Sweet and buttery, these Slow Cooker Carrots are tender, flavorful, and the perfect effortless side dish. These carrots are inspired by the famous Cracker Barrel Carrots – but they are so much better!
If you love carrots, you also want to try these Glazed Carrots or these Oven Roasted Carrots.
I will never get tired of a recipe that takes only minutes to prep. Especially when it’s one that my whole family will devour.
And these Slow Cooker Carrots? Sometimes they don’t even make it out of the slow cooker before they are gone!
This recipe is based off of the family Cracker Barrel Carrots. But honestly – I’d take these over the restaurant version any day. They are slightly sweet and butter, they are super tender, and they make the perfect side dish.
Serve these up for dinner, or they are absolutely perfect for a holiday. Especially because you can make them earlier in the day and let them cook all day while you prepare the rest of the meal.
This is one you’ll make over and over again!
Ingredients
- Carrots: I am not a fan of mini carrots, which is what they use at Cracker Barrel. They just don’t have very much flavor to me. So I’m opting for whole carrots that I cut into pieces. If you like mini carrots, feel free to use those instead.
- Sugar: You will need both brown sugar and granulated sugar. These carrots do end up slightly sweet, but defiantly not like a dessert.
- Salt: This will help to balance the flavors.
- Garlic Powder: This is for flavor.
- Butter: Make sure you cut the butter into small cubes so that you can evenly distribute it across the top of the carrots.
- Water: This is important to keep the carrots from burning on the bottom of the slow cooker. Plus it gives the carrots a nice glaze.
How to Make Slow Cooker Carrots
STEP 1: Peel the carrots, and cut them into slices. You want to make sure they are all similar in size so that they cook evenly. I’ll usually cut each carrot into 3-4 sections, then cut the fattest part into quarters, the middle in half, and if the end is skinny, I’ll keep it as is.
STEP 2: Place the carrots in a slow cooker. Sprinkle on both sugars, the salt, and the garlic powder, then stir to coat the carrots with the mixture.
STEP 3: Add the butter to the top of the carrots, then pour the water around the outside of the carrots. Cook on low for about 6 hours, or until the carrots are fork tender.
Tips and Tricks
I like to stir the carrots about halfway through the cook time, just to make sure they all cook evenly.
If you are in a hurry, you can turn the slow cooker up to high. They will cook much faster. I would start checking them at about 2 1/2 hours.
You will end up with some liquid in the bottom of the slow cooker. I like to drizzle a little bit of that over the carrots in their serving dish. It adds extra buttery sweet flavor.
More Side Dish Recipes
Cucumber Onion Salad
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Lemon Broccoli
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Slow Cooker Carrots
Ingredients
- 2 pounds carrots
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons butter cut into small cubes
- 1/3 cup water
Instructions
- Spray your slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. (I used a 4 quart slow cooker.)
- Peel the carrots and slice the carrots. You want them all to be about the same size, so some may need to be quartered while others will be halved.2 pounds carrots
- Place the carrots in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Sprinkle the brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and garlic powder over the carrots. Stir to coat.2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Drop the butter cubes over the top of the carrots. Pour the water around the outside, trying to avoid removing the spices from the carrots.2 tablespoons butter, 1/3 cup water
- Cover with the lid and cook on low for 6 hours, or until the carrots are fork tender.
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