Bourbon Orange Cranberry Sauce

Complete your Thanksgiving menu with Bourbon Orange Cranberry Sauce. It pairs perfectly with turkey and side dishes, or you can use it in a cocktail!

About this Bourbon Orange Cranberry Sauce recipe

This cranberry sauce is a recipe I’ve been making for 10 years, and it’s been a wonderful addition to our Thanksgiving table. It’s one of my must-haves along with cranberry apple casserole, mashed potatoes, cheesy cat head biscuits, and chocolate pecan pie. (Oh, and apple cider mimosas. It isn’t Thanksgiving dinner without any of these, in my opinion.)

Bourbon cranberry sauce is a from-scratch cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries, orange zest, orange juice and your favorite bourbon. It also has a hint of fall spices which round out the flavors.

I love these flavors together — and they are just perfect in sauce form to go with your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey. I always use this sauce in my cranberry brie bites — the best holiday appetizer ever.

More cranberry recipes: Cranberry Mimosas • Sugared Cranberries • White Cranberry Mule

Why you’ll love this cranberry sauce recipe

Homemade cranberry sauce is so much better than the stuff from a can. And trust me: I grew up on canned cranberry sauce. I will still eat a little bit if it’s served at a Thanksgiving meal I attend. I still think it’s delicious.

But, like so many things on my site, there’s nothing like homemade. (See also: homemade sprinkles and spiced rum.) 

• You can control the sweetness and quality of the ingredients. The canned sauce often contains high fructose corn syrup.
• It’s quick and easy to prepare. Honestly, it’s one of the easiest dishes I make each year!
• It can be made ahead. Make it a few days in advance and store it in the refrigerator until the big meal.

Ingredients

The ingredient list for this bourbon orange cranberry sauce isn’t too expansive, so it won’t add too much to your budget or deplete your pantry. Here’s what you’ll need to pick up at the grocery store:

• Fresh cranberries: Fresh cranberries offer the best sweet-tart flavor. If you can use local cranberries, even better! Frozen cranberries will work too. If you use frozen ones, I suggest cooking them until thawed (2-3 minutes) before adding the sugar.
• Orange zest: Zest a medium navel orange with a Microplane or citrus zester — this is what gives the sauce its bitter hint of orange. If you don’t have a zester, you can use a vegetable peeler ^* to get a thin layer of orange zest — try not to get any of the white pith. Then finely dice it to create zest.
• Fresh orange juice: Use half of the zested orange for this. You can skip this step and just use store-bought juice, but I don’t recommend it. The fresh orange zest and juice will provide both sweet and bitter orange flavors that help to balance the tart cranberries.
• Brown sugar and cane sugar: This combination gives the cranberry sauce a sweet caramel flavor. Granulated white sugar will work just fine if you don’t have cane sugar. You can reduce the amount of sugar if you prefer a more tart sauce.
• Bourbon: Bourbon is the star of the show here. The bourbon flavor helps to mellow out the pucker quality of the cranberries. Use your favorite or use up the one you’ve been avoiding in the back of your bar cabinet. No rules here! You can also use other types of whiskey like Irish whiskey or rye, but it will change the flavor slightly.
• Spices: Vanilla, ground cinnamon ^*, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves round out the flavor of this easy cranberry sauce. For extra flavor, feel free to steep one or two cinnamon sticks as you let it simmer, but be sure to remove them.

If you’d like to add a bit of maple syrup for extra flavor, you can stir 1-2 tablespoons in at the end.

Best bourbon for cranberry sauce

My favorite bourbon brands to use for this bourbon orange cranberry sauce are Maker’s Mark, Bulleit and Old Forrester. This recipe only calls for a touch of bourbon, but its flavor does leave an impact.

These three are the ones I am most likely to have on my bar cart ^* for old-fashioned cocktails, but you can and should use your favorite if you have one.

If you don’t have a favorite, check out my Bourbon 101 guide.

I always recommend using the best bourbon you can afford, but I would save the expensive stuff for sipping as a nightcap after dinner.

While this cranberry sauce has the flavor of bourbon, all or most of the alcohol will cook off, so don’t expect this sauce to get you tipsy. (Save that for the cinnamon White Russians.)

Instructions

You can make my bourbon cranberry sauce in under 30 minutes, which makes it perfect for whipping up between pies and biscuits. I use my Le Creuset Dutch oven, but you can use your favorite medium saucepan.

Combine cranberries and sugars in a 1-quart saucepan or Dutch oven ^* over medium heat. Stir until the sugars melt, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Then add everything else — the bourbon, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla extract ^* and spices to your saucepan. Stirring often, let it simmer for 20 minutes. The berries will pop and start to break down as it cooks.

Once the sauce has reached your desired consistency, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Remember that it will thicken up more as it cools.

Storage

Once the Bourbon Orange Cranberry Sauce comes to room temperature, store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week. You can also freeze it for up to one month.

When freezing, make sure to leave room in the jar or container for expansion. Alternatively, freeze the sauce in a zip-top freezer bag; this will also allow you to store it flat in the freezer, saving you some room!

Since homemade cranberry sauce keeps so well, it’s perfect for adding to your holiday make-ahead list. Prep it several days in advance and check it off your to-do list!

What to serve with cranberry sauce

Serve it with your favorite Thanksgiving turkey recipe, of course! It even works if you aren’t serving a whole bird, like this Instant Pot turkey tenderloin.

If you wind up with leftovers and you’re a fan of cranberry sauce, you have lots of options!

• Use it on a Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich along with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and a bit of old-fashioned Thanksgiving stuffing. You can even spread it on some really good crusty bread or toast for breakfast or brunch.
• It works for baked goods too! You can also mix it into leftover cranberry sauce muffins or cookie bars.
• Leftover Bourbon Cranberry Sauce works in cocktails as well. I always make at least one cranberry sauce old-fashioned cocktail or you can use it as a base for cranberry syrup. You could also use it in this cranberry sauce cocktail with cachaça and ginger.
• For dinner later in the weekend, bourbon oranger cranberry sauce would also be good with Swedish meatballs and leftover mashed potatoes, IKEA style.