Easy Holiday Recipe

This cranberry sauce recipe is one of the easiest I’ve ever seen. It’s tart, delicious, and the perfect accompaniment to your holiday meal. In fact, I can’t even imagine having Thanksgiving dinner, a Friendsgiving celebration, or Christmas dinner without having cranberry sauce on the table.

This homemade cranberry sauce is so quick and easy to make you can do it last minute. Or you can prepare it a day or two in advance, cover it, and stick it in the fridge. Without a doubt, it’s better after it sits a while.

It’s the perfect accompaniment to your turkey and dressing dinner. Place bowls of it on the dinner table or have it conveniently near the buffet so everyone can get as much as they want.

Ingredients You’ll Need for Homemade Cranberry Sauce

You only need three ingredients to make this cranberry sauce recipe, although you can add more. All I used this time were fresh cranberries, orange juice, and sugar. Yes, that’s all.

However, if you want to add even more flavor, try adding cinnamon, orange zest, lemon zest, or vanilla. It’s completely up to you. After all, it’s your cranberry sauce, so make it the way you like it.

I just happen to enjoy it cooked the simple way. However, if you want to drop a few pecans in there, I’m game for that … because pecans make everything better in my book. You can probably come up with more ways to serve leftover cranberry sauce … that is, if you have any left over.

Easy Directions

This is super easy, even for a novice cook. And if you have a more complicated recipe, try this one instead. You might never go back.

First, thoroughly rinse the cranberries in a colander. Shake them around a bit to make sure you rinse all surfaces of the cranberries. I typically like to keep them under running water for a couple of minutes. If you have a sprayer, use it.

Next, pour the orange juice into a saucepan and bring it to a boil over high heat. It only takes a couple of minutes to boil.

After that, add the sugar and stir it into the orange juice until it dissolves. This only takes about a minute or two.

Then pour in the cranberries. Be super careful not to splash the hot orange juice, or you might get burned.

Give the cranberries a quick stir, and let them simmer until all of them pop open. It’s fun and satisfying to watch them pop.

The cranberries can splatter all over the place, and they make a huge mess when they do. So I like to cover them with a splatter guard while they’re cooking.

After they’ve all popped open, remove the saucepan from the heat, stir, and then allow them to cool for a couple of minutes. This is when you can add other ingredients if you like. However, as I already mentioned, it’s delicious with only the 3 basic ingredients, so I usually leave it as-is.

Finally, transfer the cranberry sauce to a bowl. As the sauce cools, it will thicken.

More Tips for Making the Best Cranberry Sauce

This recipe is so easy that you don’t need to do anything extra. However, if you want to make it even better, follow these tips:

• Choose the plumpest, freshest, and firmest cranberries you can find.
• Try using maple syrup or honey in place of sugar.
• For extra flavor, use a dash of cinnamon, ground cloves, or vanilla extract.
• Don’t overcook the cranberries, or they will turn into gelatin.
• Allow the sauce to cool completely so the flavors will meld and deliver the most satisfying experience.

More Delicious Holiday Recipes

Most people enjoy serving cranberry sauce during the holidays, and we’re no exception. Some of our other favorites are this Green Bean Casserole and this Sweet Potato Casserole. And of course, we have to have this Easy Cornbread Dressing this wonderful Gluten-Free Turkey Gravy that most people can’t tell is gluten-free.

We also have a tradition of offering a wide variety of desserts, and we encourage people to try more than one. These Mini Pumpkin Pies with Nut Crust are gluten-free. Ant then there’s this oh-so wonderful Pineapple Dump Cake that we like to top with with ice cream or whipped cream.

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