This easy cranberry sauce recipe is a keeper! It has a pure cranberry flavor with just enough sweetness to balance the tartness. Plus, you can also make it in an Instant Pot, detailed directions included!
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love homemade cranberry sauce:
There’s so much to love about this cranberry sauce recipe.
- Texture: Not too thin, not too thick. Perfectly spreadable, yet with chunks of fruit throughout!
- Flavor: Not overly sweet with a hint of orange, this sauce has a perfect balance of sweet and tart!
- Difficulty: Super easy, one pot recipe that requires only 15 minutes!!
- Make-ahead: This sauce freezes great, which makes it a perfect make-ahead Thanksgiving side dish.
Key Ingredient Notes:
- Cranberries – Both fresh or frozen will work for this recipe. You don’t need to thaw frozen ones.
- Sugar balances out the tartness. You may reduce the sugar amount slightly, but as written, the sauce isn’t overly sweet.
- Orange zest adds such a delicious flavor to the sauce! Make sure to zest only the orange part and avoid the bitter white pith.
- Orange liquor amplifies the zesty flavor. I use Grand Marnier, but any orange liquor would work fine.
How to make this recipe:
- In a medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients except for orange liquor. Bring it to a boil
- 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.
- Remove from heat and discard cinnamon stick.
- Stir in orange liqueur. Cool completely and serve.
Why I don’t use orange juice in this recipe?
Sure, you can substitute orange juice for water, but I’d 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. That’s it, plain and simple! 😉 And this orange cranberry sauce is plenty zesty without it!
How to make cranberry sauce in Instant Pot:
It’s so easy and quick to make cranberry sauce in Instant Pot.
- Put all the ingredients, except orange liquor, in inner pot of Instant Pot. Note: we’re using only 1/2 cup of water.
- Set it for 1 minute on high pressure. Let the pot release the pressure naturally.
- Then set the pot to sauté and cook for about 5 minutes to thicken. That’s it!!!
I’ll include detailed instructions in the recipe card below.
FAQ:
It’s a trick question, isn’t it? I’m sure we can debate about this till end of time. But since I confessed I’ve never tried canned cranberry, I’ll let you be the judge. Try this cranberry sauce recipe and let me know your verdict.
Orange Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 bag (12oz/340g) cranberries washed Note 1
- 1 cup (240ml) water Note 2
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 2 tablespoons orange liquor such as Grand Marnier
Instructions
Stovetop method:
- In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, water, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon stick and salt.
- 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.
- Remove from heat and discard cinnamon stick.
- Stir in orange liqueur.
- Cool completely and serve.
Instant Pot method:
- To make it in Instant Pot: Put all the ingredients, except for orange liquor, in inner pot of Instant Pot. (Note: only add ½ cup of water.)
- Set the Instant Pot to Manual/Pressure Cook for 1 minute on High. (It took about 8 minutes for my IP to come to pressure.)
- Once the time is up, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, which means you don’t need to do anything. Then carefully turn the valve to venting. Once the pin drops, carefully open the lid.
- Hit “cancel” button, and then select “sauté” function. Stir in orange liqueur and cook the sauce for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until thickened. Transfer into a jar and cool completely.
Tips & Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on October 26, 2017, and last updated on November 20, 2019.
I just love cranberry sauce–all year long. This year my Insta Pot made it so fuss free. To one bag of cranberries I add a half cup of sweet red wine and whatever orange juice is called for. No water. I use brown sugar instead of white. I ladle it into small refrigerator containers. I keeps very well for a year in my refrigerator.
The addition of red wine sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing your feedback, Betty!
This looks delicious! Is there anything I could use to replace the orange liqueur? Thank you
Hi, Jaye. You can omit it, if you want.