With Thanksgiving around the corner, you will want to add these slow cooker candied sweet potatoes to your menu. I love that I can put these in my crock pot in the morning and have an amazing side dish by dinner time.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our slow cooker candied sweet potatoes, you need the following ingredients:
- Sweet potatoes
- Orange juice
- Vanilla extract
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground nutmeg
- Salt
- Brown sugar
- Mini marshmallows
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Slow Cooker Candied Sweet Potatoes
- Spray slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
- Spread chopped sweet potatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and brown sugar.
- Pour over the top of the sweet potatoes and place lid on the slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3.
- Once cooked, pour all the contents from your slow cooker into a baking dish.
- Top with marshmallows and broil in oven until marshmallows are golden brown (mine took about 45 seconds!).
Recipe Notes
For this recipe, to make our marshmallows golden, we popped it into the oven for about 40 seconds, and the marshmallows broiled perfectly. They broil fast, so be sure to keep an eye on them. If they burn, you can always scrape them off and try again. You could also use a culinary torch to golden them up, but I usually stick to broiling for less than a minutes, and they turn out perfect every time.
Enjoy More Delicious Side Dishes
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- Mashed Sweet Potato
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Slow Cooker Candied Sweet Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
- ½ cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2 cups mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Spray slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
- Spread chopped sweet potatoes in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and brown sugar.
- Pour over the top of the sweet potatoes and place lid on the slow cooker.
- Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3.
- Once cooked, pour all the contents from your slow cooker into a baking dish.
- Top with marshmallows and broil in oven until marshmallows are golden brown (mine took about 45 seconds!).
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
Sounds delicious! When do you put the orange juice in? Mix it with the other ingredients in the bowl?
thats sounds delish.
Nice easy recipe – thanks so much.
Can this be made ahead & frozen uncooked then cooked on the day needed???
I’m French and I used to live in Michigan 20 years ago . I remember having this kind of sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving and I loved it !! Thanks for the recipe !! I will try to do it for my kids (and for myself of course) because I want them to taste this “so american” dish !! the only problem is that it’s difficult to find mini marshmallows here in France but I guess I could use the normal size ones !!
We haven’t made these as a freezer meal. So we are not sure how well it would turn out.
Has anyone tried to make this the night before? We have to travel about an hour and a half on Thanskgiving ann addd i would like to make this the night before – pop it in the fridge and then reheat it the next day and then add the marshmellows. Any thoughts?
After reading over the recipe carefully, I think this would work. We have always reheated leftovers which is basically the same thing. Add your marshmallows at the very end. Best of luck and have a Happy Thanksgiving. 🙂
Cyd (mom of the six sisters)
Fabulous recipe! My family loved it! I am trying out different recipes for Thanksgiving and this is the winner. I made it Wednesday, put it in the fridge overnight then reheated for dinner Thursday on 350° for about 20 minutes. Added mini marshmallows and broiled for about 3 minutes or so. Trial run worked great!
Awesome thanks for the tip! I will do this the night ahead also since I will be returning from a 5 day trip to San Diego the day before Thanksgiving then traveling via car an hour and half to have dinner with family on Thursday!!
What size baking dish do you use?
I just used an oval baking dish. Probably comparable to a 2 1/2 quart baking dish.
Would this work with just the sweet potatoes straight from the crock pot without putting in a baking dish with the marshmallows? I need to bring a dish to a potluck and wanted to just serve the potatoes from the crockpot if it would still taste good.
It should still taste good. The marshmallows needed browning in the oven, so that is why that step in in the recipe.
First off you all are lucky to have sisters, I am theonly girl out of 5. Anyway thank you so much for posting this slow cooker Sweet Potato dish it was exactly what I waslooking for, for my Thanksgiving dinner. I look forward to any new things I find on your blog!
This sounds yummy & easy. One question…how thick or thin do you slice the sweet potatoes?
Thank you! One more question – I need to double this recipe – I have an average size crockpot. Do you think it will all fit?
You could remove the glass part from your crock pot and line the top with marshmallows and broil the entire thing before you go to your potluck. That way you still have the browned marshmallows, but without the marshmallows will be just as yummy.
I think that would work just fine! I agree, the marshmallows add the yumminess!! 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!
I would do it in 2 crock pots if you have them. But if you double this recipe in one you would need to allow for maybe some extra cooking time. They would be piled pretty deep. Not sure how big your average sized crock pot it is. I’m hoping it’s a 6 quart one and then you would might be ok.
We sliced them about 3/4 inch thick.
Ok, lazy person’s question. Do you think this would work with canned yams? Perhaps with just a shorter cooking time?
Can’t wait to try this. Do you chop the slices or just keep them round?
We have sliced them and cut them in wedges. You can really cut them any way you want. Just so it’s not too thick.
We have never used canned yams, we think they would work. Be sure to drain off the liquid.
I have a guest with a citrus allergy… do you think anything could be used as a substitute for the orange juice? Thanks for any help!
I’m new in the kitchen and I am going to make 2 crockpots of this recipe for thanksgiving. Is there anything I can do to prep the night before to make things easier the day of and if so what? Sorry for the silly question. Thank you.
We have some other different sweet potato recipes on our blog. Just type in sweet potatoes in the search bar on Sixsistersstuff.com.
The only thing you could really do is have the sweet potatoes already cut up and put them in some type of zip loc bag or container. That morning you will just dump it all in your slow cooker and let it do all the work. And it’s not a silly question!! 🙂 It will all work out great. Just follow the directions – the slow cooker will do all the work cooking it. Then put it in your baking dish and let the marshmallows grow big and brown a little. So yummy! Crossing our fingers for you!!! Happy Thanksgiving.
Do you use regular drinking orange juice? Or fresh squeezed orange juice?
If you use canned yams you could use the the juices from the can, just reserve some when you drain them then use the same amount of juice as the amount of OJ in the recipe.
We just used the regular drinking orange juice.
I always find slow cooker sweet potato recipes end up with thin sauce, so I reduced it in a saucepan before placing in the oven. I used a 3.5qt cooker and everything fit. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m out of orange juice, so I’ll be using apple cider instead since apples & sweet potatoes also work well together.
This is In the slow cooker now 🙂 worried something isn’t right lol. My 5 qt slow cooker is almost filled so I hope that’s enough liquid
Did you take the skin off of the sweet potatoes before putting them in the crock pot??
Yes!
Incase anyone didn’t know, marshmallows don’t need more than a few seconds under the broiler. Eek. Nothing like a little excitement on Thanksgiving!
Did this for thanksgiving dinner. It was perfect! Rave reviews all around the table. Thanks!
Would you cook it for less time if you used canned yams?
This turned out amazing! It was so simple to throw together. I had multiple people ask me for the recipe. Definitely making it into my keeper pile!
You would cook it for less time because they are already cooked. Not sure the exact time, but just watch it closely.
Yes, in the ingredients it says peeled next to the sweet potatoes in the ingredients.
Would this recipe work w canned yams? If so how long would I cook them? Thanks.
Are you supposed to boil the sweet potatoes before doing this dish? I attempted to make this last Thanksgiving and I had such a difficult time with it since I didn’t boil the potatoes first 🙁
You don’t boil the sweet potatoes first with this recipe, that is why they cook so long in the slow cooker. Hope this helps.
Love Your recipes. I am a senior citizen and still enjoy baking & cooking. Love to try new recipes!
Please put me on your email list! Thanks and Happy Cooking!!!
I am really looking forward to making this!
I loved the orange glazed yams the Pirate’s House in Savannah served on Sunday afternoons when i lived there forty years ago. I tried making them a few times for our family dinners, but they didn’t catch on because my mom has always preferred the traditional candied yams and sweet potato casseroles. They will be on my Thanksgiving menu this year though, and I believe my grandchildren will love them as much as I did!
I have a couple questions. What size crockpot is this recipe for? Also, how many pounds of potatoes does it call for…they come in so many sizes and weights.
We used a 6 quart crock pot for this recipe. Your average sweet potato weighs about 5 to 6 ounces. We used 7 for this recipe.
what is the purpose of the marshmallows? It seems like it would be sweet enough without them.
Marshmallows and sweet potatoes always go hand in hand!!
Hi! I wanted to follow-up on this in case anyone else had the same questions I did – I doubled this recipe and used two crockpots. Cooked this the night before, mashed them up and put them in (disposable with a lid) pans and stuck them in the fridge. The next day I reheated them a little bit, then added the marshmellows, and continued to reheat them. They came out so yummy! I am making them again this year for Thanksgiving and bringing them to our Friendsgiving. I love this recipe! Thanks for sharing – Happy Holidays 🙂
Hi Erin! I’m so glad they turned out for you! Whew!! What a relief! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Has anyone tried this with yams instead of sweet potatoes? Also, I’m wondering if I can make the recipe in the slow cooker at my home, transfer them to a baking dish, and broil them at my folks’ house right before they’re served. Do you think that would work? Thanks!
I bought 6 large sweet potatoes and have a 6 quart crock pot. It is filled to the top with the potatoes. A half of cup of liquid does not seem like enough?
I am wondering the same thing! My sweet potatoes were quite large, should I double the liquid mixture?
Thanks so much for sharing this – I did figure out my potatoes were more like 11-12 oz size so I doubled the sauce accordingly as my crock was full! I used a crock pot liner and added marshmallows straight to the crock and removed it to put in the oven to broil the marshmallows to a beautiful golden brown! I’ve searched for a candied yam recipe for a crock for a long time to replace my southern favorite dish. My mother (from Louisiana originally) loved them ! Thanks again and hope your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving !
We made this for Thanksgiving and it was just about as big a hit as the turkey. My adult daughter, who only takes a “token bite” each year, LOVED this and has requested it for Christmas & Thanksgiving from now on. Thank you so much for a new family tradition.
May yams be successfully used instead of sweet potatoes in this recipe? Any adjustments required?
I just made this for Thanksgiving tomorrow and came out great from someone who doesn’t cook it came out so good. My husband is the cook of the family so I thank you so much for making this recipe easy and delicious for me to follow.
Yams work great too!
Has anyone tried using a culinary torch to brown the marshmallows?
Thank you for the recipe, can’t wait to try them.
Can this be made in an instant pot? If so, how long?
We wrote a post on converting recipes to Instant Pot. This should help. https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/how-to-convert-recipes-into-instant-pot-recipes/
We love this recipe so much! Are there any new directions to make this recipe in an instant pot?
I was skeptical at first and nervous to try something in the crockpot after only doing an oven version. It turned out fantastic and my Friendsgiving table loved it last November. I want more sauce next time so will figure out how to do that.
To the question about using canned yams. I tried it and I don’t recommend it. You will end up with “mushed” sweet potatoes.