This Cranberry-Orange Sauce Belongs on Your Thanksgiving Table

glass bowl of cranberry-orange sauce

Three ingredients. Three steps. Cranberry sauce doesn’t get any simpler, or more delicious. We’d say it goes great on leftover turkey sandwiches, but we have a feeling there won’t actually be any leftovers.

Cranberry-Orange Sauce Recipe

Yield: approximately 4 cups

Ingredients

  • 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 pound whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
  • Two 2″ strips of orange zest (optional)
  • Instructions

    1. Make Your Base

    In a large saucepan, combine orange juice and brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

    2. Pop the Cranberries

    Add cranberries and turn the heat up to high. If you’re adding orange zest, toss that in now. Cook until the cranberries start to burst, then turn the heat down to medium to prevent splatters. Continue cooking until most of the cranberries have “popped.” This should take about 10 minutes.

    3. Prepare to Feast

    Transfer the cranberries to a bowl and allow to cool and thicken. Remove any strips of orange zest, and you’re done! Cranberry sauce keeps in the fridge for several days, and it can be frozen.

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    5 Responses to “This Cranberry-Orange Sauce Belongs on Your Thanksgiving Table”

    1. Joyce Gillespie

      Love this

    2. Jessica Tropp

      Why so much brown sugar? I use an overripe pear or persimmon. Yes still sugar. Just not processed and much lower glycemic, especially since I keeo the skin on. It does take a while to adjust to less sweet foods.

    3. Mary DeCoff

      I made this yesterday for today. I added a pinch of nutmeg. It was / is fabulous. Will be my go to instead of cranberry orange relish.

    4. Thomas McCombe

      This looks much easier than I thought I will be giving it a try and let you know how it turns out thank you.

    5. Suzanne Bettridge

      I prepared this sauce last Thanksgiving. It was delicious!