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French Onion Soup
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4.86 from 7 votes

French Onion Soup

This is a delicious French Onion Soup. It's not difficult to make and the hands on process is mostly during the last hour of the recipe. The onions do require a lot of time in the oven to caramelize. But well worth it.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time4 hours
Total Time4 hours 10 minutes
Course: Soup
Servings: 8
Calories: 103kcal
Author: Good Dinner Mom

Ingredients

For the Soup:

For the Cheese Croutons:

  • 1 small baguette, cut into ½-inch slices (If making gluten free, omit bread or better yet, use a hearty gluten free bread, like Udi's)
  • 8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese, about 1 cup. Mozzarella can be substituted.

Instructions

  • For the soup:
  • Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 5-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place 3 Tablespoons butter in pot and add 6 cut onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar (only about ½-inch open) and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 ½ to 1 ¾ hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
  • Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle the pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in ¼ cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, another 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing with water 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown (very). Stir in ½ cup sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
  • Stir in 3 cups chicken broth and 3 cups beef broth, 2 cups water, 4-6 sprigs of thyme, 1 bay leaf, and ½ teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and barely bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.
  • For the croutons:
  • While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.
  • To serve:
  • Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler- and oven-safe bowls on a baking sheet and fill each with about 1 ¾ cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with 8 oz Gruyère. Broil until cheese begins to melt and is bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 103kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 805mg | Potassium: 255mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 130IU | Vitamin C: 6.1mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 0.6mg