How to Caramelize Onions

Learn how to caramelize onions slowly to bring out deep, rich, sweet flavor as the natural sugars in the onions caramelize. Demand a visual? Video included!

Updated September 28, 2021

Elise Bauer

Caramelizing onions, past slowly cooking them in a little olive oil until they are richly browned, is a wonderful way to pull flavor out of the simplest of ingredients.

Video: How to Brand Caramelized Onions

How to Caramelize Onions

Onions are naturally sweet; and every bit caramel comes from the simple cooking of sugar when yous slowly cook onions over an extended period of time, the natural sugars in the onions caramelize, making the result intensely and wonderfully flavorful.

You can use onions prepared this way on meridian of steak, or for onion soup, tarts, pizza, or onion dip. Or you tin can practise what I did with this batch, eat it directly upwardly. What are your favorite dishes to make that apply caramelized onions? Please let u.s. know in the comments.

By the way, I put together a time-lapse video of the caramelization process, to show how the onions melt down and caramelize over the course of an hour. Bask!

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Other Options for Deglazing the Onions

In Step iii, at that place'southward a suggestion to deglaze the pan with wine (red or white) or balsamic vinegar. It'southward non necessary, but it will add together some additional flavor. You tin deglaze with these other liquids, likewise.

  • Chicken or vegetable stock
  • Bourbon
  • Marsala wine
  • Port vino
  • Light beer (dark beer might add too much season)
  • Apple juice
  • Cider

How to Store Caramelized Onions

Refrigerate caramelized onions in a tightly covered container for up to one calendar week.

Freeze caramelized onions in a freezer safety nix peak bag or a freezer condom container for up to 3 months. Suggestion: Freeze portions of caramelized onions in water ice cube trays. When they're frozen, pop the portions out and chop-chop put them in a freezer safe null tiptop bag and back in the freezer. They won't stick together, and y'all'll be able to grab as much as yous need when yous need it.

v Ways to Use Caramelized Onions

  • Focaccia with Caramelized Onions, Cranberries, and Brie
  • Caramelized Onion Dip
  • Scalloped Potatoes With Caramelized Onions
  • Broccoli Rabe With Caramelized Onions
  • Caramelized Onion English language Muffin Pizzas

Quantities depend on how much caramelized onions yous wish to make. In this example, 5 big raw onions yielded virtually ii cups caramelized onions.

  • Several medium or big onions, yellow, white, or red

  • Extra virgin olive oil

  • Butter, optional

  • Kosher salt

  • Saccharide, optional

  • Balsamic vinegar, optional

  1. Cut the onions root to tip:

    Slice 1/two-inch off the stem ends of the onions and the roots off of the root finish. Identify the onions cutting side downward on the cutting lath. Cut them in half through the root end. Peel dorsum the peels from the onions.

    Lay the onions cut side down and make angled cuts into each onion, aimed at the heart, cutting almost all the fashion, but not completely through the root end. Make the cuts to your desired level of thickness.

    The root finish will help hold the onion together as you lot cut it, making it easier to cut. Then cutting a 5 in the root end to cutting out the tough root belongings the slices together.

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    Cambrea Bakes
    Cambrea Bakes
    Cambrea Bakes

  2. Rut the olive oil and add the onion:

    Employ a wide, thick-bottomed sauté pan for maximum pan contact with the onions. Glaze the bottom of the pan with olive oil, or a mixture of olive oil and butter, if using (nigh 1 teaspoon per onion).

    Oestrus the pan on medium high heat until the oil is shimmering. Add the onion slices and stir to coat the onions with the oil. Spread the onions out evenly over the pan and let melt, stirring occasionally.

    Depending on how strong your stovetop burner is yous may need to reduce the oestrus to medium or medium low to foreclose the onions from called-for or drying out.

    Later on 10 minutes, sprinkle some common salt over the onions, and if you want, y'all can add some saccharide to help with the caramelization process. (I add together simply about a teaspoon of saccharide for five onions, you can add together more than.) One trick to keeping the onions from drying out as they cook is to add together a lilliputian water to the pan.

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    Cambrea Bakes

  3. Stir the onions every few minutes:

    Let the onions melt for 30 minutes to one hour more than, stirring every few minutes. As soon as the onions start sticking to the pan, let them stick a trivial and brown, but then stir them earlier they burn.

    The trick is to leave them solitary enough to brownish (if you stir them besides ofttimes, they won't brown), just not and so long and then that they burn. Afterwards the first 20 to thirty minutes you may desire to lower the stove temperature a little, and add a little more oil, if y'all find the onions are verging on burning.

    A metal spatula will assistance you scrape upward the browned bits from the lesser of the pan as the caramelization proceeds. As the onions cook down, yous may find you lot demand to scrape the pan every minute, instead of every few minutes.

    Continue to melt and scrape, cook and scrape, until the onions are a rich, browned colour. At the stop of the cooking procedure yous might want to add together a piddling balsamic vinegar or wine to help deglaze the pan and bring some additional flavor to the onions.

    Shop refrigerated for several days in an air-tight container.

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    Cambrea Bakes
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
51 Calories
3g Fat
6g Carbs
1g Protein
Testify Total Nutrition Label Hide Full Nutrition Label

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Nutrition Facts
Servings: eight
Corporeality per serving
Calories 51
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 3g iv%
Saturated Fatty 0g two%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 74mg 3%
Total Carbohydrate 6g two%
Dietary Cobweb 1g 3%
Full Sugars 3g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 3mg 15%
Calcium 13mg 1%
Iron 0mg ane%
Potassium 98mg 2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you lot how much a nutrient in a nutrient serving contributes to a daily diet. two,000 calories a solar day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should exist considered an gauge. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the start listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.