This Cranberry Orange Sauce is a newer addition to my Thanksgiving spread. I grew up eating Cranberry Sauce from a can. I loved being the one to open the can and serve it by slicing the gelatinous cranberry into slices and putting them on a plate. It was my favorite part about Thanksgiving. Then I grew up and made the real stuff and boy was I in for a surprise! It was SO MUCH BETTER! Don’t get me wrong I still love that canned stuff, I have no beef with it. It reminds me of being little and thinking I was doing something super helpful for my family. But the real stuff, real tart cranberries simmered in syrupy sweet water until thick and delicious, well that’s where it’s at these days.

I started out by making traditional Cranberry Sauce from the directions printed on the back of the bag of Cranberries. This recipe for Cranberry Orange Sauce doesn’t deviate much from that. You can’t mess with it too much. After enjoying a particularly good Cranberry Orange Muffin one day, I decided to add orange to the mix and boy was it delicious. Then sprinkle in a little cinnamon, because it’s the holidays, and this Cranberry Orange Sauce was born.

It’s just what I wanted. It brings out the delicious qualities of the turkey with hints of the apple cider and orange peels I use in the turkey brine. (By the way Ree Drummand has the BEST TURKEY BRINE, I use hers). But the amazing thing is I want to eat the Cranberry Orange Sauce all on it’s own just like I used to eat the canned stuff and I can’t say that about many cranberry sauces. Usually the Cranberry sauce is the after thought on the plate, not one of the main events.

I love using a paddle microplane to zest my oranges, it makes for an easy job if it, if you need one I can’t recommend this one enough. https://amzn.to/3fQlXQp

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Cranberry Orange Sauce

Delicious crnaberry sauce gets amplified with notes of oranges and cinnamon for a truly unforgettable holiday side dish.

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Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Ingredients

1 12 oz bag fresh cranberries
1 C white sugar
1 C water
2 naval oranges
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

Zest the two oranges. Set the zest aside.
In a medium sauce pan combine the sugar, water and juice from the two oranges.
Place the pan on the stovetop and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and add the bag of cranberries. Cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. The cranberries will pop and the liquid will thicken.
Pull the pan off the heat and stir in the cinnamon and orange zest. Allow this to cool to room temperature and then chill in the fridge for a few hours until ready to serve. This can be made ahead and kept in the fridge for three- four days. Or you can freeze it and thaw in the fridge overnight.

Keyword cranberries, cranberry sauce, holidays