This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Break out of the cranberry sauce rut with this Spiced Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce! Cranberries are simmered with brown sugar, apple cider, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and tangerine zest!
Some days flavor combinations work themselves into every fiber of my being and, try as I might, I can’t shake them. Just me?
But who wants to shake them when you end up with things like Spiced Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce with star anise, cardamom and cinnamon?!
I’ve already professed my undying love for Cranberry Sauce, so I won’t bore you with it again, but I just have one teenie tiny anecdote that demonstrates just how much I adore cranberry sauce (and how much of a moron I was in college).
My mom sent me care packages in college and occasionally she included jars of homemade Cranberry Chutney. One time the lid shattered in transit. Did I throw it away because it is highly inadvisable to eat glass?
No, this crazy person picked out all the visible shards and then ate very carefully so as not to ingest or chew any glass. This is probably on the list of the dumbest culinary things I’ve done, but I lived to tell you about it.
The takeaways here: I take my cranberry sauce very seriously and don’t ship cranberry chutney in glass jars to college freshmen who loathe cafeteria food. Mmmk?
But this is not Nana’s cranberry chutney. This is Spiced Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce, and it is so good, it would be a tragedy to limit it to the Thanksgiving Feast Table.
And it’s so easy that there is absolutely zero excuse not to make this for a weeknight dinner. Hello store bought rotisserie chicken, I’m lookin’ at you! When served with homemade cranberry sauce it will seem decadent and the opposite of mundane!
Oh come on, I buy rotisserie chickens too. Don’t let’s pretend that we haven’t all been there.
This tantalizing sauce starts the usual way with fresh cranberries simmering in a pot with brown sugar, but now we break out of the cranberry rut and amp up the flavor with apple cider, star anise, cardamom, a generous amount of cinnamon and tangerine zest.
Oh. Yes. I. Did.
Tangerine zest.
There are times when even lemon zest and orange zest lose their star power in my eyes and I go searching for something new and different. And the flavor is incredible! Just a little zest provides a subtle tangerine flavor and scent that is irresistible.
And if all that wasn’t enough, I’ve got big, out of the box, plans for this sauce! Even beyond Wednesday night rotisserie chicken. Stay tuned.
If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Spiced Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 oz bag of fresh cranberries or you can use previously frozen fresh cranberries
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup apple cider natural
- 1 small granny smith apple pealed and finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 whole star anise
- 5 cardamom pods or more, just make sure you count so you can find them all!
- ½ teaspoon fresh tangerine zest bright orange parts only
Instructions
- In a small sauce pot heat the cranberries, sugar, and apple cider over medium-high heat until the cranberries pop.
- Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the star anise. You could stop cooking it at this point but I like to cook my cranberry sauce at least an hour.
- After an additional 30 minutes remove your cardamom pods (make sure you get them all!!) and allow to cool or serve warm.
Hi! I’m writing an article on Thanksgiving recipes for my high school’s newspaper and was wondering if I could feature your apple cider cranberry sauce recipe? Thank you!
Hi Sierra! I would love that! Please just give appropriate credit to me for my recipe and/or photo including the full web address of my site. Thank you so much for wanting to feature my cranberry sauce!
I love the spices you used in this cranberry sauce. Will definitely need to try it out. It looks wonderful. Would be nice to see step by step photos on your recipes, I find them very helpful.
I hope you do try it out, Ella! I wish I had the time to take step-by-step photos of my recipes…I also want to start making videos, but I just can’t right now. Yours are all so perfect! Some day 🙂
I love cranberry chutney, but I’m not sure I would have picked glass out to eat it. Something with chocolate, yes.
These have to be the most beautiful pictures of cranberry sauce I have seen. Those reds and yellows really pop. Pinning!
Haha! Now I know your weakness! Maybe you would have felt differently freshman year of college…homemade food was homemade food! 🙂 And thanks for the pin!
I am not a cranberry sauce fan myself but I love that this has a spiced cider component!
Sadness. I want to make you like it but I know it doesn’t work like that 🙁
This is such a gorgeous looking sauce! I love the tangerine zest and those wonderful spices you added in here – the star anise and cardamom must have made this smell so magical while cooking up. Oh my and I can’t wait to see what you created with this sauce 🙂
It smelled heavenly! Just like the holidays should smell! Thanks, Kelly!
Growing up my Mom was the only one who wanted cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. Since it was only her, she usually just used the pre-made stuff. No wonder I didn’t like it! Now this version? That’s a whole new story…I think I need a bowl of this on my Thanksgiving table. The star anise addition? Clutch! And I think I know your plans for this cranberry sauce…it’s going inside of a cupcake!! Perhaps a stuffing cupcake with a turkey frosting? Uh. I think I just went too far there. 🙂
How did you know?! Am I that predictable? 🙂 And just eww. Turkey frosting.
Your poor mom. I would have made cranberry sauce just for me and then secretly been on a mission to convert the rest of the family. I bet you would have jumped on board then!You should definitely make this cranberry sauce for your Thanksgiving. Its super easy and delicious as long as you remember to take out all the cardamom pods!
I love all the spices that you have added in there, looks amazing! Beautiful pictures as always Lindsey!
Thanks, Manali!
I think a new cupcake creation is coming!
Maybe… 😉