This 3 Ingredient Cranberry Sauce with orange juice, sugar and fresh cranberries is so easy to make. Skip the canned stuff and make this homemade recipe with very little effort. Make it for the holidays!

 

Let’s admit it… cooking a full spread for Thanksgiving dinner can be extremely overwhelming. Quick and Easy recipes like this 3 Ingredient Cranberry Sauce can help to make the day a bit less stressful. Save your energy for a Oven Roasted Turkey, homemade Mashed Potatoes and Old Fashioned Dressing, lol.
If you are looking for a more flavorful cranberry sauce, try my Cranberry Sauce with Apples.

Most people are either fans of cranberry sauce or they aren’t. I am in the fan camp. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are not complete without cranberry everything, ha ha. When I am making an elaborate holiday dinner, I choose to make a few dishes that are just plain quick and simple to make. This easy cranberry sauce with orange juice is one of those recipes.

It’s unreal the amount of flavor that you get from cranberries, sugar, orange juice and zest. Without any additional spices this Cranberry sauce is still phenomenal. I use this recipe quite often when we make Thanksgiving leftovers recipes calling for cranberry sauce like Cranberry Turkey Sliders or Cranberry Turkey Pinwheels. Oh… I love a spoonful in my morning yogurt too! It’s so quick and easy.

Make ahead Thanksgiving recipes are priceless. Anything that can be made the day before hosting always gets added to my holiday menu. This homemade cranberry sauce holds well in the refrigerator just like my Old-Fashioned Cranberry Jell-O Salad Mold and Cranberry Mousse Mold. All of these cranberry recipes can be made ahead of the big day. I typically make them a day or two ahead.

Easy Cranberry Sauce Ingredients

You’d think a Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe would require lots of ingredients. Actually, you don’t need that many at all- only 3, or 4 if you count water as an ingredient. You don’t need any pomegranate juice or spices- for this 3 ingredient recipe, all you need is the following:

• Sugar – We usually stick with white granulated sugar for cranberry sauce recipes. You’re more than welcome to experiment- make some cranberry sauce with brown sugar or maybe try using raw cane sugar instead.
• Cranberries – Fresh cranberries tend to make the best cranberry sauce, in our experience at least. If they’re all you have, you can go ahead and make your cranberry sauce with frozen cranberries instead. It shouldn’t affect the taste at all and might only yield a different texture is all.
• Orange – Grab a whole fresh orange, since we’re using both orange juice and orange zest.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Fresh Cranberry Sauce from Scratch

Since this is a 3 Ingredient Cranberry Sauce, it shouldn’t be a shock that it’s really easy to make. Super quick too- once you’ve got your ingredients together, this should end up being a 20 or 15 minute recipe overall. If you want to know how to make cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries, follow along with this step-by-step guide:

• Start things off by making a basic simple syrup. Set a medium pot on the stovetop and add your sugar and water.

• Start mixing to combine and cook over medium heat. You want the sugar to dissolve completely and get the simple syrup boiling. After that, rinse cranberries before adding to the pot and then covering with a lid.

• Let the berries simmer until all the cranberries pop. Once you’ve got a pot full of popped cranberries, remove the lid and reduce the heat to medium-low.

• You’ll want to let the cranberry sauce simmer for the next 5-7 minutes so it can thicken up a bit, stirring occasionally. Once thickened to your liking, remove from the heat. Off to the side, grate zest off your orange and then squeeze the orange juice out.

• You’ll need about 2 tablespoons of orange juice and between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest. Once measured out, add both to your warm cranberry sauce.

• Give a quick stir to incorporate. Allow the sauce to cool completely before serving. Enjoy!

Storage / Freezing

Storage: Let your Homemade Cranberry Sauce cool completely before you prep it for storage. Transfer cranberry sauce to an airtight resealable container like a tupperware or ziploc bag. This should last quite a bit in the fridge- for best taste, enjoy before the 10 day mark, but it should still be safe to eat for up to 14 days.

Freezing: Any leftover cranberry sauce can also be frozen for long-term storage. Again, let cool completely before transferring to a freezer-safe container- like a Ziploc freezer bag. Squeeze excess air out, seal it up, and keep frozen for 6-12 months- though, you’ll have the best taste and texture closer to the 3-4 month mark.

You May Like These Cranberry Recipes

Side

Old-Fashioned Cranberry Salad

Pantry

Cranberry Butter

Other

Sugared Cranberries

Dessert

Apple Cranberry Crisp