Honey & Tequila Glazed Carrots

My best friend has been making traditional glazed carrots for years around the holidays. Baby carrots, brown sugar and butter, baked till soft. It is simple, classic, and amazingly scrumptious. Since there is no way I could ever improve upon her recipe, I decided to take it in a new direction.

Actually, that sounds more altruistic than it is. In reality, I had planned on using up a small bag of carrots with her exact recipe, only to find out I had no brown sugar in the pantry. Never fear though, for I always keep a large stock of honey on hand. But honey and butter as a glaze on their own seemed a little lackluster to me. That's when I noticed the bottle of tequila sitting on the back counter.

The recipe is still simple. Preheat the oven to 350. I used about ten small carrots, peeled and cut into one inch diagonal sections, but baby carrots would suffice. Just make sure you have enough carrots to cover the bottom of whatever baking dish you have without piling them too deep. Boil the carrots in enough salted water to just cover them for about fifteen minutes or until they are just starting to soften.

While the carrots are boiling, prepare the glaze: one stick of unsalted butter, a quarter cup of honey, and a tablespoon or so of your favorite tequila. Heat until the butter melts, stirring often, then remove from the heat and set aside. At this point you can take a shot of tequila for yourself. This step is optional.

Remove the carrots from the water and let them drain on a papertowel. This step is important in order for the glaze to stick. If you peeled your own carrots as I did, this will also give you a chance to find and remove any errant skin remnants.

Once the carrots are dry, put them in your baking dish (the one I used was 8" square) and cover with the glaze. Stir to coat, then place the dish, uncovered, in the oven. After fifteen minutes, stir the carrots again to make sure all bits are glazed, then cook an additional fifteen minutes.

Remove from the oven and let it sit for a solid ten or fifteen minutes to firm up, then enjoy. If carrots were candy this is what they would taste like.