Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce comes together with just four ingredients and a few minutes! Serve it with turkey or brie, either way it’s delicious.
I love making my own cranberry sauce. I started making my own sauce years ago and haven’t looked back.
People either love it or hate it. If you love it, then you are in two categories; either you like it from the can, or you prefer it homemade.
My biggest pet peeve when making cranberry sauce is that I have to stand by the stove to ensure it won’t bubble over and make a huge mess.
Lots of stirring and staring at the cranberries. The beauty of the Instant Pot is that you dump everything in it and you let the pot do all the cooking.
No stirring, no watching diligently. Instead you can start working on dishes, or prepping another item like dessert! The sky’s the limit.
My recipe calls for orange juice and a little orange zest. But don’t stress. If you can’t have orange juice, or maybe you don’t want to use orange juice, or even if you ran out. Don’t stress!
You can still make homemade cranberry sauce from scratch. Here are a few substitutions for the orange juice.
- Water
- Apple Juice
- Apple Cider
- Pineapple Juice
Unlike most foods, you can actually store homemade cranberry sauce in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.
After that, I would store it in the freezer. To store it in the freezer you can transfer it to an airtight freezer safe container or a freezer safe bag.
If you love the taste of homemade cranberry sauce, but don’t like sitting by the stove top to ensure it doesn’t boil over you can use your Instant Pot to simplify holiday dinner prep!
I always love to serve cranberry sauce chilled. However, I know a lot of people prefer it at room temperature.
I personally never warm cranberry sauce unless I use it as a topping for a dessert like on top of cheesecake!
I’ve had this question come up before, but I’ve been asked what cranberry sauce is used for on Thanksgiving. Cranberry sauce is considered more of a jelly/relish that is served next to turkey.
I prefer to top my turkey with gravy, and then scoop a little cranberry sauce on to each bite of turkey.
Can You Freeze Cranberry Sauce?
If you want to make this turkey side-dish staple ahead of time for the holidays, freezing is a great option to preserve its freshness and add less stress to your plate.
Place in a freezer baggy or container in the refrigerator to get to room temperature. Then transfer to the freezer to be frozen up to 3 months!
This also works if you make it fresh the day before or day of your feast and find that you have a lot leftover. You can freeze the leftovers for your next holiday meal.
Pro tip: Make sure you lay your cranberry sauce flat in the freezer, so it doesn’t take up much room!
If you’re looking for a stove-top recipe you can find my homemade cranberry sauce or Bourbon Ginger Cranberry Sauce recipes. If you want to simplify one part of your holiday meal
Planning a dinner party and need some inspiration?
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Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 ounces Fresh Cranberries
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Orange Juice
- 1 tablespoon Orange Zest
Instructions
- Rinse and drain the cranberries.
- Then place the cranberries in the Instant Pot followed by the white sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Do not stir.
- Place the lid on top of the Instant Pot. Close the lid, making sure the valve is set to "sealing".
- Set on "manual" pressure for 2 minutes.
- After the timer beeps, let the cranberry sauce come to pressure in the Instant Pot for 10 minutes.
- Then, carefully force any remaining pressure from the pot. Remove the lid and stir.
- Using hot pads, remove the pot from the base. Let it sit for 1 hour.
- Then pour into a container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.