

Candied yams (aka sweet potatoes) are the perfect southern veggie side dish! It’s a great addition for holiday meals, or year round, with the right amount of your favorite bourbon!

I’ve grown up with candied yams swimming in the brown sugar mixture, which definitely tastes amazing. As I got older, I’ve grown to love the natural sweetness of sweet potatoes. So this recipe doesn’t create too much syrup. It’s almost like a baked sweet potato made a baby with syrupy candied yams, if that makes sense. 

What are candied yams?

Candied yams are a name for sweet potatoes that are cooked with sugar, butter, and spices. It’s also one of those dishes that doesn’t really NEED measurements and can be eyeballed (which is one of the joys of cooking). But to be a good Samaritan, I’ve come up with this amazing recipe, and jazzed it up with crushed pecans!

What’s the best way to cook candied sweet potatoes?

Just like how measurements aren’t needed, there’s also a variety of ways to cook the candied sweet potatoes.

  • Mix all the ingredients together to add to either raw or partially cooked sweet potatoes, making a syrup for them to cook in.
  • OR Melt the butter with the sugar and spices to make the syrup ahead of time. The sweet potatoes are usually par cooked, or sometimes fully cooked, before finishing in the oven.

Either way, the end result of that yummy and sweet syrup for the sweet potatoes to bathe in.

For this recipe, I did a combo of both! The sweet potatoes are fully cooked, then covered with the melted butter and sugar mix, and sprinkled with more sugar. The sugar on top of the potatoes will caramelize a bit in the oven, helping to give this another texture.

Can I cut back on the sugar for candied yams?

There is a decent amount of butter and sugar in my candied yams, though not overbearing. If you’re looking to cut back more on that amount, you can cut the ingredients for this recipe in half, excluding the sweet potato and pecan amount.

If you go this route, the crushed pecans can be sprinkled on top of the sweet potatoes without tossing it in sugar beforehand.

Type of crushed nuts to use with candied yams

I used crushed pecans out of preference. This would taste really good with crushed walnuts as well! I’m just more of a pecan fan than walnuts. You can even get fancy with it and do a mixture of both types of nuts!!!

Type of bourbon to use for sweet potatoes

My go-to bourbon when cooking is Jim Beam. You can use any bourbon that you’d like! The bourbon can also be completely omitted from this recipe if you’d prefer. I promise it’ll still come out delicious!

What to serve with candied yams aka candied sweet potatoes

Fix this up as a side with some fried or roasted chicken!!

You’ll definitely need some additional sides with it, so check out the recipe for my Southern-style slow cooked collard greens, and big slice of honey buttermilk skillet cornbread. Babyyyyyyy…..I love it! 

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5 from 13 votes

Boozy Bourbon Spiked Candied Yams with Pecan Topping

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time50 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: boozy, bourbon, candied yams, spiked, sweet potatoes, yams
Servings: 6 servings
Author: Crystal

Equipment

  • Sauce pot
  • Cutting board
  • knife
  • Mixing bowls
  • Small oven safe casserole dish
  • Whisk
  • Spoons

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ lbs sweet potatoes washed
  • 1 ¼ cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 dash ground nutmeg
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 pinch kosher salt
  • ¼ cup crushed pecans
  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp bourbon

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Put sweet potatoes into a pot large enough for the potatoes to be covered in water. Add cold water until the potatoes have been submerged. Cover with a lid.
  • Bring potatoes to a boil, then simmer on medium heat for 20-25 minutes. Potatoes should be soft enough that a butter knife can be pierced through the thickest part of the potato.
  • While the potatoes are simmering, mix both sugars, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
  • Take a third cup of the brown sugar mixture and put in a small bowl with the pecans. Set aside.
  • Pour the melted butter, vanilla, and bourbon into the bowl with the remaining brown sugar mixture. Mix together with a whisk. Set the sauce aside.
  • Once potatoes are cooked, remove from heat and run under cold water so they’re cooler to the touch, for about 5 minutes. Peel off the skin, and set the peeled potatoes to the side on a cutting board. Slice the potatoes about a quarter inch thick.
  • Into your casserole dish of choice, add the sweet potato slices. Evenly pour the brown sugar sauce over the potatoes.
  • Evenly sprinkle the pecan mixture over the potatoes.
  • Bake the potatoes, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
  • Can be served immediately.

Notes

Use any bourbon of your choice! I used Jim Beam for mine.
The bourbon can also be cut back or omitted from this recipe. 
If you’re looking to cut back on the amount of the brown sugar sauce to create a lighter version of this recipe, cut all the ingredient amounts in half (excluding the sweet potato). 

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Southern Honey Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread

Sliced Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread In A Cast Iron

This southern-style honey buttermilk skillet cornbread is the perfect side dish to round out your meal! Both buttery and sweet, you can’t go wrong with this recipe!

Sliced Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread In A Cast Iron

Ok yall. I’m a cornbread whore, especially when it’s on the sweet side. Slap some buttah on a slice and drizzle some honey on dat thang…oooooohhhhwwweeeeeeee!!!!!

I have this recipe that I’ve been using for a while, which always came out marvelous, but I would always use whole milk. I had this random flashback of my grandma making cornbread with Jiffy cornbread mix, but using buttermilk instead of whole milk like the directions listed.

My brain was like “go ahead and try that with YOUR recipe”. And THAT’S what I did. Boom….my buttermilk cornbread recipe was born! Can’t believe I haven’t done this before. I’m trash for that. But better late than never, because it came out soooooooo good!

So with that being said….buttermilk isn’t mandatory. But, this recipe caught your attention, so now you HAVE to use it. 

Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread In A Cast Iron

Buttermilk substitutions for buttermilk cornbread:

Great news with this one is since buttermilk isn’t mandatory, this cornbread can be made with any milk you have on hand.

Like I mentioned earlier, I originally made this with milk. If I don’t have buttermilk on hand, I use 2% milk which I always have in my fridge. Whole and skim milk works too.

Can I make a lactose-free cornbread?

I’ve tested this recipe once with Lactaid milk and it still came out amazing! Just be sure to omit the butter, and replace it with a dairy-free butter so you aren’t missing out on the fun. The butter can also be replaced with canola oil. 

What should I eat my cornbread with?

You should totally eat this with my roasted wings, southern-style collard greens, and candied yams. No….you really should do that though. 

The proper pan to use for cornbread

It’s definitely something special about a slice of cornbread that’s been cooked in a cast iron skillet. The edge are nice and golden right along with the bottom of the slice.

However, if you don’t have a cast iron available, this can be baked in any type of oven safe dish you can get your hands on. Cast irons do speed up the cooking process by a couple of minutes, so you’ll need to adjust your baking time if you don’t use one. Just be sure to insert a toothpick or knife into the center to check it’s baked completely, as the toothpick should come out clean.

You’re also more than welcome to turn these bad boys into muffins! Use whatever size muffin pan you’d like!

Sliced Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread In A Cast Iron
Print Recipe

Honey Buttermilk Skillet Cornbread

Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Total Time40 minutes
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: buttermilk, cast iron, cast iron skillet, cornbread, honey
Author: Crystal

Equipment

  • cast iron
  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk
  • pastry brush

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ cup all purpose flour
  • ½ cup yellow cornmeal
  • ½ tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • ¾ cup buttermilk
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 8 tbsp melted butter divided

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take a large cast iron skillet and put it in the oven while it is preheating.
  • In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, cornmeal, salt, and baking powder with a large whisk, making sure all the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
  • In the middle of the dry ingredients, add eggs, milk, hone, and 6 tablespoons of the melted butter. Use the whisk to mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Be sure to scrap the sides of the bowl to make sure all of the dry ingredients have been mixed in.
  • When the oven is set to the correct temperature, remove cast iron from the oven. Spread 1 tablespoon of the butter in the pan, then pour in the cornbread mixture.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cornbread.
  • Brush the top of the cornbread with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter.
  • Let the cornbread rest for 5 minutes before serving. Can be served with additional butter and a drizzle of honey!

Notes

Honey can be omitted from the recipe.
If you do not have buttermilk available, you can substitute it with whole, 2%, or skim. 
If you want to cut back on the amount of butter being used, swap out the 6 tablespoons of melted butter for canola oil. 

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