Cranberry Sauce
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Bright, tangy, and just sweet enough, this easy cranberry sauce recipe comes together in just 15 minutes.
I’ll admit, the jiggly, can-shaped cranberry sauce has a certain nostalgic charm, but homemade cranberry sauce is truly in a league of its own—and it couldn’t be easier to make. This cranberry sauce recipe combines fresh or frozen cranberries with orange juice and zest for a bright, sweet-tart flavor that’s perfect with roast turkey. Best of all, it can be made well ahead of time, which is one less thing to think about on Thanksgiving Day.
“This is my go-to cranberry sauce…I am now passing it on to my children and grandchildren. A treasured family recipe.”
What You’ll Need To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce
- Fresh or frozen cranberries: Fresh are ideal when in season, but frozen work just as well and don’t need to be thawed first. Avoid dried cranberries; they won’t break down properly or give the sauce the right texture.
- Orange juice and zest: The juice balances the cranberries’ tartness, while the zest adds concentrated orange flavor. Be sure to zest the oranges before juicing them.
- Sugar: Cranberries are extremely tart, so sugar is needed to balance the flavor.
- Water: Helps dissolve the sugar and gives the cranberries room to boil and burst without scorching.
- Salt: Just a pinch rounds out the sweetness and keeps the sauce from tasting flat.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How To Make Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Combine the water, orange juice, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the cranberries, orange zest, and salt, then simmer gently until most of the berries have burst and the sauce has thickened. Mash a few berries with a spoon if needed. The sauce will look looser than you might expect when it comes off the heat. It thickens considerably as it cools and even more once refrigerated.
Cranberry Sauce Variations
- Cinnamon-Orange: Add a cinnamon stick along with the cranberries and remove it before serving.
- Cranberry-Apple: Stir in one peeled, diced apple during the last 5 minutes of cooking.
- Cranberry-Walnut or Pecan: Fold in ½ cup toasted, chopped nuts after the sauce has finished cooking.
- Boozy: Stir in a splash of port, bourbon, or orange liqueur once the sauce is off the heat.
Video Tutorial
More Holiday Side Dishes You’ll Love
Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup fresh orange juice, from two oranges
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 (12-oz) bag fresh or frozen cranberries (do not use dried)
- Zest of one orange, about 2 teaspoons
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan over high heat, bring the water, orange juice, and sugar to a boil. Add the cranberries, orange zest, and salt and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and boil gently for 10 to 12 minutes, until most of cranberries have burst open. (You may need to mash them a bit with a spoon.)
- Transfer the sauce to a serving bowl. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you’re following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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Just made this… so simple and flavorful why would you ever buy remade?! Lots of ways to customize as others have said but I find the contrast with the rest of the meal is perfect as is!! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone
Just made it, and added a sprig of thyme, and one clove of garlic. So excited!
This is amazingly good. I added fresh ground nutmeg. Definitely a keeper.
Very easy and delicious. A little too sweet for me so I added some grated fresh ginger and some finely minced rosemary plus a dash of cayenne.
This is the best recipe and I’ve tried many others. It has the perfect consistency (not to thick or runny). It’s a family fav and I’ll be making it on Wed am so the flavors can mesh perfectly by Thanksgiving dinner.
First time making cranberry sauce and thought this would be an easy first try. It was! The result tasted great. It was a little more “saucy” than I hoped, but I’m guessing just a bit less water would have made it perfect.
Glad you like it, Christina! It will firm up as it cools.
Indeed! Cranberries have a lot of natural pectin in them. Other members of the Heath family do as well (blueberries, huckleberries, etc.). I once used a cranberry sauce recipe that called for a whole apple. It was delicious, but got super thick in the refrigerator.
Hi Jenn,
Would this Cranberry Orange Sauce recipe be enough for 10 people, or should I double it?
Thank you for your time…You Rock !!!!
To serve 10, I’d recommend making 1.5 times the recipe. 🙂
My rind is quite chewy. Is that how it should be?
Hi, You don’t want to use all the rind (which would be chewy), just the zest which is the very top layer of the skin on the orange peel.
Dear Jennifer,
I would love to make this to accompany a dinner of roast spatchcocks. However, here in Australia there are no fresh cranberries available (they only have dried cranberries).
Would it be possible to substitute cranberries for cherries in this recipe? If so, are there any other changes I should account for (amount of orange juice/zest etc.)?
Hi Gayathiri, Although I’ve never tried it, I think you could get away with using cherries, but you will likely need less sugar. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
This is fantastic!! Jenn knocked another one out of the park! I used Simply Orange juice and no zest. It tastes great. High altitude required 14 minutes cooking time.
Best cranberry sauce ever! Everybody loved it!
This cranberry sauce is the way to go! So much better than canned (it is not hard to make your own cranberry sauce, and the orange juice makes such a better cranberry sauce than traditional recipes recommending that you add water. The orange zest is just the perfect compliment to the cranberry sauce. We like to add a little cinnamon into ours for some fuller holiday flavors
Delicious, fresh, cranberry sauce. Made this for the first time, and my grandson commented on the citrus being a nice addition to the traditional sauce that I usually make. A new holiday tradition for this family!