The Best French Onion Soup is a bistro dinner made with yellow onions, dry white wine and Gruyere, ready in 1 hour 55 minutes. The pot fills eight 12-ounce crocks, each one capped with a baguette slice. Half a cup of cheese melts over every bowl under the broiler.
I slice the onions stem to root rather than crosswise, so they hold their shape through the long cook. Dry white wine goes in instead of the sherry or red most versions use, which keeps the broth clean rather than jammy. Eight onions sounds absurd until they collapse to almost nothing.
The onions need a full hour over medium heat, and they stick and brown on the bottom around the thirty minute mark. Scrape that up and stir it back in, because those browned bits are where the color and depth come from. Push them past golden and the soup turns bitter.
The Best French Onion Soup
Course: SoupCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Easy4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalA second hour of simmering follows the caramelizing, once the broth and a cup of water go into the pot. The finished soup keeps two days refrigerated or a month frozen, so only the broiling happens the day you serve.
Ingredients
- For the Soup:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced stem to root
2 bay leaves
2 to 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups dry white wine
8 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 cup water
- For the Topping:
8 slices French-style baguette, about the size of the top of the soup crocks
4 cups coarsely shredded Gruyere
- Special Equipment:
Eight 12-ounce ovenproof soup crocks
Directions
- Caramelize the onions: Melt the butter in a very large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add the onions, bay leaves, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and light golden-brown, about 1 hour.
- Keep scraping the pot: The onions will begin to stick and brown on the bottom after about 30 minutes. Keep scraping them up and stirring them back into the rest of the onions, and lower the heat if they are browning too quickly.
- Deglaze with the wine: Add the wine to the pot, bring to a simmer and cook until it has almost completely evaporated, about 4 minutes.
- Simmer the soup: Add the beef broth and 1 cup of water, bring to a simmer and cook until the flavors come together and the soup is rich, about 1 hour. Remove the bay leaves and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Broil the crocks: Preheat the broiler. Place the soup crocks on a rimmed baking sheet and fill them about 3/4 of the way with hot soup. Float a slice of baguette on each and cover with 1/2 cup Gruyere. Broil until the Gruyere is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes.
The source lists 8 servings and 8 baguette slices but mentions four crocks in the broiling step, so the card uses eight. No nutrition panel figures were available, so the calorie count is estimated from the ingredients.
The crocks are where most of the trouble starts, not the pot.
FAQs
Do I really need ovenproof soup crocks?
Twelve ounces is the crock size this recipe is built around, and eight of them go on a rimmed baking sheet. Any oven safe bowl works if it tolerates broiler heat, so check that your stoneware is rated for it. Wide shallow bowls brown the cheese faster than deep narrow ones.
Can I use red wine or sherry instead of the white?
Most restaurant versions lean on sherry or brandy, though the two cups here are dry white wine and nothing else. Swap in dry vermouth for the closest match, since it carries the same acidity without added sweetness. Red wine works but stains the broth purple and tastes heavier.
Why low-sodium beef broth rather than regular?
Regular broth would wreck this, because eight cups reduce for an hour and the salt concentrates as it goes. The recipe adds salt in two stages, a teaspoon with the onions and half a teaspoon at the end. Taste before that second addition, since broth brands vary more than you would guess.
My cheese browns before it melts. What went wrong?
Sitting too close to the broiler element will scorch the top while the inside stays rubbery, so drop the rack a level. Coarsely shredded Gruyere melts more evenly than fine shreds, which clump and burn at the edges. Two to three minutes is all it should take.
What bread holds up best on top?
Use day old baguette cut to match the crock opening, because fresh bread turns to mush within a minute. Toast the slices dry first if yours are soft, so they float instead of sinking. For a version that skips the float entirely, this Panera style French onion soup uses baguette cubes instead.
Can I make a smaller batch?
Say you only want four bowls: halve everything, though the caramelizing still takes close to an hour. Onion volume drives that step more than weight does, so the time barely moves. The second simmer shortens to about forty minutes, and a richer small batch option is this creamy steakhouse onion soup.
