Cranberry BBQ Sauce

If you hate (or love) traditional cranberry sauce, you’ll be OBSESSED with this. Cranberry BBQ Sauce is the perfect thing for all your leftover turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving! It’s also magical on pork loin too!

Cranberry BBQ Sauce for all those Cranberry Sauce Haters

I have always been a big fan of cranberry sauce on the Thanksgiving table. I love the tang and zing it brings to the meal and balances out all the other warm flavors. But I also get that cranberry sauce is not everyone’s “thing.” Well I give you Cranberry BBQ Sauce! It’s got all that cranberry flavor but it’s sweet and more robust in flavor! It’s INCREDIBLE with Thanksgiving turkey and slathered on a leftover turkey sandwich! But I can’t take credit for this recipe!

How to Make the Best Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich

Last year I got to work with the talented Kelsey Nixon. If you don’t know her or follow her on instagram, you need to! Kelsey and I have always been ships passing in the night. She went to BYU and majored in broadcast journalism, and then a few years I did the same thing. She was my mentor when I was in broadcast and we emailed back and forth a few times but never met, Then just as my parents moved away from my childhood town, she moved there with her cute family! And we still never met. But the stars aligned and she came to Utah for a project and we finally got to meet! She made this Cranberry BBQ Sauce with a delicious pork loin and I was in heaven when I tasted it.

How to Make Cranberry BBQ Sauce

Making any type of BBQ sauce is surprisingly easy. You just put all the ingredients into a pot and let it cook until it thickens. That’s it! Making Cranberry BBQ Sauce just means you put the cranberries in with it! If you haven’t made homemade cranberry sauce before you might be a little confused starting out. You put the fresh cranberries in whole, and after they heat up they’ll burst open! So there’s no need to chop them up or mash them before.

Decisions, Decisions…

The only decision you have to make in this recipe is if you want the BBQ sauce smooth or chunky. If you’re serving this to cranberry sauce haters, I recommend you blend it in a blender to get it smooth. But if you like cranberry sauce, maybe only blend it part-way. That’s what I do! I like the added texture of the cranberry pieces so I don’t worry about getting it silky smooth.

My favorite rolls that I make every Thanksgiving and Christmas!

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Cranberry BBQ Sauce

If you hate (or love) traditional cranberry sauce, you'll be OBSESSED with this. Cranberry BBQ Sauce is the perfect thing for all your leftover turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving! It's also magical on pork loin too! If you hate (or love) traditional cranberry sauce, you'll be OBSESSED with this. Cranberry BBQ Sauce is the perfect thing for all your leftover turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving! It's also magical on pork loin too!

Ingredients

• 6 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ⅔ cup apple cider vinegar
• ⅔ cup ketchup
• 2 Tablespoons dijon mustard optional
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 2 Tablespoons ginger minced
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add cranberries, water, yellow onion, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, ketchup, mustard, garlic, and ginger. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 15 minutes or until the cranberries have burst and the sauce begins to thicken.
3. You can keep your Cranberry BBQ Sauce as is with pieces of cranberry in it OR pour the sauce into a blender and puree until smooth.
4. Serve with turkey, pork loin or chicken!