Honey Glazed Carrots With Lemon and Thyme

Backstory

On my most recent post, Grilled New York Strip Steaks With Mushroom Cream Sauce, I served two side dishes with the main course: mashed potatoes and carrots. While I don’t have the exact recipe for the potatoes Chef Dasalla used, I took the carrots recipe from a birthday gift I received from my parents, The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook Third Edition.

This book is comprehensive, divided not only by course (Appetizers, Breakfast, Desserts, etc.) but also by ingredients (Pasta, Meats, Vegetables, etc.) and method of preparation (Grilling, Slow Cooker, Pressure Cooker, etc). It also has a section at the very beginning discussing common kitchen equipment (e.g. what to look for when purchasing a Dutch oven) and a lesson on safety and sanitation in the back. These guides appear to have been written after detailed consultation with professionals in the food service industry so I was surprised to see Test Kitchen Tips especially in the middle chapters discussing recipes that read similar to the one I found on page 191 in discussing the a baked risotto: “After a number of tests, we discovered the key to baking risotto was to use much less liquid than for its stove top counterpart.” which suggests that the authors of these recipes used a trial and error method of forming the published recipes. Wouldn’t it not be more efficient to consult those same professionals to determine the best way to prepare a dish?

Recipe

The base recipe for Glazed Carrots can be found on page 160 but the variation can be found on page 161. I have consolidated the two and doubled the recipe since I had about twice as many guests as servings in the recipe.

Ingredients

2 pounds baby carrots, cut into half-inch disks

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

3 tablespoons clover honey, divided

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into four equal size pieces

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

pepper

1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced

1 teaspoon lemon zest, grated

Method

1. Combine the carrots, broth, 1 tablespoon of the honey and salt in a 12 inch skillet. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue to cook covered, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are almost tender, approximately 5 minutes. Uncover the skillet and return to a boil. and continue to cook until the liquid has reduced to about 2 tablespoons, roughly 2 minutes.

Carrots Being Brought To A Boil

2. Stir in butter, the remaining 2 tablespoons honey, lemon zest and thyme. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the carrots are completely tender and the glaze is lightly golden, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from heat and stir in the lemon juice and pepper to taste.

Notes

1. Source. The link I provided above is slightly inaccurate in that the Backstory section is actually a link to the Revised Edition, not the Third. In reading that page there appears to be one additional section for light meals in the updated version, however I cannot confirm any other changes.

2. Recipe. My one criticism of the recipe is it isn’t well written because it doesn’t specify what temperature to cook the carrots. Ultimately I had to guess.

MasterChef Evaluation

Taste: 7

Ease of Preparation: 8

Sophistication: 7

Bottom Line: Not Yet

Final Thoughts

 As I cooked the dish on this particular evening, I would not use it on MasterChef, primarily because I really did not give the dish the attention it deserved. I had to manage the mushroom cream sauce for the New York strip steaks, in addition to entertaining party guests (thankfully, the mashed potatoes were finished or else I would have been managing them too) and I didn’t follow the directions precisely and I accidentally over cooked the carrots. One of my guests preferred his carrots on the softer side so that worked out well, however I need to prepare this dish again to work out the issues I had and I suspect I would use this recipe once I have done so. I also do not have a separate picture of  the plated carrots because I would use the same picture I used the last time.

Carrots Overcooked

Enjoy!