Tremendous Glazed Carrots
Prep
10m
Cook
25m
Total
35m
Bigly says
Folks. The glazed carrot is one of the most ABUSED side dishes in modern history. Abused! For decades, people have taken perfectly good carrots — beautiful carrots, the carrots did nothing wrong — and they have BOILED them into limp orange noodles, dumped a cup of brown sugar on top, called it 'glazed,' and walked away. Walked away! Like a hit-and-run. The carrots deserved better. The carrots ALWAYS deserved better.
My glazed carrots are different. My glazed carrots are something to BEHOLD. We're talking deep caramelization, a glossy butter-honey-thyme glaze that clings to every carrot like it was tailored, a little kiss of fresh lemon at the end to wake the whole thing up. The best carrots of my life were in a roadside stand outside Albuquerque — a woman named Aurelia handed me a paper plate with three of them on it, no fork, no napkin, just three carrots, and I sat on the curb and cried a little. True story. These are very close to those. Very close.
The trick is to ALMOST burn them. Almost. You take them right to the edge. The edge is where flavor lives. Most so-called chefs are AFRAID of the edge. They cook scared, they pull the pan early, and they hand you a beige tragedy with a sprig of parsley on top. Carrots can smell fear. I've never been afraid of a carrot in my life and I'm not about to start now. Hands down. Game over.
Ingredients
- 2 lbcarrots(skinny carrots if you can get them, or whole baby carrots — the bagged 'baby-cut' kind are sad nubs, avoid)
- 3 tbspunsalted butter
- 1 tbspextra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 1/2 tspfreshly ground black pepper
- 3 tbsphoney(real honey, the kind from bees, not the bear-shaped bottle of 'honey-flavored syrup')
- 1 tbspfresh thyme leaves
- 3 clovesgarlic, smashed
- 1 tbspfresh lemon juice
- pinchflaky sea salt (to finish)
- 2 tbspfresh parsley, chopped (to finish)
Steps
- 1
Peel the carrots if the skins are tough. For thin carrots, scrub well and leave them whole. For thicker carrots, halve or quarter lengthwise so all pieces are roughly the same thickness.
- 2
Heat a large heavy skillet (cast iron or stainless) over medium-high heat. Add the butter and olive oil and swirl until the butter melts and foams.
- 3
Add the carrots in a single layer along with the smashed garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
- 4
Cook 6-8 minutes without moving, until the undersides are deep golden brown.
- 5
Turn the carrots and continue cooking another 6-8 minutes, until the second side is browned and the carrots have begun to soften.
- 6
Reduce the heat to medium. Add 1/3 cup water to the pan — it will sizzle. Cover loosely and cook 4-5 minutes, until the carrots are tender when pierced with a knife and the water has mostly evaporated.
- 7
Uncover, push the carrots to one side of the pan. Add the honey and thyme to the empty space and stir for 30 seconds to bloom the thyme.
- 8
Toss everything together so the carrots are coated in the honey glaze. Cook 2-3 more minutes, swirling the pan, until the glaze becomes glossy and clings to the carrots.
- 9
Remove from heat. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top and toss once more.
- 10
Transfer to a serving platter, sprinkle with flaky salt and parsley, and serve warm.
One more thing
These carrots will make your Thanksgiving look like an amateur production from years past. They will outshine the turkey. The turkey will be JEALOUS. The turkey will go sulk in the corner — which is fine, frankly, the turkey is overrated, dry, sad, that's a whole other recipe we'll fix another day — and people at the table will reach across each other for the carrots. Manners go out the window. Real glazed carrots. The greatest glazed carrots in the history of glazed carrots. That's the recipe.
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