Cranberry Sauce With Chiles

By Martha Rose Shulman

Cranberry Sauce With Chiles
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
40 minutes
Rating
5(381)
Comments
Read comments

In the Southwest, local chiles of all kinds accent the flavor of Thanksgiving. Cooks put them in everything from Hatch turkey rubs to chipotle mashed potatoes to chiltepin cranberry sauce, which uses the small, round, fiery hot chiles that are native to Arizona and northern Mexico. You can make this sauce a day ahead and chill it; if it's too stiff for your tastes when you remove it from the fridge, add a little water and sugar, reheat until simmering and then cool once more. (And for everything you need to know about cranberry sauce, check out our cranberry sauce guide.)

Featured in: The United States of Thanksgiving

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:2½ cups
  • Zest of 2 limes (2 teaspoons), divided
  • 1 to 2dried chiltepin, chile pequin or bird chiles, to taste, crushed in a spice mill or a mortar and pestle, or ½ teaspoon crushed chile pequin
  • 1¼pounds cranberries (4½ cups)
  • Zest of ½ orange
  • ¾cup sugar, more to taste
  • 2cloves, crushed in a mortar and pestle or ground in a spice mill
  • ¼teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼teaspoon ground nutmeg
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (5 servings)

172 calories; 0 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 0 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 44 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 36 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 3 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Set aside the zest of 1 lime (about 1 teaspoon) for garnish. In a large saucepan, combine all the remaining ingredients with ¼ cup water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring often, until thick, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

  2. Step 2

    Transfer to a serving dish and allow to cool. (Sauce will continue to thicken.) Garnish with the reserved lime zest.

Tip
  • You can make this a day ahead. It will continue to stiffen up; if you want a looser cranberry sauce, add a little water and sugar and reheat until simmering, then remove from the heat and cool.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

5 out of 5
381 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

Tina

I have never heard of the chiles listed in the ingredients. Assuming they are dried, can I substitute red crushed pepper?

Brian

This was a huge hit both times I made it. The second time I doubled the amount of chiles for extra heat. We liked the lime garnish so much that I stirred lime zest into the sauce when it had finished cooking. Next time I am going to make extra and can what we can't eat.

George

Add grated ginger.
Stir in ginger and chiles after removing from heat so as not to moderate their effect.

Beautiful Day

I used harissa for heat and some deeper notes and honey instead of the sugar. Very nice.

Jakub

Used pumpkin spice mix for the aromatic spices and added some extra lime, a bay leaf. Tastes surprisingly close to Coca Cola? It's very good... but it does taste like coke.

Carl

This was a tasty addition to Thanksgiving. Holiday hot sauce. I followed the recipe fairly closely, but I roasted one fresh chiltepin (this simmered in the sauce, then was taken out, the skin removed, and the flesh and seeds were mixed back into the sauce) and used two dried arbol chiles because that's what I had on hand. It turned out great! As leftovers, it was great mixed with mayo as a sandwich spread and mixed into chocolate chocolate chip cookie dough for some warming holiday cookies.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.