Easy Homemade French Onion Soup

Say hello to the most delicious homemade French onion soup we’ve ever made. It’s easy, too. Thanks to a simple broth, caramelized onions, garlic-rubbed bread, and melted cheese, it’s the perfect comfort food.

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Related: If you love onions, try our roasted onion dip, it’s become my go-to dip for parties.

How to Make the Best French Onion Soup

Before researching how to make French onion soup, I assumed it was difficult with a long list of ingredients. But, to my surprise, French onion soup is easy to make at home. All you need are a few tips for success and a bit of time.

So what makes for the best French onion soup? The onions. The secret to making rich, intensely flavored soup is how we cook the onions. Caramelizing onions is a simple process:

Thinly slice a lot of onions (by a lot, we need 6 to 7 medium onions for a soup that serves four). I do this by hand, but the slicing disk of a food processor or mandoline slicer makes quick work of this step.

Sweat the onions in butter with the lid ON for about 12 minutes. This step starts the process and releases some liquid from the onions, helping us slowly caramelize the onions later on.

Cook the onions over medium heat, stirring often, until they look golden and caramelized — this takes me somewhere between 40 and 50 minutes. Do you see why we started with so many onions? They cook down a lot!

I know that’s a bit of a process, but trust me, focus on the onions, and you’re 99% there to some of the best-tasting French onion soup you’ve had. As I said above, French onion soup is easy, you just need a little time.

Here are a few more tips when caramelizing the onions:

• Use a wide heavy-bottomed pot, like a Dutch oven, or a wide stainless steel pot, like a Rondeau. Both of these options work well for caramelizing onions.
• Stir the onions often, and ensure you scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom and sides. Incorporating those browned bits helps add color (and flavor) to the onions.
• Pay more attention 20 minutes into cooking, since they cook more quickly at this stage. They can go from browned to burnt if you don’t keep a close eye.
• Use our photos as a guide for when the onions are ready. They will look golden brown and smell caramelized.

When your onions caramelize, you are 99% there. Now it’s time to turn them into a delicious soup. First, we deglaze the pot with sweet vermouth and dry white wine (or my favorite, Lillet Blanc). The vermouth and wine add complexity to the soup. For tips on substituting or leaving them out, see below.

Finishing the Soup

Now it is time for some broth — we love using this homemade chicken broth — fresh thyme and a bit of salt. The broth simmers with the onions for five minutes, and then we turn off the heat and let everything steep like tea while we prepare the bread and cheese. If you don’t have the time to make your own broth, no worries! You can use store-bought chicken broth, instead.

We typically use a French baguette, but you can use any simple rustic bread. Slice it into 1/2-inch slices, toast it, and then rub it with garlic. The garlic is a game-changer, and I honestly don’t know if I could ever enjoy a bowl of French onion soup without garlic-rubbed bread. An great alternative to bread is croutons. I especially love these homemade croutons, which already taste garlicky.

For the cheese, we use Gruyere, and I love it, but you can add or substitute parmesan cheese and possibly a fontina or mozzarella if that is all you have.

This soup is thick, thanks to the bread and all those delicious caramelized onions. Traditionally, French onion soup was a peasant dish using stale bread and onions. Our version isn’t brothy, and the longer the bread sits in the soup, the less broth you’ll have since it soaks it all up (yum).

To slow this down a little, before assembling the soup bowls, we dunk our toasted and garlic-rubbed bread slices in the soup. This way, when you ladle your soup into the bowls, the broth won’t completely disappear on you. You can thank Chef Richard for that tip! It’s such a great idea.

And there you have it, the most delicious homemade French onion soup we’ve ever made. I genuinely hope that you try it! This easy French onion soup recipe is part of our chef series, where we share recipes from our friend and renowned chef, Richard Hattaway. He knocked this one out of the park!

Alternatives to the Alcohol

Our recipe calls for sweet vermouth (or brandy) and dry white wine. If you would prefer to leave out the alcohol, you can. The wine and vermouth make the soup taste more exciting and complex, but it is still quite delicious without them. If you leave them out entirely and find that the soup is missing something, try adding a splash of sherry vinegar and possibly a little Asian fish sauce (I know it sounds odd, but it does wonders in the flavor department of savory dishes like French onion soup.)

On a similar note, if you only have one or the other — say, for example, you have a dry white wine but not sweet vermouth on hand, use what you have. You will lose a bit of complexity, but the soup will still be lovely.

Easy Homemade French Onion Soup

Serves 4

Nutrition Per Serving
Serving Size
1/4 of the recipe
/
Calories
596
/
Total Fat
24.2g
/
Saturated Fat
13.4g
/
Cholesterol
67.4mg
/
Sodium
907.8mg
/
Carbohydrate
64.2g
/
Dietary Fiber
7.7g
/
Total Sugars
21.8g
/
Protein
22.4g

AUTHOR: 

Adam and Joanne Gallagher