Orange Cranberry Sauce Recipe + Video

Brighten up your Thanksgiving feast with this delicious homemade cranberry sauce with bright zesty pop of flavor. This beautiful cranberry sauce has pure cranberry flavor with just enough sweetness to balance the tartness.

{scroll down for video tutorial}

I have a confession. I’ve never had a canned cranberry sauce. At least, not that I know of.

No, not because I’m a snob, or purist, or both. (Sometimes, I can be, but not in this case.)

I simply didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving long enough, I guess. If you’ve been around for a little bit, you know I’m originally from Mongolia. And I didn’t grow up celebrating Thanksgiving, let alone eating cranberry sauce.

When I started hosting my own Thanksgiving dinner 6 years ago, I didn’t serve cranberry sauce for the first couple of years. No one complained, and I sure wasn’t missing anything.

Well, that was until I made my very first homemade cranberry sauce from A Cozy Kitchen. It was so good, everyone in the family raved about it for days.

And over the years, I made my own changes to the sauce, but definitely kept the zesty flavor. In fact, I boosted it by adding more orange zest and orange liquor! It’s simply amazing.

Why I don’t use orange juice in this cranberry sauce recipe?

Sure, you can use orange juice in place of water, but you’ll need to decrease the sugar amount. Otherwise, it’ll be too sweet. But the real reason I don’t use orange juice is that I like to keep it simple. I don’t usually buy orange juice to drink, and I sure don’t want to mess with squeezing oranges during this already busy season. Plain and simple! 😉 And this orange cranberry sauce is plenty zesty without it!

Why bother with homemade cranberry sauce, when you can buy a perfectly good one from the store?

Well, is it really perfectly good one? Try this cranberry sauce recipe and be the judge. (And I’d love to hear your verdict.)

Couple of perks of making your own cranberry sauce:

• It’s ridiculously easy to make homemade cranberry sauce. Handful of ingredients and 15 minutes of your time!
• And you can make it a few days ahead. See? It doesn’t even increase your to-do list for the big day!

Now I can’t imagine the whole Thanksgiving feast without zesty, tart n’ sweet cranberry sauce. Hope you won’t miss out on this fabulous side this coming Thanksgiving.

And here’s a quick video demo for ya (not that you need it, but just for fun!):

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Orange Cranberry Sauce

This beautiful cranberry sauce with bright zesty pop of flavor has pure cranberry flavor with just enough sweetness to balance the tartness.

Yield: 2 cups

Prep Time:5min

Cook Time:10min

Total Time:15min

Ingredients:

• 1 (12oz) bag cranberries (fresh or frozen*)
• 1 cup (240ml) water
• 1 cup (200gr) sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 cinnamon stick
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons orange liqueur (I used Grand Marnier)

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, water, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon stick and salt.
2. Simmer the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. The sauce should be slightly thickened, but still runny. It’ll thicken more as it cools.
3. Remove from heat and discard cinnamon stick.
4. Stir in orange liqueur.
5. Cool completely and serve.

*If using frozen cranberries, no need to thaw it.

Make Ahead Tip: The sauce can be made up to a week ahead. Transfer into an airtight container and refrigerate. Bring it to room temperature before serving (about 30 minutes on the counter).

All images and text ©Shinee D. for Sweet & Savory by Shinee

Nutrition Information

Yield: 2 cups, Serving Size: 1/4 cup

• Amount Per Serving:
• Calories: 131 Calories
• Total Fat: 0.1g
• Sodium: 75.4mg
• Carbohydrates: 32.1g
• Fiber: 2.2g
• Sugar: 28.1g
• Protein: 0.2g

All photographs and content on Sweet & Savory by Shinee is copyright protected, unless otherwise noted. Please do not use any of my photos without my authorization. If you would like to share my recipe, you may re-write the recipe in your own words, or simply link back to this post for the full directions. Thank you for your cooperation!