caramelized onions Archives - The Midnight Baker

Classic French Onion Soup

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 16 Jan 2022 00:07:38 +0000

Classic French onion soup is not difficult to make at all. It just takes time but it’s worth it.

Classic French Onion Soup

The first thing that comes to mind when anyone thinks of French cuisine almost always is classic French onion soup.

Sure, it comes frozen and in cans–it always did–but there’s something so special when you make your own. Since making your own, including the stock, gives the soup your own special “flair.”

I readily admit to not using my own homemade stock in this since there’s so many good ones on the market–often for less cost than making your own.

There is another shortcut you can use which will make this soup set up in a jiffy so read on.

Caramelized Onions

If you make this soup from scratch, this is the most involved part of the entire process. It’s not hard; actually, it’s quite easy. However, it is a tedious process where you have to stir and watch closely.

There’s a way to eliminate that process. You let your slow cooker do all the work! Since I started making slow cooker caramelized onions, I always have them on hand for other things. They freeze very well.

One caveat about the slow cooker method is that your entire house will smell like onions. So what I do is put the slow cooker out on my screen porch to do it’s magic. A garage works equally as well.

Bread And Cheese

A baguette is the best bread to use for this soup. It’s relatively narrow and had a good texture that won’t become soggy easily. that’s provided the soup is served almost immediately. Regular French bread can be used in a pinch if you can’t get a baguette. Of course your own homemade bread is best if you have it. The bread must also be lightly toasted and dried out making it somewhat like melba toast.

As for the cheese, Swiss is most often used, but it’s not imperative. In fact, I prefer this with a nice aged and piquant provolone cheese. It makes the taste a lot more interesting because of the bolder flavor. But any melting cheese will do so use one you love.

The Recipe

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Classic Onion Soup

Comforting and delicious

Prep Time25

Cook Time1

Course: Appetizer, Main, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: French

Keyword: classic french onion soup, main course soups, slow cooker carmaleized onions

Servings: 6

Calories: 375kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 cups sliced onions
2 tbs butter
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbs flour
2 quarts beef stock
1/2 cup brandy or white wine/vermouth
2 sprigs fresh thyme optional
1 baguette or small French bread cut in 1/2-inch/1.25-cm slices
6 slices Swiss cheese or provolone
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Toast the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a 300F/150C oven until the edges just begin to get golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside
To caramelize the onions--melt butter over medium heat in a dutch oven. Add the oil. Add the sliced onions and stir to coat with the butter/oil. Saute the onions for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, then stir in the sugar, cover the pot and cook for another 5 minutes (this is to cook the onions), stir occasionally. Remove the cover and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are a nice deep brown. This will take about 30 minutes. Alternately, you may prepare the onions ahead by following this recipe beginning at the step 3 below where the flour is added--do not use additional butter/oil.
Stir the flour into the onions and cook for 2 minutes to cook the flour. Add the brandy or vermouth, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the stock, and thyme if using, bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
Place soup in 6 individual soup crocks (mine are 18 oz each). Set your broiler too high. Top each soup crock with 1 or 2 slices of baguette, place Swiss cheese over the bread and divide the Parmesan cheese evenly over each crock.
Place under the broiler and remove when cheese is melted, about 1 minute.

Nutrition

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French Caramelized Onion Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 23:00:42 +0000

French caramelized onion chicken is always a hit with anyone that tastes it. There’s many recipes for it, but this one is the best.

Insanely Popular

Like most recipes, there’s nothing new under the sun. This recipe fits into that category too. Over the years I’ve seen renditions of this with every kind of meat. I even have something similar made with ground beef.

Recently, a friend made this again for her family and posted about it on a Facebook cooking group we both belong to. Well, it took off with members making it with many different substitutions and to suit low-cal and keto diet plans. The response was enormous.

I based this off my friend Lillian’s recipe because hers didn’t rely on convenience ingredients. If anyone would like to see some of Lillian’s recipes from the days she’d blog–sadly she doesn’t anymore-just visit My Recipe Journey.

Make-Ahead Onions

The one step in the recipe that takes the most time is caramelizing the onions. I admit that I don’t like making them because it needs almost constant attention to avoid burning. I also don’t look forward to standing, watching and stirring for 30 minutes or more.

However, a few years ago I discovered that I can make caramelized onion very easily and the trick is to do them in a slow cooker. This way, you can make a load of them, use what you need and freeze the rest. Yep, they freeze well so it saves you time for when another recipe calls for caramelized onions.

Choose Your Cheese

Any melting cheese will work with this recipe.

I chose to use the standard Swiss cheese because if you want to get technical and authentic here, that’s what the French would use.

Lillian chose to make it with provolone. I can really get behind that because it would add tons of flavor and provolone is one of my favorite cheeses.

Jack cheese and colby would be good choices too, as well as mozzarella.

The Recipe

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French Caramelized Onion Chicken

Great family dinner everyone will love

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: French

Keyword: chicken breasts with cheese, french onion chicken, using provolone cheese

Servings: 4

Calories: 677kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

2 lbs onions sliced see NOTES
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
2 cups beef broth
1 cup swiss cheese grated
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil divided
2 tbs all-purpose flour
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º F/180C.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large, oven-proof pan or skillet over medium heat. Add onions, season with salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, or until softened and caramelized.
If you have caramelized onions you may skip the step above and just proceed to the next step
Add balsamic vinegar and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until darkened, but not burned.
Remove onions from heat and transfer to a medium bowl.
Heat remaining olive oil in skillet and raise heat to medium-high.
Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, thyme and sage, then place in skillet and sear on both sides until golden brown. Remove chicken from heat and set aside.
Pour beef broth into skillet and bring mixture to a boil, scraping up stuck bits from the bottom of pan.
Return heat to medium-low and whisk in flour, stirring until smooth. Cook for 5-7 minutes, or until mixture has thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
Return chicken and onions to pan, stir together with beef gravy, then top with grated swiss cheese.
Transfer skillet to oven and cook until cheese is melted and bubbly, and chicken is cooked through.
Remove from oven and serve hot

Notes

If you pre-made the caramelized onions, skip the onion cooking step and omit 2 tbs of oil.

Video

Nutrition

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Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

Judith Hannemann — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00:37 +0000

Need caramelized onions? Let your slow cooker do all the work!

Caramelized onions are a really special treat–and can be used in lots of recipes. French Onion Soup is the best-known use for caramelized onions, but there are many others too.

They are pretty easy to make the conventional way, but that way is quite tedious. You have to babysit the onions, stirring every couple of minutes and making sure the heat under them is low, low, low. The process seems to take forever and for me, it was about 45 minutes to one hour. Needless to say with arthritis in my hip, this was a process I’d preferred to avoid, so I’d make a lot at one time and freeze them. Caramelized onions do freeze well.

Then I was reading an article in The Kitchn about making them in the crock pot. The crock pot cooks low and slow so it’s the perfect environment for these onions. When most of us discover this method, we take to hitting ourselves upside the head that we never thought of this ourselves. Overlooking the obvious!

That article gives a basic recipe which works out just great, but you can always make additions like I do.

Many times I’ll add some herbs in, like thyme which I do like and goes well with most dishes that contain the onions. One sprig is all it takes–you want a whisper, not a big bite in the butt as far as the herb flavors go. So get creative and do your own flavored versions. After all, it’s no work at all making them with the crock pot method.

First of all you have to slice your onions really thin no matter what method you use. I tend to leave the root end in tact when I slice so the onion doesn’t separate. And the way to slice is different than just chopping onions–you slice parallel to the root as shown below.

Then basically all you do is mix these up with some oil or butter and seasonings and dump them all in your slow cooker. FYI they reduce like crazy so make sure you use the appropriate-sized cooker. The cooker should be 2/3 full. Three huge onions filled my 4 qt cooker 2/3 full.

You can stir periodically–they’ll caramelize a bit more evenly–but it’s not necessary. You can extend the cook time with the lid ajar to get a deeper color and make the liquid get a bit more “jam like” in consistency. I didn’t end up with any water/liquid at all after the base cooking time, but I did extend the cook time with the lid ajar to get a deeper color.

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Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

Need caramelized onions? Let your slow cooker do all the work!

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time10 10

Course: condiments, Tips/Tricks/Methods, vegetarian dishes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: carmelized onions, slow cooker recipes

Servings: 1 cup

Calories: 508kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3-5 very large onions baseball sized, sliced (see photo and description in post)
3 tbsp olive oil -OR- melted unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp sugar
pinch of white pepper
1 small sprig fresh thyme optional

Instructions

Mix sliced onions with all the ingredients in a large bowl--mix up well so the onions are coated with the oil/melted butter.
Place in a 4-6 quart slow cooker (see NOTES)
Cook on low 10 hours, stirring every so often if desired.
For deeper color, cook an additional 2-3 hours on low with the lid ajar.

Notes

Choose the correct size cooker--the cooker must be at least 1/2 full with raw onions. If you use too large a cooker, the onions (like anything else) will burn and overcook. If you only have a large-size crock pot, double or triple the recipe. THESE FREEZE WELL so if you have to make a lot, you'll always have on hand.

Nutrition

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Fontina & Caramelized Onion Stuffed Pork Chops

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Fontina & Caramelized Onion Stuffed Pork Chops

These easy stuffed pork chops combine the nuttiness of fontina with the sweetness of caramelized onions all topped off with a tangy red currant glaze.

I know this looks and sounds terribly gourmet, but these stuffed pork chops are actually very easy to make!

The only labor-intensive part is making the caramelized onions. But there’s a plus there too–if you make a big batch, they can be frozen for easy use. There’s a link in the recipe for a great stovetop method from Elyse of Simply Recipes and here’s one for Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions.

If doing them in the crockpot, it’s a good idea to place the cooker outside or in a garage. Otherwise your house will smell like onions. I don’t mind…but you might.

They only look hard to make

The idea for this, or rather the glaze, came from an old recipe in Taste of Home where you placed cornbread stuffing sandwiched in between 2 chops and repeated the chop-cornbread until you ran out of each, then tied it all together to form a “roast.” That roast was glazed with red currant jelly and it tasted fantastic.

I thought that would be good here with the cheese too since I’ve been seeing a lot of baked brie with fruit preserves.

The currant jelly works well with these flavors just as I thought. They all blend and marry so well.

My pork chops were very thick, so they took a little over an hour to get done. I’d advise checking after 45 minutes with an insta-read thermometer though as you don’t want them to dry out.

Bursting with delicious flavors

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Fontina & Caramelized Onion Stuffed Pork Chops

These easy stuffed pork chops combine the nuttiness of fontina with the sweetness of caramelized onions all topped off with a tangy red currant glaze

Prep Time15

Cook Time1 25

Total Time1 40

Course: Pork

Cuisine: American

Keyword: stuffed pork chops

Servings: 4

Calories: 575kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 about 1-1.5-inches thick bone-in rib pork chops
1/2 cup red currant jelly
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder

STUFFING

1/2 cup caramelized onions
1 cup shredded fontina cheese
1/4 cup soft breadcrumbs
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt

Instructions

*2 thinly sliced bone-in rib chops may be substituted for 1 thick loin chop. Stuffing is then sandwiched between the 2 chops
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet or rectangular baker with foil for easy clean up.
Mix all stuffing ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside.
Cut a deep pocket in each chop
VIDEO-How To Cut Pocket In Pork Chops
Divide stuffing into 4 equal portions; stuff each chop and place on prepared pan.
Brush each chop with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt & garlic powder.
Roast at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Brush each chop with currant jelly.
Return to oven and cook for 15-20 more minutes, or until chops are done and no pink remains in meat (thinner chops will require less time--about 45 minutes TOTAL cook time).
Brush with additional currant jelly before serving.

Nutrition

Fontina & Caramelized Onion Stuffed Pork Chops

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