DIALED IN – A series of recipes that I’ve got dialed in, these are tried, tested and true. When I’m cooking something new, I’ll generally look at handfuls of recipes and come up with a general idea of what’s needed. Some use this instead of that, blah blah. The recipes in this series are the best versions of those compilations I’ve found.
Today we’ve got French Onion Soup. Probably my wife’s favorite soup and especially good when the weather turns cold. You can prep the most time consuming part of this recipe at any point ahead of time to cut down on active time in the kitchen when you’re hungry.
For this recipe, start off with 5 pounds of onions, I know it sounds like alot but make sure you get that much. When you weigh them at the store you might be surprised to know this was only 4, what I would call “normal” size onions. You can use white or yellow here, I went with yellow because they were cheaper and generally looked better than the white ones at the store that day. I’d recommend the yellows for sure.
Slice all these root to stem and start caramelizing them. This can take a few hours depending on how much time and attention you want to dedicate to it. If you don’t want to stand over the pot constantly stirring, you’ll need really low heat (2/10) and it can take easily 2 hours. Or, bump the heat up medium/medium high and watch it closer to cut that time way down, sometimes as low as 20-30 minutes.
Once caramelized, you can stop here by putting the onions in a tupperware in the fridge, or carry right on to the soup. The rest of the process takes about 30 minutes.
Dialed In – French Onion Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 Pounds Yellow Onions Sliced root to stem
- 6 TBSP Butter
- 4 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
- 2 Count Bay Leaves
- 1/4 Cup Sherry Cooking Wine Critical to flavor
- 3 TBSP Flour All Purpose
- 4 Cups Beef Broth The best quality you can get, but boxed is an acceptable alternative here
- 1.5 Cups Chicken Broth From Better Than Bouillon Paste
- 1 TBSP Better Than Bouillon Beef Paste
- 3 TSP Worcestershire Sauce
- Salt and Pepper To Taste
- 1 Count Baguette
- 1 Package Gruyere cheese Sliced moderately thin
Instructions
- Peel and cut all the onions root to stem to get nice 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices
- Heat the butter in a large pot over very low heat (2/10) and when melted add the onions and a big pinch of salt. Turn and toss to coat the onions
- For the next 2 hours toss the onions and scrape the bottom of the pot every 15 minutes. If you notice that any of them are taking on color lower the heat, and/or add a splash of your broth to slow them down.
- When the onions have caramelized to your liking. Add the flour and stir well to combine. Let this cook for 3-4 minutes as is.
- Add the beef broth, beef paste, chicken broth, worcestershire sauce, bay leaves and thyme to the pot slowly. Stir to combine and bring to a light simmer.
- Stir the pot a few times over the next 30 minutes and get ready to serve. The soup is technically done as soon as you add all the ingredients but a solid 30-60 minutes here really makes the flavor come out. You can leave this on very low heat simmering for however long you want. Or, turn the heat off after 30 minutes and then back on to warm through when ready to serve.
- While the soup is simmering, slice a baguette into 1/2 inch thick slices, brush or rub some olive oil on both sides and bake in a preheated 350deg oven for 5-6 minutes until starting to get crispy.
- When the bread is toasty, add the sliced cheese and either put back in the 350deg oven until melted, or turn on the broiler and melt the cheese. Optionally you can torch the cheese if you have a kitchen torch.
- To serve, ladle in the soup and top with however many slices of the cheese toast you can fit on top of the bowl. Keep an eye out for the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
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