This sweet and tangy Ginger Orange Cranberry Sauce is made with a handful of basic ingredients and makes the absolute best sidekick for your Thanksgiving turkey! Ready in 30 minutes or less!
Cranberry sauce lovers, I have landed on the absolute best cranberry sauce recipe by pure happenstance.
I signed up to bring homemade cranberry sauce to a Friendsgiving celebration a couple of weeks ago, and impressed even myself with the end result.
Everyone at the gathering agreed it was sensational! Naturally, I had to share it with so many rave reviews.
While there are so many ways cranberry sauce can be prepared, I always love adding either some orange zest or a little fresh ginger.
This time, I got clever and added both, which really kicked up the flavor in a big way!
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for cranberry sauce! The best part is you can find the full list of ingredients at any grocery store!
At a minimum, we need fresh cranberries, some form of liquid like water or juice, and sugar to make homemade versions of cranberry sauce.
In this sense, you could make a 3-ingredient cranberry sauce or add more goodies for your own cranberry sauce.
Cranberry Sauce Ingredients:
Fresh or Frozen Cranberries: Pick up a bag of fresh or frozen cranberries. Either option works great, and I’ve used both many times with great success.
Just be sure you have 16 ounces. My bag of cranberries is 16 ounces, but you may need to adjust the recipe slightly based on the weight of your bag of cranberries.
Orange Zest and Orange Juice: Pick up two navel oranges to use for zest and juice. I like using either orange juice or apple cider for the liquid.
Since we already have a couple of fresh oranges for the zest, I decided to go with fresh orange juice for this delicious homemade cranberry sauce recipe.
Fresh Ginger: Fresh ginger adds that unique flavor and the tiniest little bite.
Simply pick up a small nub of ginger, peel it using a vegetable peeler (also known as a potato peeler), then use the fine side of a box grater or a zester to finely grate it.
As an alternative, you can finely mince the ginger using a sharp knife.
Brown Sugar: Because cranberries are notorious for being so tangy that they are almost bitter, we need a great deal of sugar to offset their assertive flavor.
I have used pure maple syrup in the past, but chose brown sugar for this round.
Cinnamon: A little ground cinnamon brings some warm flavor, which I find is a marvelous complement to tangy cranberries.
Sea Salt: Add a pinch of sea salt to your personal taste to enhance all of the flavors. We don’t want the sauce to be salty, but we do want all of the flavors to come together like a beautiful marriage, and salt is the ingredient for the job.
Looking for ways you can customize your own homemade cranberry sauce? Here are some options.
Recipe Adaptations:
- You can replace the brown sugar with equal parts white sugar or ⅔ cup of pure maple syrup or honey. If using honey, be careful to keep a watchful eye on the mixture and stir it regularly so that it doesn’t burn, as honey can be sensitive to high temperatures.
- Use less sugar if you prefer less sweet sauce! Adjust the amount of sugar as desired.
- Use lemon zest if you prefer it over orange zest.
- Omit either the ginger or the orange zest if you aren’t into one of them.
- Replace the orange juice with apple cider, apple juice, pineapple juice, cranberry juice, or any kind of juice you enjoy.
- Add fresh herbs such as thyme or rosemary. A little bit goes a long way, so start small!
- For a kick of booze, add a shot of bourbon or whisky.
- Chop up one honeycrisp apple or granny smith apple and add the small chunks to the sauce. This brings a different textural element and some fresh apple flavor.
- Use one cinnamon stick instead of ground cinnamon. If you like the flavor of star anise and cloves, you can add those too. Just be sure to remove them before serving.
Now that we’ve covered the basic ingredients for cranberry sauce, let’s make it!
How to make Ginger Orange Cranberry Sauce:
Transfer all of the ingredients to a medium saucepan except for the vanilla extract (fresh or frozen cranberries, orange zest, orange juice, brown sugar, fresh ginger, cinnamon and sea salt).
Cover and heat over medium-high heat to bring the mixture to a full boil.
Remove the lid and continue cooking at a gentle boil until the cranberries begin to soften, about 3-5 minutes. If need be, reduce the stove to medium heat.
Use the back of a fork or a potato masher to mash the cranberries to your desired texture. Continue cooking the cranberry sauce until it has thickened and reached a consistency that is slightly more liquidy than jam, about 10 minutes.
Note that the cranberry sauce will thicken more during the cooling process, so there’s no need to thicken it to a jam consistency as it will do so on its own.
Remove the cranberry sauce from the stove top and allow it to cool closer to room temperature before transferring it to a jar or an airtight container to refrigerate.
Cranberry sauce is generally served chilled or at room temperature, so be sure to give yourself enough time to cool it. While the sauce cools, you can work on other recipes for your Thanksgiving meal.
Leftover cranberry sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 10 days in a sealed jar or airtight container.
It tastes even better the next day and the 2-3 days following preparation, so feel free to make it well in advance of when you need it.
Serve at your Thanksgiving feast with turkey and enjoy!
And that’s it! Skip the can of cranberry sauce and make your own homemade version.
Relish this easy recipe with leftover turkey!
Enjoy this timeless classic on your Thanksgiving table or Christmas dinner each holiday season!
Cranberry lovers, try some of my other cranberry recipes!
Make the most of leftover sauce by repurposing it in other recipes!
You can use leftover cranberry sauce in my Cranberry Crumb Bars or my Cranberry Sauce Bourbon Cocktail. Adding a dollop of sauce to ice cream or yogurt is delicious too!
If you’re looking for more side dishes to include at any holiday gathering, here are some of my favorite side dishes.
More Side Dish Recipes:
- Healthy Green Bean Casserole
- Melting Sweet Potatoes
- Garlic Herb Roasted Vegetables
- Crock Pot Sweet Potato Casserole
- Creamy Cauliflower Casserole
- Gluten-Free Cornbread
- Caramelized Onion Roasted Garlic Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
Enjoy this fresh cranberry sauce at your Thanksgiving dinner alongside all your other favorite Thanksgiving recipes!
Ginger Orange Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 16 ounces fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries
- 1 Tbsp orange zest
- 1 cup fresh orange juice*
- ¾ cup brown sugar**
- 2 to 3 tsp fresh ginger peeled and grated***
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp sea salt to taste
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract optional
Instructions
- Transfer all of the ingredients to a medium saucepan except for the vanilla extract (fresh or frozen cranberries, orange zest, orange juice, brown sugar, fresh ginger, cinnamon and sea salt). Cover and heat over medium-high heat to bring the mixture to a full boil.
- Remove the lid and continue cooking at a gentle boil until the cranberries begin to soften, about 3-5 minutes. If need be, reduce the stove to medium heat. Use the back of a fork or a potato masher to mash the cranberries to your desired texture. Continue cooking the cranberry sauce until it has thickened and reached a consistency that is slightly more liquidy than jam, about 10 minutes. Note that the cranberry sauce will thicken more during the cooling process, so there’s no need to thicken it to a jam consistency as it will do so on its own.
- Remove the cranberry sauce from the stove top and allow it to cool closer to room temperature before transferring it to a jar or an airtight container to refrigerate. Cranberry sauce is generally served chilled or at room temperature, so be sure to give yourself enough time to cool it. While the sauce cools, you can work on other recipes for your Thanksgiving meal.
- Leftover cranberry sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 10 days in a sealed jar or airtight container. It tastes even better the next day and the 2-3 days following preparation, so feel free to make it well in advance of when you need it.
Notes
Nutrition
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
Dang, this is good. And not so much sugar. I love cranberry everything, & this is certainly cranberry season. Another incredible recipe for cranberries. Wahoo!
I’m happy you like the idea! It’s always a favorite among my friends and family 🙂