I guess I take pleasure in the little things because I get the most excited about this Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe out of all the Thanksgiving food every year! The amount of flavor that comes out of just three simple ingredients is unreal. And because homemade cranberry sauce is this easy to make, I’ve started making it as a side dish for my dinners all winter long. It’s great with so many different meals!
Need more easy Thanksgiving recipes? Check out our Easy Thanksgiving Dinner for Beginners guide!
Ingredients
Cranberry sauce is so incredibly easy to make that you’ll only need these simple ingredients:
- Cranberries: You can use fresh or frozen cranberries to make this sauce. Make sure to look for plump and firm cranberries and pass on any that look dull, mushy, or wrinkled.
- Sugar: Cranberries are incredibly tart on their own, so we’ll need a good dose of sugar to balance their tart flavor.
- Water: A little water helps the cranberries boil and creates a saucy texture with the sugar.
- Orange: This ingredient is optional, but I find that the addition of a little orange juice and a pinch of orange zest really adds a nice little dose of freshness on top of the bright cranberry flavor.
Sugar Substitutions
If you don’t want to use white sugar in your cranberry sauce, you can substitute the sugar with honey or maple syrup, keeping in mind that they will produce slightly different flavors and textures in the final sauce. And while I have seen recipes that use sugar-free sweeteners, like stevia or erythritol, I have not tried making cranberry sauce with these ingredients myself.
What Else Can I Add?
This simple cranberry sauce recipe can be modified in various ways to add other flavors. Here are some other ingredients you can add to cranberry sauce to make it your own:
- Jalapeños
- Red wine
- Apples
- Figs
- Raspberries
- Cinnamon or Nutmeg
- Vanilla extract
- Cloves
- Ginger
- Balsamic vinegar
How to Store Leftovers
This cranberry sauce holds up beautifully in the refrigerator, so feel free to make it a day or two ahead of your Thanksgiving meal. It will stay good in the refrigerator for about 4-5 days, or you can freeze it for up to three months.
How to Use – Thanksgiving and Beyond
We all know and love cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving turkey, but it’s also awesome served in other ways! Try adding it to chicken, stirring it into your oatmeal, adding it on top of buttered toast or an English muffin, on top of a bagel with cream cheese, or even on some vanilla ice cream! And you can use it to make my favorite Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip for New Year’s Eve. ;)
Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Servings 6 (1/2 cup each)Ingredients
- 12 oz. fresh or frozen cranberries ($2.00)
- 1/2 cup sugar ($0.18)
- 1 cup water ($0.00)
- 1 small orange ($0.99)
Instructions
- Add the sugar and water to a medium saucepot. Stir to combine. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Rinse the cranberries, then add them to the boiling sugar water, and place a lid on top. Allow the water to come back up to a boil, at which point the cranberries will begin to pop.
- Once all the cranberries have popped, remove the lid, give it a stir, and turn the heat down to medium-low. Let the pot continue to simmer over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the cranberries have completely broken down and the mixture has thickened. You can simmer longer if you prefer an extra thick cranberry sauce.
- While the cranberries simmer, zest and juice the orange
- Once the cranberry sauce has thickened, remove it from the heat and stir in2 Tbsp orange juice and 1/4 tsp zest to the sauce. Allow the sauce to cool slightly, then serve.
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Nutrition
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Try serving this homemade cranberry sauce over a wheel of baked brie for an extra special holiday treat!
How to Make – Step by Step Photos
Start by adding 1/2 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a medium sauce pot. Stir to combine, then place the pot over medium heat and allow it to come to a boil.
While waiting for the water and sugar to boil, rinse one 12oz. package of fresh cranberries. You can actually use either fresh or frozen cranberries for this recipe. If using frozen, just allow them to thaw first. Add the rinsed cranberries to the boiling sugar water. Place a lid on top and allow it to return to a boil.
When the pot returns to a boil the cranberries will begin to pop (that’s why you need a lid). Once all of the cranberries have popped, remove the lid, give it a good stir, and reduce the heat to medium-low.
Continue to let the cranberries simmer over medium-low, without a lid, until they have broken down and thickened (about 5-7 minutes). Stir the mixture occasionally as it simmers.
While the cranberries are simmering, zest and juice one small orange. You’ll only need about ¼ tsp zest and 2 Tbsp juice unless you really like citrus and then you can measure with your heart!
Stir the juice and zest into the cooked cranberry sauce.
Stir everything together then let it cool slightly (it will thicken as it cools). Then it’s ready to serve! You can make this a day or two ahead of time if needed.
Fresh cranberry sauce is so delicious and you can put it on just about anything. Of course, it is good on all of the usual Thanksgiving items but don’t forget it on your turkey sandwich the next day! Because it is so jam-like it’s also amazing on a piece of toast with butter in the morning. Try it over ice cream too! What do you put your cranberry sauce on?
I like to put a cinnamon stick in mine and for extra fun a fourth of a cup of Jack Daniels!
Way to add your own twist!
I made this this sauce this weekend with the Turkey Stuffing meatballs. I used a blood orange instead of a regular orange. Was a huge hit.
Oh that sounds like a delicious swap.
If I’m only able to access frozen cranberries, would those work with maybe just less water? Thank you!
Yes, those should work just fine and you shouldn’t need to reduce the water. :)
Can this be strained in order to avoid the skin of the cranberries.?
Yes you certainly could put it through a fine mesh strainer. You may have to push it through some with a spatula.
This cranberry sauce is so delicious and easy to make. I love the combination of orange and cranberry flavors
I love to put left overs on homemade plain yogurt, so yummy!!
I do this using orange juice instead of water. Then you don’t need to zest and juice and orange yourself ;)
I sub it out one for one with water, but you may do a split or adjust the sugar depending on tastes.
Love that idea!
Can this be used on meat, such as turkey, steak? Also would this be good on a cheese cake?
Yes, you can use it for either of those purposes. :)
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G RECIPE!!!!! VERY DELICIOUS!
THANK YOU FOR THIS RECIPE!!!!
This was an excellent addition to our Thanksgiving lineup this year–and so cheap and easy! Thanks for the recipe.
I am getting ready to make this for the second Thanksgiving in a row. Cranberry sauce is the unsung hero of Thanksgiving, and this recipe is far superior to the stuff in a can! Thank you for another easy and delicious recipe.
For this, instead of sugar can you use honey. And if you do is it the same ratio (so also half a cup of honey)? Thank you
I’ve never tried it with honey. Sometimes, especially with thickened sauces like this, honey and sugar are not exactly interchangeable because they have different moisture contents and molecular structures. I’d have to do some experimenting before I could say for sure.
Making this right now and it was so easy! Great Thanksgiving recipe (and much better than the stuff in the can).
LOL–I feel your cranberry sauce photo pain! I had similar problems getting a good shot. I like your recipe–mine is similar but I’ve never tried adding lime! I use the zest of the orange too and stir in toasted pecans just before serving. I think I’ll try the lime next time and leave out the pecans.
BTW, the picture of this does not do it justice. I found out the hard way that cranberry sauce is extremely difficult to photograph. It seems to trap the light inside so that it ends up looking like a luminous magenta blob when in real life it is deep red and gorgeous. I swear!