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Cranberry Orange Sauce is a delicious combination of sweet and tart, with a refreshing orange flavor, and the perfect accompaniment to all your holiday meals.
Table of Contents
Why We Love This Recipe
This sweet and tangy Homemade Cranberry Orange Sauce will be the perfect compliment to your Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing and it makes a fantastic relish for leftover turkey sandwiches. Plus you can make a double batch and use it for Cranberry Fluff Salad, too!
Say goodbye to cranberry sauce from a can and hello to this perfectly sweet and tart homemade cranberry orange sauce. With just a few ingredients and about 15 minutes of cooking time, it’s so easy to make at home.
Want a delicious holiday breakfast idea? Try topping Pumpkin Pancakes with this cranberry relish, or mix it into your oatmeal, yogurt or smoothies. It will blow your mind!
Cranberry Orange Sauce Recipe Ingredients
- Fresh Cranberries – this is the base of your sauce. Make sure you buy fresh and not frozen.
- Oranges – You need two mandarin oranges. Peel them, removing as much of the strings of white pith as you can.
- Orange extract or orange zest – If you don’t have orange extract, or don’t want to purchase a bottle, you can zest a couple of navel oranges and use that instead.
- Water – for boiling.
- Sugar – to sweeten the sauce.
How To Make Cranberry Orange Sauce From Scratch
- Add sugar and water to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Add oranges, cranberries, and orange extract and continue to simmer over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes. Stir it around a few times. The cranberries will begin popping and releasing all of their yummy juices.
- Remove from the heat and let sit for about 20 minutes to cool. Once the sauce is completely cooled, store it for up to a week in an airtight container in the fridge.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Homemade sauce freezes beautifully. Pour into a freezer safe container or bag (squeeze out extra air), label it, and place it into the freezer for up to 2 months for the best quality. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight and you are ready to roll.
Cranberry sauce is best served as a chilled relish or side dish. It can be served at room temperature.
Cranberry sauce can be served with a variety of proteins, including turkey, chicken, pork, or ham. It is most often served at holiday meals, traditionally Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinner, and is rarely served at other times.
Don’t forget the turkey!
Get the best roast turkey recipe, plus TONS of tips!
Storage
Refrigerate: Leftover cranberry sauce should be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
Freeze: Transfer to a freezer-safe airtight container or resealable plastic freezer bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Freeze for up to 2-3 months and thaw overnight in the fridge.
Expert Tips
- We think this sauce has just the right amount of sweetness, however if you want a more tart flavor, reduce the amount of sugar to ½ a cup or less.
- When you peel and chop the oranges, be sure to remove the white pith as it is quite bitter.
- For a warm holiday flavor, add a cinnamon stick or cloves to the sauce as it’s boiling.
- You can easily double the recipe, just make sure your pan is big enough.
- Make this recipe a few days ahead of time and let it chill in the fridge. Keep in mine that this will reduce the amount of time it can be kept once you store your leftovers.
101+ Thanksgiving
Side Dishes
Find all the sides you could possibly want for the perfect Thanksgiving menu!
More Holiday Side Dishes to Discover
- 101+ Thanksgiving Side Dishes
- Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe
- Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
- Garlic Rosemary Skillet Bread
- Cranberry Pecan Roasted Vegetables
- Green Bean Casserole (From Scratch)
Homemade Cranberry Orange Sauce
Ingredients
- 12 ounces fresh Cranberries
- 1 teaspoon orange extract or 2 teaspoons fresh ornage zest
- 2 mandarin oranges peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Add water and sugar to a medium saucepan. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium heat.
- Add cranberries, oranges and orange extract and boil gently for about 10-15 minutes; until most of the liquid has reduced and most of the cranberries have burst open.
- Remove from heat and cool completely.
- Store in an airtight sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
- Instead of fresh oranges, you can use ½ cup orange juice and 1.2 cup water. Omit the extract and add zest instead.
- When you peel and chop the oranges, try to avoid the bitter white pith, and remove as much as you can.
- Try adding a cinnamon stick or cloves to the sauce as it’s boiling.
- Make this recipe a few days ahead of time and let it chill in the fridge. Keep in mine that this will reduce the amount of time it can be kept once you store your leftovers.
- Refrigerate: Leftover sauce should be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
- Freeze: Transfer to a freezer-safe airtight container or resealable plastic freezer bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Freeze for up to 2-3 months and thaw overnight in the fridge.
Nutrition
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This is a great recipe! It’s so yummy. I substituted the orange zest and oranges with orange marmalade – about 3-4 tablespoons. It saved several steps, including picking off the pith. A nice balance of sweet and tart. I was experimenting for my Christmas dinner and I think I hit the nail on the head with this! Otherwise I followed the recipe as written. Good stuff!!
Awesome feedback Judi! Thanks for stopping by.
Can you please post the ingredients for the old recipe? I’ve been making this for the past few years and everyone has loved it the way it was. I remember there being equal parts water and sugar but can’t remember how much and how much orange flavor extract and how many oranges?
You and lots of others! 🙂 I updated the recipe and included instructions for using juice instead in the notes.
Didn’t this recipe have mandarin oranges last year? There’s no point in saving a recipe if it’s just going to get edited. Why not create a new recipe instead of editing an older one that people loved?
It still has the option to use oranges. Feel free to do so.
Has anyone ever made this with sugar substitute? I am diabetic but love cranberry and would love to make this.
I think you’d be fine using a sugar substitute. Just sweeten to your liking.
We like our cranberry sauce quite tart and so reduced the sugar to a 1/2 cup. The flavour was phenomenal. Very fresh and bright. The oranges and cranberries are so complimentary. The texture is perfect. We loved it!
Nice! Love the feedback Siobhan, thanks for stopping by.
I am not a fan of Cranberry Relish however I made this recipe for Thanksgiving last year and doubled it so I could make the Cranberry Fluff Salad. My guests went crazy for both dishes and actually wanted the recipe! Oh, and guess what… I have found a cranberry relish recipe I enjoy! And that Cranberry Fluff Salad, are you kidding me? It’s fantastic!! Thank you!
You are so welcome stacy! So glad you stopped by to share. (Love the feedback)
The best cranberry recipe ever!!!! So easy. I made sure I kept a lid on the sauce pan or else it will get messy when they pop. I will never buy canned cranberries again! Thank you for your recipes, I only use yours! If I could rate more than 5 stars I would.
Thank you so much for the RAVE Brittany! It’s one of our favorites as well. Thanks for stopping by.
K.
I’ve always made fresh cranberry sauce with the orange juice. This year I didn’t have orange juice but had mandarin oranges. Saw your recipe and tried it out. It was awesome as well as easy. Thanks for the recipe!!
You are so welcome Peggy! Thanks for stopping by.
So simple and delicious! Reduced sugar to 3/4 cup and omitted orange extract (didn’t have on hand).
Awesome feedback Susan! Thanks for stopping by.
its easy to make i tried it .its so delicious i must say everybody can make it and enjoyed it. i tried and eat with different kinds of snacks. thank you
You are so welcome! Thanks for stopping by.
Great poured overvcream cheese served with crackers . QUICK AND EASY
Ohhhh that sounds delicious!!
Can’t wait to try!! Haven’t used fresh cranberries in ages!! Looks so good and fresh!
Mandarin oranges can be hard to find can navels be substituted or canned mandarin oranges?
You can use canned mandarins, drained. Navels could work as well if you want the chunks of fresh orange.
Can you make this recipe with canned or frozen cranberries?
yes you can definitely use frozen. You might need to cook it a little longer to reduce the extra water. If you want to use canned, use the whole cranberry sauce and add the oranges and let it simmer for a little bit.
its easy to make i tried it .its so delicious i must say everybody can make it and enjoyed it. i tried and eat with different kinds of snacks. thank you
This recipe sounds amazing. Can you make it the night before without any issues?
Yes you can definitely make it the night before. In fact I recommend it!
This was so delicious! I love making things form scratch!
Thank you Kristi!
wow, it’s surprisingly easy! I’m imagining that we can also use the same recipe for other ingredients like strawberry, raspberry for example, can’t we?
– Natalie
I haven’t tried it with this method, but I’m sure you could.
Can this be canned to give as gifts
I haven’t tried that but I think it could.
Looks delicious! And easy! I’m going to give it a try. How many does it serve? Thanks so much! 🙂
Hmm, the servings were there and now they’re gone. If I recall it made about 2-3 cups. I’d say at least 8-10 small servings.
Lol – you are right about the 8-10 servings. I doubled the recipe, and now have TONS! It’ll be great for leftovers though. Thanks for the recipe. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!