This cranberry orange sauce is a 5 ingredient recipe that’s made with fresh cranberries, orange juice and orange zest for a sweet and tangy sauce. Cranberry orange sauce is a fresh, bright tasting accompaniment to any holiday meal.
I always make homemade cranberry sauce for the holidays, along with some of our other Thanksgiving favorites like rice pilaf and slow cooker turkey. This easy cranberry orange sauce takes just minutes to make and is way better than the store bought canned kind.
While it’s definitely easy to grab a can of cranberry sauce for the holidays, making your own fresh sauce takes just about 10 minutes and the flavors are just SO much better. It is one of my favorite side dishes for Thanksgiving. If you want more Thanksgiving recipes check out my slow cooker creamed corn, zucchini casserole and Thanksgiving stuffing. This sauce is also great for Christmas dinner.
If you have cranberry lovers in the house, you’ll also want to try my recipes for cranberry bread, cranberry muffins, cranberry orange pull apart monkey bread and eggnog cake which you can decorate with candied cranberries.
Table of Contents
Cranberry Orange Sauce Ingredients
To make cranberry orange sauce you will need sugar, orange juice, cranberries, orange zest and salt.
How Do You Make Cranberry Orange Sauce?
To make this cranberry orange sauce dish, first place sugar and orange juice in a medium pan over medium high heat until it simmers. Add cranberries, orange zest and a pinch of salt and cook everything until the cranberries burst. Finally, let the sauce cool and store it for later or serve it for dinner!
Tips For The Perfect Sauce
- You can either add all the cranberries in at once, or add 3/4, then stir in 1/4 later on so that there are some whole berries in the final sauce.
- I like to use fresh squeezed orange juice whenever possible.
- You can garnish your sauce with strips or orange peel or thin slices of orange.
- I like to use a microplane to zest an orange. If you don’t have a microplane you can use a grater with fine teeth or a vegetable peeler. Just remove the orange part of the peel and avoid the bitter, white rind. If you use a vegetable peeler, you’ll want to peel off a chunk of orange peel, then mince it with a kitchen knife.
Quick Tip
I prefer fresh cranberries, but frozen cranberries will also work fine.
Recipe FAQs
You can make cranberry orange sauce up to 3 days before you plan to serve it. I always make my cranberry sauce at least one day in advance because I feel like the flavors have more time to develop as they sit in the fridge.
You can freeze cranberry orange sauce for up to one month before you plan to serve it. Simply reheat your cranberry sauce over medium heat in a skillet. Freezing the sauce introduces more water into the mix, so your cranberry sauce will not be as thick as when it was originally made. You can simmer your sauce for about 5-6 minutes to let some of the liquid evaporate off.
Cranberry sauce lasts in an airtight container in a refrigerator up to 7 days.
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Flavor Variations
This is a delicious orange cranberry sauce recipe, but you can add other ingredients to customize it to your liking.
- Ginger: Add 1 tablespoon finely minced crystallized ginger to the sauce.
- Pineapple: Add 1 cup canned crushed pineapple.
- Apple: Add one peeled and diced apple.
- Pecans: Add 1/4 cup diced pecans.
- Pear: Add one peeled and diced pear.
- Maple: For a sweeter sauce, add 1 tablespoon of maple syrup.
- Honey: You can add a tablespoon of honey to the sauce.
How To Use Leftover Cranberry Orange Sauce
I typically don’t have a ton of cranberry sauce leftover, but if you find yourself with extra, you can spoon it over waffles or pancakes, serve it on top of oatmeal, or try one of these other delicious ideas.
- Cranberry Meatballs
- Cranberry Yogurt Parfaits with vanilla yogurt, cranberry sauce and chopped pecans.
- Cranberry Jello Salad
- Turkey and Cranberry Sauce Sandwiches
The flavors in this cranberry sauce are so delicious that you won’t be tempted to buy the canned version again!
More Thanksgiving Recipes
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Southern Cornbread Dressing
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Bacon Green Bean Bundles
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Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows
1 hr 50 mins
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Cranberry Orange Sauce
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup orange juice fresh squeezed is best
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries frozen will also work
- 2 teaspoons orange zest plus more for garnish
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Place the sugar and orange juice in a medium pan over medium high heat. Bring to a simmer.
- Add the cranberries, orange zest and salt, then simmer for 8-10 minutes or until cranberries have burst. If you prefer a chunkier sauce, add 3/4 of the berries, then after the cranberries have burst, stir the remaining 1/4 berries in.
- Let the cranberry orange sauce sit at room temperature until cool, then transfer to a container and store in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.
Notes
- I prefer fresh cranberries, but frozen cranberries will also work fine.
- You can either add all the cranberries in at once, or add half, then stir in half later on so that there are some whole berries in the final sauce.
- I like to use fresh squeezed orange juice whenever possible.
A teaspoon of vanilla is nice in cranberry sauce. Chopped walnuts too.
This is absolutely the best cranberry sauce ever! It got rave reviews at Thanksgiving. I made it again today just as before but added some sushi ginger that i finely chipped and a teaspoon of vanilla. Both ways are wonderful!
Hi my name is Amanda my grand mother whom is no longer with us. She was so supper amazing. She use to make this recipe every year
This recipe was quite easy and very tasty. I’m not sure if I was supposed to cover pot while simmering, but I had to cover and cook at least 7 minutes longer and smash up the cranberries a bit.
The best recipe for cranberry sauce. We don’t like sickly sweet sauces nor do we like the consistency of normal cranberry sauce. This recipe adds orange with just a bit of sweetness for both perfect flavor and consistently. We added 1/4 of berries at the end to keep it chunky. Love this and it will now be a year round favorite as I’m buying more bags of cranberries to keep in the freezer as you suggested! Thanks so much!