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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I don’t know where in the world you have been my whole cooking life, but I’m so very glad to have stumbled (upon) your site via Zite. I have cooked some pretty awful things from recipies found on many cooking blogs and sites, well known and not so well known. I started to think it was me! Ha! I swear any recipie I have cooked fom your site has been the most delish food. That my whole family loves. I think I have based my entire Thanksgiving menu on just your recipies, except for my moms pecan pie. Thank You for all your wonderful recipies and your obvious talent as a chef. I’m so excited to try as many as I can over time. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Thanks
Thanks for the nice words Diana and Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Wonderful sauce. Very happy. I used 1/2 cup instead of 3/4 and it was totally fine. Great recipe.
I just made this during my lunch break while working from home today and it is AMAZING! yummmm! Thank you for your recipes 🙂 I can’t wait to share with my family on Thursday!
Hello Jen…listen, they don’t have cranberry in parts of Mexico where I’m going. Do you have any other suggestions?
Hi Angel, Unfortunately, I can’t think of any good substitute in this case. Sorry!
This was perfect! I so enjoyed this and it got better with a night in the fridge. Thank you for perfecting the recipe, before I made it!
Try cherries maybe?
As a single Mom I love quick and easy recipes that taste great. My kids and I usually get the cranberry relish at our local market, but seeing this recipe I wanted to try it. It was great! Both of my kids love it and have labeled it their new fav. It was easy and I liked that it was homemade. We used it in our turkery and bacon sandwiches and it really added to the flavor.
Easy and perfect! Simplicity at its best!
Very nice sauce. I love it and make it even off season:)
Hi Jen,
Can’t wait to try this for Christmas Eve dinner…along with your curried carrots, roasted Brussel sprouts, and sausage stuffing, Tried your Baby Kale salad for Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit! We normally don’t do salad with such a heavy meal but glad I did and will do it again for Christmas Eve. I’m such a fan! Thank you. Marty
Thanks, Marty! So glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
I have been making a similar recipe for years (learned from my mother to puree an entire orange in the food processor and add with cranberries). This year, I decided to give this recipe a try. Much easier and similar results. I used a few clementines instead of the orange as that is what I had on hand. Delicious and so refreshing. We will be making this all winter and as long as cranberries are available at the market.
Liesel: My Mom used to used a old fashioned hand food grinder The kind you have to screw onto a counter. Whole Oranges, Cranberries, way too much sugar and unflavored gelatin. I hated it. This recipe is the best and we use it every holiday and anytime we crave Turkey mayo and cranberry sandwiches. This year a double batch!
This was delicious! It was a big hit at Thanksgiving. Only thing I did different was that I didn’t have enough sugar that the recipe required (too much baking haha), so I ended up doing half a cup of sugar and measured out the remainder with brown sugar… surprisingly, the brown sugar ended up giving the cranberry sauce an addition level of flavor. I liked it a lot. I left out the orange zest because my orange was not organic.