The Best French Onion Soup (…ever!)
The last recipe I posted for French Onion soup was from Cook’s Illustrated and the soup came out great. So when I saw that they had an updated recipe, I had to give it a try. The big change between the recipes was that the updated version calls for caramelizing the onions in the oven rather than on the stove top. This change lets you get a lot more flavor out of the onions and means you don’t have to stir the onions every minute. They call this, “The Best French Onion Soup,” and after trying it, I can’t argue!
The Best French Onion Soup
From: Cook’s Illustrated
Serves 6
Notes:
For the best flavor, make the soup a day or 2 in advance. Alternatively, the onions can be prepared through step 1, cooled in the pot, and refrigerated for up to 3 days before proceeding with the recipe.
Ingredients:
Soup
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
- 6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices (Make sure you get Yellow)
- Table salt
- 2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
- 1/2 cup dry sherry
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (They recommend Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken Broth )
- 2 cups beef broth (They recommend Pacific Beef Broth)
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme , tied with kitchen twine
- 1 bay leaf
- Ground black pepper
Cheese Croutons
- 1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)
Directions:
For the soup:
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Generously spray the inside of a heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
- Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.)
- Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping the pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.
- Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.
For the croutons:
- While the soup simmers, arrange the baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in a 400-degree oven until the bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
To serve:
- Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.
Equipment Used:
The Best of Cookography
I tried this and it didn’t come out good at all. It was just like a big bowl of oatmeal when I served it.
[...] Photo Credit: Cookography [...]
I have made this twice and haven’t got it to come out very good. I think the problem is in the carmelization/deglazing process. I think I may be geting the onions too carmalized, almost to the burnt stage. The last time I made it by the time I got to the third deglazing the onions were a very, very dark brown; not quite blackish-brown, but very, very dark. Almost too dark I thought. Now the question is – Is it important to get through thoses 3 or 4 deglazings or is the endpoint just to get the onions a dark brown whether it takes one or two deglazings? Perhaps I have the heat too high and need to lower it some more (it is on low to medium low). Oh….also by the time I got to the third deglazing, the onions were almost mushy in consistancy. Is that the waty they are supposed to be or am I slicing the onions too thin?
Thanks for any help.
[...] Recipe Here [...]
Finally got around to making this soup—I couldn’t wait to try it! It is just as good as you promised. We enjoyed it with a great pinot noir…
I will try this recipe but am wondering if the onions can be caramelized in a crock pot, then finish the soup in that pot….what do you think?
A crock pot can be an excellent choice. The main differences between types of contact heat sources is conductivity and surface texture. The critical component here is sufficient heat to caramelize the onions and this will depend on the individual slow cooker. Temperature must reach 210-230 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on certain variables.
I have achieved excellent results by leaving the onions with almost no stirring for up to ten hours. Just keep an eye on them the first time you do this.
Resist the idea that deglazing must be done several times. Any experienced cook should understand why this is absurd.
Deglazing here is necessary if the heat is high enough to create a crust on the surface of the pot. But the temperature range between caramelization and forming a crust is wide, and you may need only minor deglazing when the stock is added.
Finally, use real stock. Canned stock will result in canned soup. There is no comparison.
I made a variation of this over the weekend. I used sweet onions and cooked them on the stove top for a couple of hours yesterday with some water. Then refrigerated over night. This morning I put the pot n the oven, lid on, at 350 degrees for an hour then took the lid off and increased oven to 400 degrees for another hour. This finished carmelizing the onions in then removed the pan (dutch oven) to the stove and deglazed with sherry and 1/4 cup red wine. I made my own chicken stock which I added along with 1/2 cp frozen veal demi glacé stock instead of beef broth. I added about double the thyme and simmered for about half an hour.
The croutons were sourdough baguette sliced n a dias and grilled n olive oil on both sides on a panini. Then topped with shredded gruyere and parmesan cheese and under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Delicious!
Yet another great example of time=taste!
I’ve made this dish two times so far and will be making it a third time next week for my fathers birthday. He thaught me how to make onion soup and ever since i’ve been working to improve his recipe, but i’m pretty sure this is going to be the version i’ll learn my kids.
I made only one little ajustment to the recipe: i replace half of the thyme with lavender. It creates a whole new layer of flavour which suprises people. They will love it, but they wont know what it is, until you tell them.
really exactlly the same recipe hich i used to prepare in olive ……………….
This was a excellent recipe. I followed it to the letter…except (there’s always an except)Swanson puts out a “unsalted” not low salt stock both in the chicken and beef which I used.Also I like my onion soup chock full of onions so next time I’ll add another 4-6 depending on size.But aside from those minor changes….worth the time in the kitchen.
I have to say, I’ve made this recipe at least 3 times. It is very time consuming but well worth it. It isn’t salty and the flavor is wonderful. I’ve had people try it who say it’s the best they have ever tasted. For those of you who have troubles, I’m thinking maybe you rushed the cooking? You don’t need to tend too much, but it takes a good 5 hours of cooking time and needs patience. This is the number one recipe in my book. And, now I know why it costs upwards of $6 a crock in a restaurant. We skip some calories by eliminating the bread and having a small amount of reduced fat swiss instead. But try it and adjust as you need to. It really is fabulous. Thank you for sharing. It’s a number one in my book.
[...] Best French Onion: Ingredients include unsalted butter, yellow onions, water, dry sherry, low-sodium chicken broth, beef broth, fresh thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper, baguette and shredded Gruyere cheese. Found at Cookography. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Posted in Happy Foodie Holidays | Tagged Easy Soup, Fussy Foodie, Happy Foodie Holiday, National Homemade Soup Day, Orlando Eats, Orlando Food, Soup, Sweet tomatoes, Top 25 Soup List, Yelp.com [...]
[...] Recipe adapted from the blog Cookography.com. [...]
I have never made french onion soup before. I substituted provolone for the gruyere cheese and this was absolutely the best onion soup I have ever eaten. I will definitely make it again. A little time consuming, but I cooked other stuff while I was making it! I highly recommend this recipe!
I was disappointed, my onions turned black and I had to discard them. I would recommend a lower temperature as my onions turned black while I still supposedly had another 1/2 hour or so to go.
I would check Herbs response below not all ovens are accurate ,you could go to the Cook’s website they have a recommended oven thermometer and the correct way to learn how to get a proper reading. (You can join for free for 2 weeks) These people are maniacs when it comes to making,testing,and tasting things to perfection.
I have used them as my go to source in the kitchen for decades
I will have to defer to Julia Childs recipe…She adds cognac to finish it off and she also makes a roux after browning the onions. This adds more flavor, and of course thickens the broth. She also adds a cup or so of wine (red or white) for additional flavor. This is not to say that Cooks suggestion of browning in the oven doesn’t work, I am sure it does. I personally like to brown my own onions so I an control the darkness et. al. Julia also added the cheese directly to the bowl, added more on the top, places it in the oven and baked it. This is amazing too. Try the Cognac, I know some of you have already. I just put a tsp in each bowl. These are my thoughts only…
have not used this recipe but something similar. have problems getting the taste just right. not enough bite in it or just missing something. used all same ingredients. any suggestions?
The solution is to make real broth. This recipe is fine once you do that. There just no other way. To try to make French food with Swanson and Pacific products is like making a Bentley with Naugahyde and a ‘genuine’ Formica wood burled dashboard.
What this recipe will get you is “French style” food. There’s a reason French cooking is admired the world over. The French know how to cook, and take the time to do it. Making stock is fun, easy, and cheaper. And at the same time you can make enough for a Bourguignon and a brown sauce for later.
You can do it.
“Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.”
When I returned the pot to the oven w/the lid slightly ajar, and came back after an hour to stir again (I was out shoveling snow), my onions were black! Was I supposed to lower the oven temp?
I’ve used this method numerous times with excellent success (minor changes to the broth to add depth). Never once have I had black onions. Do you think your oven temp is too high? An oven can be 50° off in some cases. A simple oven thermometer will tell you and they aren’t that expensive.
add a touch of Worcestershire for more depth.
Great!
I’ve been cooking for 50 years-have never heard of this method. Sounds great-thre onions are in my oven right now! Thanks.
Incredible recipe. Oddly enough, I’d been thinking I would love to make French Onion Soup, IF ONLY I didn’t have to stand there and stir the onions, and wondered if I couldn’t carmelize the onions in the oven. Then…I found this! It is so easy and so delicious. I can truthfully say, it’s the best French Onion Soup I’ve ever made, or eaten anywhere at any time. How’s that for an indorcement? Bravo
I made this recipe for our family Christmas Dinner…It was fantastic!!!!!! LOVED IT! I make a good french onion soup but with the baking of the onions and the ingredients that the recipe called for was really the BEST I’v had!!!At first I was not going to use all the onions (its a lot) but glad that I did since they bake down so much and I’m glad that I made it 3 days before..the favor was right there,,,!!! Thank-you so much for the recipe……its a keeper!!!!!!!!!!
I made this for my birthday celebration and it turned out fantastic. I bought prime rib bones (they were cheap) and made my own beef stock so the flavor was rich and lovely with much less salt. Cooking the onions in the oven was great! I will cook batches of carmelized onions and freeze them for future use using this method. LOVED IT and so did my guests.
[...] camp. There’s apple cider in some, and balsamic vinegar in others. Some recipes include three hours of baking onions. Some use chicken stock, some use beef stock and some use a [...]
[...] a link to the recipe which is a cooks test kitchen recipe. Pretty easy to make and smells great. The Best French Onion Soup (…ever!) Everyone has a plan until they get hit– M. Tyson Reply With Quote + [...]
I made this over Thanksgiving – nothing like a major holiday to test drive a recipe, I always say. Anyway, it came out very well. I made rather a lot, and we found that the flavours were enhanced after 3 days in the ‘fridge. I am making it again for Christmas, and I will do it on the 23rd so it is suitably matured. Very nice recipe. Thank you.