Cranberry Orange Sauce (2024)

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.

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.

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!