How to Caramelize Onions: With this one basic caramelized onion recipe, you can add these slow cooked, deeply flavored, and tender onions to dips, quiches, risotto, and serve them atop grilled steak, or inside grilled cheese sandwiches (just to name a few ideas!). This is a kitchen staple recipe you need in your repertoire.

If, in the 9 years that I’ve been teaching myself to cook, there has been more of an elusive food for me to make, it has been caramelized onions.

Every single time I attempt to make them, they turn out differently. And since I love them so dearly, I want them to be perfect every.single.time. !!

Sometimes I add sugar, sometimes I don’t.

Some recipes say they only need to be cooked for 20-25 minutes (or amazingly less than 10); others state 40-45 minutes.

Or, do I just wing-it?

Non-stick, cast iron, or stainless steel pan?

Don’t fuss with the onions while they cook or stir often?

White or vidalias? Butter or oil? Or both??

Seriously, could cooking onions not be more freaking difficult?

So I decided recently that it was time to really buckle down and tuck this kitchen staple under my belt.  This recipe is simple – as it should be for something as basic as onions – but it requires some patience.

I’m not hugely picky about how I slice my onions but Cook’s Illustrated is. Surprised?

So I sliced each onion in half through the root and chopped off each raggedy end.

I then spun the onion half 90 degrees and made 1/4-inch slices.  No stringy onions in this house!

You’re going to start with way more onions than you think you may ever need – 2 pounds, sliced is a lot of onion slices.  And yes, you’ll use both butter and oil. 

The best of both worlds here!

It turns out that cooking perfect caramelized onions really do take 45 minutes to cook, if you want them butter-soft, dark golden brown, and richly flavored. 

You’ll need to have a good handle on the heat of your stove and you’ll want to make sure you do actually stir them often, especially towards the end of the cooking time.

And for the love of all things good, let them cook!

After 25 minutes or so, you’ll think they are done (top photo on the page) but don’t be hasty and rush them. They’ll be really browned and soft but trust me – they will withstand another 20 minutes in the pan. 

You want the onions to have almost no bite left, for them to feel almost sticky, and for the color to be a really, really deep and delicious brown (last photo on page).

Once you feel like they are starting to stick to the pan, take them off the heat. Your glorious caramelized onions will be done and you can beam in the light of their perfection. 

Wait. Is that just me? 

Use these beautifully caramelized onions on burgers, steak, hot dogs (uh, hell yeah!), grilled cheese, in loaded baked potatoes, in pasta dishes, homemade onion dip, fritattas, rustic savory tarts, quiches, risotto, or tartlets (just to name a few). 

I have a few new recipes ideas that use up these onions and I know they’re going to be delicious!!

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How to Caramelize Onions

Yield: 1 cup caramelized onions

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Knowing how to caramelize onions is one of the greatest techniques to have in your kitchen repertoire. With this one basic caramelized onion recipe, you can add them to dips, quiches, risotto, and serve them atop grilled steak, just to name a few ideas! These deeply flavored and tender onions are utterly delicious and once you taste them, you'll know they were worth the time it took to make them.

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (canola, grapeseed, safflower)
• ½ tsp table salt
• 1 tsp light brown sugar
• 2 lb large white onions, root end cut off, halved end to end, peeled, and sliced ¼-inch thick across the grain
• 1 tbsp water
• Ground black pepper

Instructions

1. In a 12-inch skillet, heat butter and oil together over high heat until the butter is melted. Stir in the salt and brown sugar until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the onions and mix them up to coat them with the butter and oil. Cook onions for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the start to soften.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently (and even more so towards the end), about 40 minutes. The onions should be very deep golden brown in color and should be almost completely soft when tasted. If the onions are browning too fast or starting to burn, reduce the heat. You'll need to keep a close eye on them towards the end of the cooking time as they can easily burn at this point.
3. Off the heat, stir in the water and season with black pepper to taste. Store for up to 1 week in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Notes

adapted from The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

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• 
  Cook's Illustrated Cookbook: 2,000 Recipes from 20 Years of America's Most Trusted Cooking Magazine
• 
  Lodge 12 Inch Cast Iron Skillet

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