Why settle for canned?
Aside from the turkey, the one dish that makes Thanksgiving dinner complete is cranberry sauce. You can do different veggies and have stuffing instead of potatoes or vice versa, but it’s just not Thanksgiving without the cranberries.
On some Thanksgiving tables, cranberry sauce is a cylindrical, jellied mass that comes straight out of a can. That makes me sad, because real cranberry sauce – made from actual berries – is just so much tastier. And it’s really easy to make, too.
Really, all you have to do to make cranberry sauce is make a sugar syrup, dump the cranberries in, and stir them until they pop. The whole thing takes maybe ten minutes. I like to add some orange juice and zest to mine, but even that isn’t essential.
The other great thing about this Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce, is that you can make it well ahead of time. It needs to chill for at least a few hours anyway, so you can just prepare it the night before – or even a couple of days before – and pop it in the fridge. Then no matter what else happens, you know one key part of your Thanksgiving meal is done.
So what do you have to lose? Go ahead and give it a try. Once you’ve tasted the real thing, I promise you’ll never want to go back to the can.
Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients you will need:
fresh or frozen cranberries
water
orange juice
sugar
zest of a small orange for topping
DIRECTIONS
- Rinse cranberries with cool water, and remove any stems or blemished berries. Heat water and sugar to boiling in 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. One boiling, continue to boil for 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in cranberries and orange juice. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- Continue boiling about 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally, until cranberries begin to pop.
- Pour sauce into bowl or container. Refrigerate about 3-4 hours or until chilled. Once ready to serve, top with optional orange zest or serve as is.
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Easy Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 pound fresh or frozen cranberries 4 cups
- 1.5 cups water
- .5 cup orange juice
- 2 cups sugar
- zest of a small orange for topping
Instructions
- Rinse cranberries with cool water, and remove any stems or blemished berries. Heat water and sugar to boiling in 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. One boiling, continue to boil for 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in cranberries and orange juice. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- Continue boiling about 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally, until cranberries begin to pop.
- Pour sauce into bowl or container. Refrigerate about 3-4 hours or until chilled.
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Nutrition Information:
Nutrition Disclaimer
Family Fresh Meals is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is only an estimate. We recommend running the ingredients through an online nutritional calculator if you need to verify any information.
Sabrina says
thanks for this! agree it’s well worth making from scratch, nice reminder how little time this takes!
Chriso says
throw a couple of cinnamon sticks in for flavor and also a couple splashes of Grand Maurnier (Let the alcohol cook off for 1-2 minutes) talk about added flavor
Bev says
I’ve made this before and I love the taste of fresh cranberries! But… the skin of the berry doesn’t seem to break down enough and I end up with tough pieces of cranberry peel (skin) in the cooked cranberries. Anything I can do to solve this?
Corey says
You could whip it in a food processor a bit.
JB says
You can put the cranberries in with the water and let both come to a boil before adding the orange juice.
Elsie Butler says
I have 1 pound of cranberries and would like to use all in the recipe