No holiday meal would be complete without our favorite recipe for fork tender Slow Cooker Candied Yams. Toss out those canned yams because making fresh sweet potatoes has never been easier or tastier.

The humble sweet potato isn’t just for Thanksgiving dinner. Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Stew, Slow Cooker Vegetarian Sweet Potato Chili, and Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Stuffed Sweet Potatoes are three delicious crock pot recipes allowing you to enjoy this nutritious vegetable all year long.

Why this recipe works

Taste! If you’ve ever had canned sweet potatoes, then you know they’re lacking in both flavor and texture.

Slow cooker candied sweet potatoes cook evenly resulting in superbly tender yams. Toss in all the ingredients and let it go. There’s no need to stop and stir halfway through the cooking time like so many other recipes.

Making candied yams in the crock pot will not only save oven space and free up a stove top burner, they will stay warm throughout the meal unlike those made in a casserole dish. This crockpot version will become one of your favorite recipes.

Are yams and sweet potatoes the same thing?

Here in the US, we use those words interchangeably in sweet potato recipes, especially when discussing the perfect Thanksgiving side dish, but sweet potatoes and yams are, in fact, not the same thing.

Some people try to distinguish by calling the yellow or white fleshed variety, sweet potatoes and call the orange or red fleshed sweet potatoes, yams.

Turns out the reason some distinguish them this way is down to nothing more than clever marketing from the 1930’s by southern sweet potato growers. When they created a new variety of sweet potato, they wanted to set it apart in the mind of the public, and did so by calling them yams. You’ll see both names used in your average grocery store and almost always, they’ll all be sweet potatoes.

What are yams?

A real yam is not related to the sweet potato at all.

Yams are native to tropical regions like the Caribbean and Africa. It is more narrowly tubular or cylindrical in shape and has an outer skin that resembles tree bark that no vegetable peeler could remove. The taste and texture of yams is closer to yuca than a potato.

Recipe Ingredients

• Sweet potatoes — The red Garnet variety is best, but the orange Beauregard or Jewel varieties will work, too.
• Seasonings — Ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt.
• Pantry staples — Vanilla extract, molasses, and brown sugar.
• Slurry — Cornstarch and water mixed together forming a slurry will thicken the delicious sauce the sweet potatoes cook in.
• Butter — Melted and because what natively southern dish wouldn’t have butter.

Step-by-Step Directions

Step One – Peel the sweet potatoes with a vegetable peeler and cut into 1-inch thick slices. Add the raw sweet potatoes to a 6 quart or larger slow cooker.

Step Two – In a small bowl, whisk together the water and cornstarch to make a slurry and add it to the slow cooker. Then stir in the butter, molasses, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, and salt, making sure all the sweet potato pieces are well coated. Do not add the brown sugar at this time.

Step Three – Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours.

Step Four – Once done, add the brown sugar and mix gently as the now cooked sweet potatoes are perfectly tender.

What else to serve with candied yams?

This candied yams recipe will go wonderfully with both your Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners.

• Slow Cooker Turkey Breast
• Slow Cooker Apple and Clove Ham
• Slow Cooker Stuffing
• Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes
• Slow Cooker Cheesy Green Bean Casserole
• Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese
• Slow Cooker Bourbon Cranberry Sauce

Recipe FAQs

I don’t have a slow cooker; how do I make yams?

Here are my recommended recipes for if you don’t have a slow cooker.

• Baked Candied Yams or try Baked Candied Sweet Potatoes with Pecans
• Stove-top Candied Sweet Potatoes

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