American Onion Soup Recipes

CLASSIC FRENCH ONION SOUP

Steps:

• Melt the butter together with the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat, then add the white and red onions, leeks, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and salt and pepper to taste, and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until all the onions are caramelized, about 30 minutes.
• Add the sherry and cook until reduced by half, 10 to 15 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Add the beef stock, bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as desired.
• Preheat the broiler. Add the baguette toasts to each soup bowl and ladle soup over the top (they will rise to the top). Top each toast with the cheese and broil until the cheese browns, about 30 seconds.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

Steps:

• Peel and cut the onions into slices to measure 4 cups. In a 4-quart nonstick Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Stir in onions to coat with butter. Cook uncovered 10 minutes, stirring every 3 to 4 minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook uncovered 35 to 40 minutes longer, stirring well every 5 minutes, until onions are deep golden brown (onions will shrink during cooking).
• Stir in broth, water, pepper, thyme and bay leaf. Heat to boiling over high heat. Once mixture is boiling, reduce heat just enough so mixture bubbles gently. Cover with lid; simmer 15 minutes. Meanwhile, shred the Gruyère cheese by rubbing it across the largest holes of a grater to measure 1 cup; set aside.
• You may need to move the oven rack so it is near the broiler. Set the oven control to broil. On a cookie sheet, place the bread slices. Broil with tops about 5 inches from heat 1 to 2 minutes or until golden brown. Turn bread over; broil 1 to 2 minutes longer until golden brown. Place toasted bread in 4 ovenproof bowls or individual ceramic casseroles (do not use glass, which cannot withstand heat of broiler and may break).
• Remove bay leaf from soup. Ladle soup into bowls. Top with Gruyère cheese. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Place bowls in pan with shallow sides.
• Broil soup bowls with tops about 5 inches from heat 1 to 2 minutes or just until cheese is melted and golden brown. Watch carefully so cheese does not burn. Serve with additional French bread if desired.

AMERICAN FRENCH ONION SOUP

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Melt 1/4 cup butter in a large, oven-safe skillet on medium heat. Stir in onions until they are all coated in butter. Transfer skillet to the preheated oven and cook onions, stirring occasionally, until they are tender and well browned, about 1 hour.
• Transfer skillet to the stovetop; cook and stir onions over medium heat until they start to brown and stick to the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes. Pour sherry and vinegar into the pan, and bring to a boil while scraping browned bits of onion off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.
• Place caramelized onions in a large soup pot. Pour in chicken broth, beef broth, and thyme. Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam and fat that appear on top. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about an hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Preheat the oven's broiler and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source.
• Generously brush French bread slices with melted butter. Place on a baking sheet and broil in the preheated oven until crisp and golden, about 5 minutes.
• Ladle soup into heat-proof bowls, top each bowl with a piece of toasted bread, sprinkle with 2 to 3 tablespoons of Cheddar cheese and Monterey Jack cheese.
• Broil bowls of soup under the broiler until cheese is golden and bubbly, 5 to 6 minutes.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

Steps:

• In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, melt butter. Add onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook until the onions are starting to darken and caramelize, about 30 minutes.
• Stir in vinegar and scrape up the brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Add chicken broth, beef broth, thyme, and bay leaves. Simmer until reduced slightly, about 20 minutes. Season to taste salt and pepper.
• Preheat oven broiler on HIGH. Place broiler-safe soup bowls on a rimmed baking sheet. Divide the soup evenly among the 8 bowls (about 1 cup each). Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices and cover with one slice of cheese (or 1/4 cup shredded).
• Broil until the cheese is hot and bubbly, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with parsley, if desired.

NITA'S AMERICAN ONION SOUP

Steps:

• In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, fry 4 strips of bacon until crisp.
• Drain on paper towels.
• Reserve bacon fat for another use.
• In same pan, over low heat, melt butter.
• Add onions and saute them over medium-low heat until onion is somewhat translucent and tender, about 10 minutes.
• Stir frequently until onions caramelize and are golden brown.
• Stir in garlic.
• Remove from heat.
• Do NOT burn.
• In a large pot or Dutch Oven, combine onions, beef broth, Kitchen Bouquet and dark brown sugar.
• Simmer gently for 1 hour, stir occasionally.
• Meanwhile, spray or spread bread of choice with a thin coating of butter.
• Toast lightly and place it in a 225 Degrees F.
• warm oven and allow it to dry out.
• Add wine and oregano to soup.
• Cook for another 20 minutes.
• Add shallots and cook another 5 minutes.
• Season with black pepper.
• Remove bread from oven.
• Increase oven temperature to 350 Degrees F.
• Place oven dried bread (or use Croutons) in 4 ovenproof soup bowls.
• Ladle soup on top and sprinkle with crumbled crisp bacon.
• Cover top of bowls with cheese slices.
• Place in preheated oven and bake about 20 minutes or until cheese melts.
• Serve immediately.
• ENJOY!

BEST FRENCH ONION SOUP (AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN)

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring 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 liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping 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 sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in broths, 2 cups 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 heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.
• While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
• 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.

"AMERICAN" ONION SOUP

Steps:

• First, chop the onions into thin slices. Really any amount of about 4 onions works, but I prefer the taste of these three together. While you are cutting your last onion, start to melt about 4 Tbsp of butter in your pot on a low heat. Bring the heat up to a medium heat and put the onions in the melted butter. With a whisk, stir to coat. Then sprinkle the onions with about 3 Tsp seasoned salt and whisk to distribute evenly. Caramelize the onions - don't stir too often or they won't brown. When the onions get to the point where they are sticking to the pan a bit, grab your apple cider. Pour 1/2 cup of apple cider in, and let the apple cider simmer down so that the onions are almost to the consistency they were before, only with a bit of apple cider still there. Put in 4 TBSP all purpose flour. Whisk this into a roux. It will look like onions mixed with sand almost. When well blended, pour in 3/4 cup beef stock and whisk together until you see no more flour clumps. From there, throw in your 5 bay leaves, pour in 2 1/2 more cups of beef broth, and 3/4 dry white wine. Move to a medium-high heat and get it up to a light boil, then throw in your 3 Tsp Worchester sauce, 2 tsp white pepper, and 1 more tsp of seasoning salt. Let simmer for about 20-ish minutes, or until a bit of the broth cooks down. While the soup is simmering, preheat your oven to the "broil" (or top-broil for some) setting. Cut your french bread - this can be really any white bread from a previous meal - into small cubes. Or better yet - skip the knife and just rip the bread! Throw these into an oven safe soup crock . Once the soup is done, ladle the soup over the bread until there is about 1/4inch of room between the soup and the top of the bowl. Sprinkle with mozzarella first so that the soup is covered with some gaps. Fill in the gaps and cover again with the white cheddar cheese. Put this in your oven to broil for about 4-5 minutes - just keep an eye on it. Let cool and then enjoy!