French Onion Soup

At a glance

What stands out: In this classic French onion soup recipe, sweet caramelized onions and rich beef broth are topped with a crusty slice of bread smothered in melty Gruyère cheese. The flavor is standout!

How long it takes: about 90 minutes to caramelize the onions and an additional 20 minutes to make the soup
Equipment you’ll need: large heavy covered pan (Dutch oven)
Servings: 8

Caramelized Onions = French Onion Soup

Last week, we caramelized a big pan of onions and shared how to make caramelized onions with you. From there, our mind naturally turned toward French onion soup, one of our absolute favorites. French onion soup looks and tastes so impressive but the ingredients are pretty basic: onions, beef broth, cheese, bread.

We encourage you to to try this onion soup recipe. It’s not difficult to make and the flavor of from-scratch French onion soup can’t be beat. The toasty bread floating on top makes it total bliss!

From-scratch French Onion Soup

It’s all about the caramelized onions. While caramelized onions are simple, just sweet yellow onions, butter and olive oil, they do take some time. You’ll need a large heavy pan with a lid, and about an hour and a half. The onions have to cook at a low heat for a long time for caramelization to occur. It’s a chemical process that can’t be hurried along.

Much of the cooking time is hands-off time. The good thing is that the onions don’t need a lot of attention as they cook. Give them a stir once in awhile to see how they’re doing (hello, onions, how’re you doing in there?). That’s pretty much it.

What goes in

• Onions: Look for large sweet onions, about 12 to 14 ounces each. The onions are cooked in a blend of olive oil and butter to give them rich flavor.
• Dry White Wine: Choose a dry wine that you would drink but not the most expensive wine on the shelf.
• Dry Sherry or Brandy: Used to deglaze the pan, dry sherry or brandy enriches the flavor of the soup, along with the white wine. It’s the secret ingredient that makes this soup shine. Don’t use cooking sherry because it has added salt and preservatives.
• Beef Stock: Look for a standby beef stock you can find. Ideally, we’d make our own beef stock but that’s time-consuming and would deter most cooks from trying this soup. We usually look for a lower sodium broth so the soup isn’t too salty.
• Fresh Thyme, Dried Bay Leaves, Nutmeg: Thyme complements the onions and beef evenly. You’ll need three sprigs, a couple of bay leaves, and a pinch of nutmeg.
• Crusty Bread: French bread works well. Keep in mind that a whole slice should be able to float inside the bowls you plan on using.
• Gruyère Cheese: This Swiss cheese has a mild nutty flavor and is the traditional cheese chosen to top French onion soup. It melts especially well if you shred your own cheese from a block.

How it comes together

Let’s get started on this iconic soup. We'll walk you through the recipe and give you lots of helpful tips.

Prep the onions. Peel and rinse the onions, cut them in half, and slice each half into quarter inch slices, i.e. half moons. It looks like a huge pile of onions and it is! You’ll be amazed at how much they cook down as they caramelize but you will need a large pan to hold them all. A heavy pan works best. The onions will burn more easily in a light weight pan and you’ll have to watch them much more closely.

How to slice onions with no tears

We try to wear our contacts when we slice onions. It does seem to help with stinging and tears. If you’re not a contact wearer, a fan blowing directly across your work area will blow the fumes away. A sharp knife is essential because the onion is cut more cleanly and not crushed. Some people find that soaking the peeled halved onions in ice water for 30 minutes reduces the tears.

Cook the onions. Over medium heat, melt the butter and olive together in the pan. Once the butter has melted, add the onions, season with salt, and stir well.

Cover the pan and cook the onions for 10 minutes. The moisture in the onions will create steam and get them softening.

Uncover the pan, stir the onions, and turn the heat down.

Let the onions cook slowly over low heat, uncovered, for sixty to ninety minutes. We know, that’s a long time, but good things take a while, right? Give the onions a stir once in awhile to make sure they aren’t sticking. If they seem to be browning too quickly or sticking, turn the heat down.

As you get closer to the end of the cooking time, you’ll have to stir the onions more often. They should be deep golden brown and be soft, almost jammy but still retaining their shape.

Add soup ingredients. When the onions are caramelized, add the garlic and flour, and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. The garlic should smell fragrant and the flour will coat the onions. Increase the heat to medium and add the wine and sherry.

Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any browned bits. This is called “deglazing”. The liquid will reduce in volume and a good share of the alcohol will be burned off (but not all of it).

Add broth and seasonings. Add the broth to the pan, along with the nutmeg, thyme, bay leaves, and black pepper.

Simmer. Cook the soup over low heat for ten to fifteen minutes. The soup should be steaming hot. If you want to hold off on serving the soup for awhile, turn the heat to low and keep the soup hot but not boiling.

If your soup seems too thick, add a cup or two of extra broth.

Get ready to serve the soup. Turn the broiler on and remember to remove the bay leaves and thyme sprigs!

Presentation is a big part of the allure of this classic soup. Put a ladleful of soup in each bowl (about 1 cup), add a slice of crusty French bread and a handful of grated cheese. Broil briefly until the cheese has melted. Watch it closely! You don’t want it to burn.

Serve immediately. Warn everyone that their soup bowls are HOT! A crisp green arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette rounds out this meal evenly, along with a glass of the Chardonnay you opened for the soup.

Soup Ramekins

The sturdy soup crocks with little handles aren’t just for presentation. They are oven-safe. important because they have to go under the broiler briefly. The handle isn’t absolutely essential but it’s nice to have something to grab onto with an oven mitt.

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Ways to change it

• Don’t have heat-proof ramekins? Sprinkle the shredded cheese on a slice of bread and broil the bread and cheese. Add the toasted cheese to the top of the soup.
• Substitute cubed bread or croutons. French onion soup can be a little tricky to eat neatly. From-scratch croutons (or try air fryer croutons) are a good way to solve that problem and they are straightforward to mix. Add a handful of croutons to the top of the soup, sprinkle on cheese, and broil.
• Alcohol-free: If you prefer to make your soup without wine or spirits, deglaze the pan with a mixture of beef broth and white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar (which doesn’t contain alcohol). Put three tablespoons of vinegar in a measuring cup and fill the cup to ¾ cup with broth.
• More French onion recipes: Be sure to try our from-scratch French onion dip, a classic dip with potato chips. Instead of using a purchased packet of dry onion soup, try our all-natural, preservative-free onion soup mix. Add it to meatloaf, dips, burgers, soups, and more.

Make Ahead Ideas

Make the caramelized onions up to 4 days in advance and refrigerate. To start the soup, warm the onions in the soup pan, then continue with the recipe as directed.

The soup can also be made ahead and either refrigerated or frozen. To serve, heat the soup on the stove, ladle into the ramekins and proceed with the recipe.

Keeping leftovers

French onion soup will keep three to four days in the refrigerator. It also freezes well, for up to three months. Store the bread and cheese separately.

• Yield: 8
• Prep: 10 minutes
• Cook: 1 hour 50 minutes
• Total: 2 hours

Ingredients

For caramelized onions:

• 6 large sweet onions (12 to 14 ounces each, see note)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

For soup:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• ½ cup dry white wine (see note)
• ¼ cup dry sherry or brandy
• 6 cups beef stock, up to 8 cups if desired (to reduce sodium, use low sodium or no salt added broth)
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated nutmeg preferred)
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

For topping:

• 8 slices crusty bread, ½ -inch to ¾ -inch thick (French bread works well- see note)
• 1 ½ cups grated Gruyère cheese

Method

1. Peel the onions and slice them into ¼-inch thick half moons.
2. In a very large covered pan (we use our Dutch oven), heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add onions and salt and toss to coat with oil.
3. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Uncover, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally (you’ll need to stir more often towards the end), until onions are cooked down and a deep golden brown, about 60 to 90 minutes. If needed, adjust heat to low. You want the onions to cook slowly without drying out. If absolutely necessary, add a splash of water to the pan.
5. When the onions have caramelized, add garlic and flour and cook, stirring, for one minute or until fragrant.
6. Increase heat to medium and add wine and sherry and cook until slightly reduced, scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan, 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Add 6 cups beef stock, nutmeg, thyme, bay leaves, and black pepper, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until heated through. If desired, add more stock for a more brothy soup (will affect yield and nutrition). Carefully remove bay leaves and thyme stems.
8. Spoon soup into oven-safe ramekins or mini casserole dishes (see note). Top with bread and grated cheese and broil on high until cheese is melted (watch closely!). Serve immediately.

Notes

Onions: Be sure to use large sweet onions, not the smaller yellow cooking onions. If the onions are smaller or larger than 14 to 16 ounces, keep the total weight to 4½ and 5¼ pounds. That sounds like a LOT of onions but they cook down.

Wine/sherry: we prefer chardonnay aged in oak because it enhances the flavor of the caramelized onions. Be sure to use a dry wine, not a sweet wine. The same goes for the sherry. Dry sherry has little residual sugar and a fairly high alcohol content (15% to 22%) and is a standby choice for this recipe. We usually use Taylor Dry Sherry.

Alcohol-free: If you prefer to make your soup without wine or spirits, deglaze the pan with a mixture of beef broth and white wine vinegar or sherry vinegar (which doesn’t contain alcohol). Put three tablespoons of vinegar in a measuring cup and fill the cup to ¾ cup with broth.

Without ramekins: If you don’t have oven-safe ramekins or mini casserole dishes, you can place bread slices on a sheet pan, sprinkle with cheese, and broil them. When ready to serve, add soup to bowls and top with cheesy bread slices.

Toast option: For a non-traditional but easier to eat version of French onion soup, cut the bread into bite-sized cubes instead of slices. From-scratch croutons are a good alternative, too.