What's the difference between this Easy Cranberry Sauce and the canned version?

As the author of this recipe, I can tell you the difference is everything! My Easy Cranberry Sauce is a vibrant, fresh-tasting holiday side dish. We use simple ingredients—fresh cranberries, sugar, and water—to create a sauce that has texture and a wonderful tart-sweet balance that you control. You can see the berries burst as they simmer! The canned version is often a gelatinous, homogenous mass with a predictable, overly sweet flavor. My quick recipe delivers homemade goodness in 20 minutes, allowing you to taste the actual fresh cranberries, which a can just can't replicate.

Recipes

Easy Cranberry Sauce

This Thanksgiving, I urge you to ditch the canned cranberry sauce and impress your guests with my incredibly Easy Cranberry Sauce! This is a homemade cranberry sauce that is vibrant, flavorful, and truly elevates your holiday feast. With just a handful of simple ingredients and about 20 minutes of your time, you can achieve homemade goodness. My Easy Cranberry Sauce recipe is perfect for beginners and even allows for customization with optional spices like cinnamon and star anise.

Tom the Chef Founder

Published:
November 1, 2025

Before You Start

Let’s talk about important parts of the recipe before you start…

My Simple Holiday Side Dish: The Easy Cranberry Sauce

Hello! I’m Tom the Chef, and I am so excited to share my favorite Easy Cranberry Sauce recipe with you. For years, many of us relied on that jiggly, gelatinous blob from a can. It’s time to break free! We are reclaiming the cranberry’s rightful place as a culinary star. My recipe for homemade cranberry sauce is a testament to the power of homemade goodness. With just a few simple ingredients and a dash of culinary courage, we’ll create a Thanksgiving recipe that will have your guests singing your praises. This quick recipe is all about bringing fresh cranberries to life.

Assembling Your Simple Ingredients

The first key step in my Easy Cranberry Sauce is what I like to call the ‘Cranberry Convocation’—assembling the ingredients. It’s incredibly straightforward. The beauty of this recipe is that it relies on very simple ingredients. You need 12 ounces of fresh cranberries. If you only have frozen, that is perfectly fine! You don’t even need to defrost them; these little berries are ready for action right from the freezer. Besides the cranberries, you just need ¾ cup of water and ¾ cup of granulated sugar. These are the foundational elements of our cranberry transformation. This simplicity is what makes it such a great quick recipe for the holidays.

The Simmering Symphony and Getting the Cranberries to Burst

This is where the magic happens for your homemade cranberry sauce. You’ll place a medium saucepan on the stovetop and set the heat to medium-high. You combine the fresh cranberries, water, and sugar (and any optional spices, which I’ll get to). You need to stir these gently as the mixture heats up. Soon, the cranberries will begin to burst! They are like tiny culinary time bombs, and they will release their vibrant juices and fill your kitchen with the most intoxicating, festive aroma. This simmer is the heart of the Easy Cranberry Sauce recipe. Once the mixture reaches that gentle bubbling, which signals the start of the metamorphosis, you’ll move on to managing the heat.

The Temperature Tango: Managing the Cook Time

Once the pot is at a simmer, you must reduce the heat to medium-low. This is a crucial step for this Thanksgiving recipe. You can’t just walk away! You need to continue cooking, stirring occasionally, as the cranberries continue their ‘burst-tastic’ performance. The Easy Cranberry Sauce will thicken, the water will gradually evaporate, and the flavors will meld into a harmonious whole. This enchanting process should take about 15 to 20 minutes. You must keep a watchful eye on the sauce. If you notice the water evaporates too quickly (this might happen *before* the cranberries burst and the sauce thickens), you should consider lowering the heat even more and adding just a bit more water. This ensures you get that perfect sauce consistency.

The Optional Blending Ballet for a Smooth Sauce

Now, we talk about texture. My Easy Cranberry Sauce recipe is versatile. If you prefer a smoother, more refined homemade cranberry sauce experience, an immersion blender is your weapon of choice. This step is entirely optional. I call it the ‘Blending Ballet.’ After you’ve removed the optional spices, you can wield the immersion blender with grace, partially or completely blending the mixture right in the pot until it reaches your desired consistency. This is particularly helpful if your fresh cranberries, despite their valiant efforts, haven’t fully surrendered to the simmering process and haven’t burst enough. If you like a more rustic, textured appeal (what I call ‘Texture Time Travel’), you can skip blending altogether and embrace the chunks!

The Sweetness Serenade: Tasting and Balancing

Here comes the moment of truth for your holiday side dish! After the sauce has thickened and (optionally) been blended, it’s time for the ‘Sweetness Serenade.’ This is the taste test that determines the fate of your creation. You must sample a spoonful, savoring the tartness of the fresh cranberries and the sweetness of the sugar. My recipe calls for ¾ cup of sugar, but cranberries can vary in their tartness. If you find your Easy Cranberry Sauce is a bit too tart for your liking, this is the time to add more sugar. Just add it a pinch at a time, stirring it in well, until the flavors harmonize in perfect balance for your palate. This ensures you achieve true homemade goodness.

Using the Optional Aromatics (Lemon Zest, Cinnamon, and Anise)

While the base of my Easy Cranberry Sauce uses just three simple ingredients, I included some optional additions right in the recipe for those seeking an extra layer of complexity. You can invite a cinnamon stick, a star anise, and the zest of 1 lemon to the party! These are added right at the beginning (Step 1.1) with the cranberries, water, and sugar. As the sauce begins to simmer, these aromatics will infuse the mixture. It’s very important that if you use the cinnamon stick and star anise, you must remove and discard them (Step 1.3) before you do any optional blending or tasting. The lemon zest can stay in. These are the *only* additions I include directly in this specific quick recipe.

Serving and Storing Your Homemade Cranberry Sauce

The beauty of this homemade cranberry sauce lies in its versatility. You can serve this holiday side dish hot, making it a warm and comforting companion to your Thanksgiving recipe feast, or you can let it cool completely and serve it chilled, where it acts as a refreshing counterpoint to rich and savory dishes. The choice is entirely yours! And fear not, if you have leftover Easy Cranberry Sauce (which I doubt you will!), it can be safely tucked away. Just put it in a container in the refrigerator, where it can last for up to a few weeks. It’s a versatile condiment that transcends the Thanksgiving table.

Recipe

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