Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce

The Best Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe – good sweet and tangy cranberry sauce in less than 15 minutes with one pot!

At Avdaye, we add lots of tips in all of our recipes – because we are a home cook without any formal training, and we find we are more confident making dishes when we understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. Our goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

Cranberry Orange Thanksgiving Sauce

This easy cranberry sauce combines fresh cranberries, sugar, and orange juice for a good, simple, and fresh cranberry sauce that is done in under 15 minutes in one pot.

If you love canned cranberry sauce, you won't believe how easy it is to make your own cranberry sauce at home – dump the ingredients in a pot, stir, and cook!

This recipe is a tried and tested classic from our family – we hope you love it as much as we do!

How To Make Cranberry Sauce with Orange Juice

Orange juice is the solid addition to cranberry sauce – it is sweet, a little tart, and brings a truly festive and good kick to pair with the cranberry flavor.

Orange juice is a great way to counteract some of the bitterness in cranberries, while still adding flavor and some sweetness.

We personally prefer to use freshly squeezed orange juice, but you can use your favorite variety.

For even more orange flavor, you can add freshly grated orange zest to the cranberry sauce – it is beautiful and brings a bright, citrusy kick!

Keto Cranberry Sauce:

If you're sticking to a low carb diet, fruit isn't something you grab on a regular basis – but with a few simple modifications, this recipe will fit into your keto diet as long as you don't over-indulge.

Think of this as a holiday treat with no added sugar more than an everyday staple into your diet… a spoonful will do to bring cranberry flavor to your Thanksgiving dinner.

For the Sugar:

Swap 1 cup sugar for 1 cup xylitol or swerve

Swap 1 cup sugar for 2 tsp liquid stevia

For the Orange juice:

Use a low sugar orange juice or fresh squeezed orange juice

Use 2 tbsp orange zest and replace orange juice with water.

Kitchen notes

Easy cranberry sauce is one of the best parts of Thanksgiving – so we are providing lots of tips and tricks to be sure yours turns out fabulously!

Add water and sugar first, stir to dissolve sugar in water so it doesn't burn on bottom of pan.

Add cranberries after water starts to boil to prevent sticking to bottom of pan.

If you accidentally over-reduce sauce, add up to ½ cup water to loosen sauce up.

Let cool completely before serving for thicker sauce.

Keep over medium heat, stirring occasionally as cranberries start to burst and cook down.

Serve at room temperature.

Keeping leftovers

Big Thanksgiving dinners often come with lots of leftovers – so we are adding tips on storing homemade cranberry sauce so it's ready for all of your leftover turkey meals!

For freezing, we often add cranberry sauce to an ice cube tray for solid single-serving portions we can pop out and let naturally defrost for meals later in the week.

To store in the fridge, use a small airtight container and keep no more than four days.

To Make This Easy Cranberry Sauce, You'll Need

Medium Saucepan

Nonstick spoon or stirring spatula

–? Cup Sugar

½ Cup Orange Juice

¼ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

? Teaspoon Kosher Salt

12 oz fresh cranberries

Orange zest, optional

Other Easy Thanksgiving Recipes you'll Love:

If you love this easy cranberry sauce recipe, you can love our other Thanksgiving favorites!

Click the links to find each easy printable recipe:

Brown Bag Herb Roasted Turkey

One Pot Mushroom & Sausage Stuffing

Pan Fried Brussels Sprouts with Ghee

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup with Hazelnuts

Easy No Knead Bread

Sheetpan Roasted Green Beans Almondine

Other good Cranberry Recipes

If you love fresh cranberries in fall, you can love these other easy cranberry recipes!

Click each link to find the easy printable recipes:

Cranberry Apple Sangria and Virgin Sangria

Slow Cooker Orange Cranberry Ginger Glazed Ham

Cranberry Moonshine

Zucchini Pine Nut & Cranberry Paleo Pasta

Easy Roasted Brussels with Cranberries Recipe

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Ingredients

• ⅔ cup sugar
• ½ cup orange juice, no sugar added or freshly squeezed
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
• 12 oz fresh cranberries

Method

1. Combine the sugar, orange juice, 1/2 cup water, the cinnamon, salt and cranberries in a medium saucepan.
2. Bring up to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 15 minutes.
3. Let cool completely before serving.