These Cinnamon-Butter Thanksgiving Carrots Are Almost Too Easy to Make – and Smell Divine

POPSUGAR is excited to present this cinnamon-butter baked carrots recipe from Becky Tarala, the blogger behind The Two Bite Club.

If your Thanksgiving menu is in need of a simple yet beautiful side dish, cinnamon-butter baked carrots are the way to go. This easy-to-make Thanksgiving carrots recipe features fresh carrots that are smothered in cinnamon butter and then baked in the oven until they’re perfectly glazed and tender. With the vibrant color, stunning presentation, and sweet cinnamon-butter sauce, these carrots are sure to steal the show this holiday. Your guests will be begging for the recipe before they even get a taste, going off the smell alone.

Menu planning for Thanksgiving is no joke. Sure, when you first think about it, the whole process seems pretty simple and straightforward. You roast a big turkey, cook up a few unique Thanksgiving sides, throw in a few rolls, and you’re good to go.

It’s when you actually sit down to make your shopping list that things start getting real.

A million thoughts start running through your mind. Is a 19-pound turkey big enough? Shoot, maybe not. Maybe we should serve ham, too. Homemade pumpkin pie or store-bought? Sweet potatoes with marshmallows or without? No, wait. A brown sugar pecan topping is better. SO. MUCH. TO. DO.

I’ve hosted holidays in our home for quite a few years now and, while there will always be a million things running through my mind as I plan, I’ve gotten pretty good at coming up with a well-rounded menu.

One thing that I have realized over the years is that the first draft of my menu usually ends up a little bit on the rich side. (Yes, I have a first draft. I take this holiday hosting thing very seriously!)

I love to serve a variety of casseroles with our turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and while everything I plan to make is absolutely delicious, my menu usually begs for something simple, fresh, and beautiful to balance out the heavy, rich dishes I initially crave.

That’s how these cinnamon-butter baked carrots came to be. I wanted to add one more easy-to-prepare side dish to our feast, and carrots seemed to be the perfect choice.

I decided to pair the carrots with classic flavors and dressed them with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Super simple, but absolutely delicious! Sometimes a little bit of simplicity is just what my menu needs.

After baking in the oven, these Thanksgiving carrots come out perfectly tender and so, so delicious. For me, the best part is the sweet, sticky cinnamon-butter sauce that the carrots bake in. Once you transfer the baked carrots to a serving platter, you drizzle the irresistible cinnamon butter over the top, and it’s like the icing on the cake!

If you add these beautiful Thanksgiving carrots to your menu, I think it’s only fair to warn you that the smell while they are baking is simply intoxicating. Once you get a whiff of that sweet cinnamon bubbling away, you’ll forget all about the turkey!