Thanksgiving Recipes Pt. 3 SoCo Cranberry Sauce

I was never a big fan of cranberry sauce. I just couldn’t bring myself to allow something that resembled can-shaped cherry Jell-o to share a plate with one of the best meals of the year. The only thing that was worse than the way it looked was the way it tasted. It was bland and seemed to suck all the moisture out of your mouth. Nope. “To hell with cranberry sauce,” I always said. That was until I saw Emeril make homemade cranberry sauce on his show.

I couldn’t believe how easy this stuff was to make. So a few years ago I took Emeril’s recipe and tweaked it until it was my own. Now I get requests from relatives to make an extra jar for them to last them through the holidays. It makes even the driest turkey taste like a gourmet chef prepared it. So here’s my recipe for the greatest cranberry sauce ever.

Ingredients

2 cups cranberries
Juice and chopped zest of 1 orange (You can also use 1/4 cup of orange juice)
1/4 cup Southern Comfort
1/2 cup sugar, or more if needed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Crushed red pepper to taste (Add as much or as little as you want according to your tolerance for
heat. But trust me, this ingredient makes the sauce so use at least a little.)
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

In a small saucepan combine cranberries, orange juice and zest, Southern Comfort, sugar, cinnamon and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmering and cook until cranberries are tender, stirring occasionally. In a small cup make a slurry with cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water. Whisk cornstarch mixture into cranberry sauce and cook, whisking, until sauce thickens. Taste and add more sugar and crushed red pepper, if necessary.

Let it cool and then put it in a glass container. It will keep in the fridge for about 3-4 weeks. Now go make yourself a drink with the rest of that SoCo ad lets learn about frying turkeys.