This cranberry orange sauce is a combination of tangy, sweet, fresh, and delicious. Serve it warm or cold. Perfect for holiday gatherings!

We love adding fresh cranberry sauce to our holiday dinners. It adds a burst of bright color to the table and gives us something traditional to look forward to.
Orange and cranberry are a wonderful pairing. From the tangy, sour cranberries to the refreshingly sweet orange, we get a wonderful depth of flavor that exceeds any cranberry sauce you'd find in a can.
Why This Recipe Works
- It's great hot or cold. I like eating this cranberry sauce both warm and cold, but I have to say warm is my favorite of the two. Something about it being served warm next to some turkey or ham just feels right.
- Leftover sauce is okay! You can use leftovers of this cranberry sauce with orange juice for recipes like sandwiches, casseroles, or cheesecake filling are also great ideas.
- Minimal ingredients. You only need 4 ingredients to make this homemade cranberry sauce. From the fresh cranberries to the fresh orange, this recipe is simple, basic, and truly delicious.
🥘 Ingredients
Whole Orange- For added freshness, you'll need an orange. This will give us some zest and some juice.
Cranberries- Use fresh cranberries (frozen ones are okay too!)
Brown Sugar- Sweeten up the cranberry sauce and give it a nice depth of flavor with some brown sugar.
Cinnamon- For added warm spice, you'll want to use some ground cinnamon.
For the exact amounts needed, please see the recipe card below.
🍽 Equipment Needed
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🔪 Instructions
Check out how to make cranberry orange sauce with these simple step-by-step instructions:
Zest about 2 teaspoons of orange zest off of your fresh orange and then squeeze out ¼ cup of fresh orange juice.
Over medium heat, combine your orange zest, juice, cinnamon, and brown sugar in a saucepan until dissolved.
Add in the fresh cranberries and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and let them simmer for 15 minutes until thickened.
Let cool completely and serve warm or chill for 3 hours before serving.
🍴 Recipe Tips
I love my cranberries to be whole in sauce, but others enjoy it mashed. While some berries will naturally burst throughout the cooking process and become mashed, others will be pretty whole in shape.
You can mash yours using the backside of a fork or a potato masher if desired. This depends on how you want the texture in this cranberry sauce recipe with orange juice to become. Less mashing means more whole berries and vice versa.
Also, cranberries naturally thicken liquids so if your cranberry sauce feels runny for whatever reason, continue cooking, and mash a few berries down. That should solve any of those issues.
💭 FAQs
Cranberry sauce is a sweetened and cooked mixture of cranberries served whole or smashed. Cranberry relish is a fresh (usually uncooked) mixture of cranberries and ingredients that have been pulverized in a blender or food processor and is more tart in flavor.
Absolutely! I like the molasses in brown sugar and how it rounds out the tartness from the berries, but white sugar works great too!
Homemade cranberry sauce can actually be held in the fridge for up to 2 weeks! Just keep stored in an airtight container in the fridge and use it whenever the mood strikes. This is also good news if you planned on making this cranberry orange sauce recipe in advance of a dinner party.
More Delicious Side Dish Recipes to Try Soon
📖 Recipe
Cranberry Orange Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 large Orange, zested (about 2 teaspoons) ($0.86)
- ¼ cup Orange juice ($0.14)
- 12 ounces Whole fresh cranberries ($0.99)
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground cinnamon ($0.02)
- ¼ cup Brown sugar ($0.09)
Instructions
- Zest orange and squeeze juice.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine orange zest, orange juice, cinnamon, and brown sugar until dissolved.
- Add in cranberries and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes or until thickened.
- Let cool completely and serve warm, or chill in the fridge for 3 hours before serving.
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