Crockpot French Onion Soup.
You know… like 9 hours.
But! At least this time you won’t have to cover your entire kitchen in flour, spend four days digging dough out from under your nails, scrub melted burned butter off the bottom of your oven and give the entire recipe you made to someone else because you can’t be trusted around it.
This time you can just throw it in a big pot and forget about it.
And drink beer while you’re at it. Winning!
I can’t believe there was a time in my life that I didn’t think I liked onions. I don’t even know how it is possible for someone who loves food to not like onions because they add a ridiculous amount of delicious flavor in so many different ways to so many different dishes.
And even though I used to think I didn’t care for them?
I still ordered french onion soup anyway. I’m sure you know why. The cheeeeese. And the bread. I distinctly remember sitting at a restaurant a few years ago and the server bringing one of our dining neighbors a piping bowl of soup with golden cheese just literally pouring down the sides.
All I could think was…
sign
me
up
for
that!
For years after, I ordered french onion soup… and only ate the bread and cheese. I’d dig my spoon down in half way, grabbing a bite of toasted bread, a spoonful of broth, and strands upon strands of gruyere or gouda. I’d always finish everything in the bowl, except for the big pile of caramelized onions on the bottom.
I liked that set up. I liked it a lot.
Then, as I’ve detailed before – much like his Diet Mountain Dew habit, my husband developed an addiction to caramelized onions and asked for them on everything. Even weirdo things like pasta and eggs. I seriously think I made them nearly every day for three months. I first tried them on a burger, slathered in cheese and ketchup of course. Then we moved on to steak, and once I even put them in a salad… that sort of tasted good. Just don’t try it hungover.
Caramely onions? I could do this.
After all, if there was any vegetable for me to learn to love, it had to be the one filled with sugar that softened and sweetened easily and almost tasted candy-like at times, right? Right on.
So hopefully by this point I don’t have to do any convincing and we can let this cheese do the talking.
And if you stillll don’t like onions? Make this anyway and just eat the bread and cheese and broth like I did circa 1999. Totally worth it.
Crockpot French Onion Soup
[adapted from Tyler Florence]
makes a giant pot, about 8-10 servings
4 medium sweet onions, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used my favorite Fustinis!)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons flour
8 ounces of beer
64 ounces of low-sodium beef stock
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
french bread
gruyere cheese, sliced
Set your crock pot on high, then add onions, garlic, brown sugar, butter, salt and balsamic and mix until combined. Cover and let cook for 60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are a bit caramely and brown on the edges. Add in flour, then stir thoroughly and let sit for 5 minutes. Add in beer, beef stock, thyme, and pepper, then turn heat down to low, cover and cook for 6-8 hours.
Before serving, cut french bread or baguette into slices. Fill soup bowls to the top, then cover with slice of bread and a slice of cheese. Set under the broiler for 2-3 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and golden brown. Be careful when serving as bowls will be hot!
Note: I used a very low-sodium beef stock, so depending on the stock you use, add additional salt for flavor if desired.
I want to live inside that bowl.
331 Comments on “Crockpot French Onion Soup.”
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This sounds delicious and I love the positive feedback from others that have tried it. I don’t have balsamic and I’m wondering if I could possibly sub a mix of apple cider vinegar (for the acid) and worcestershire? Planning on making this coming weekend for a birthday get-together.
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I want to make this ahead of time and take it the next day in the car for a gathering of 8 of us at Ocean Shores – so will not eat till that next night. Will that be okay?
Can I use chicken broth instead of beef broth?
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This soup was DELISH!!!! Super easy recipe. I ended up using 8oz of red wine instead of beer and it worked out great. Can wait for the leftovers :)
Just tried this recipe last night and it was great! Not quite the french onion soup that I grew up with, but very simple to make and delicious. There’s just one main thing I would tweak to make it perfect.
One hour on hot in the slow cooker is definitely not enough time to caramelize the onions. I left them in there for almost two hours and they were still a little crunchy. I’m used to the onions being a step away from mush, but, if you like a little texture, than two hours should do. Next time I will cook them on the stove the night before and make sure that they are full caramelized and delicious! Overall great recipe!
I’m making this right now and it’s definitely going to take longer than 1 hour to caramelize the onions.
I just came across this recipe and it looks soooooo good! Unfortunately, I will have to wait to make it until the temperature goes down a bit. Right now, we’re averaging 100 degrees during the day! But it’s definitely on my list for cooler weather!
I just received a huge bag of onions in my CSA box this week and was wondering what to make so a quick google search led me to your French Onion soup recipe and oh my goodness, it was so DELICIOUS!! And crazy easy too! Thank you for such an amazing recipe!
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I made your French Onion Soup yesterday in the crock pot and we LOVED it. I’d made FO Soup before, but without the crock pot – your recipe is such a time saver! We had company over for dinner and everyone agreed, the soup is delicious. I’ve shared a link to your blog from my blog and a friend is ready to give it a shot too. It’s so easy!
Thanks so much for such a great recipe. I’m a huge fan of your blog and I may have pinned 50% of your recipes since Pinterest started.
Im making this right now and its so easy and the whole house smells heavenly It tastes good allready so in a few hours with bread ahhhh I cant wait!
So easy and so yummy!
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Where does one buy the soup bowls that are oven proof?
I am making this right now! this is the easiest French onion recipe I have found! so I am really excited to try it tonight! I made half and divided the other half into 2 bags (one with step one and one with step two) leaving out the flour to be done at time of cooking. curious to see if it will be a good Freezer meal! hope so! can’t wait to taste it tonight!
Considering I don’t really know what a broiler is, I don’t think I own one. What could I do instead? Does it make a big difference or could I just make cheese toast in the oven and put it on top?
your oven is the broiler… set it on broil and put your bowls in
I made this yesterday. I cut the ingredients so that it made two servings since I only have a 1.5 quart crock and it still turned out wonderful. It tasted even better today when I reheated the leftovers! Yummm! 8) Thank you so much for the recipe!
When you cut the serving size , did you also cut the time? I’m making the recipe cut in half and wasn’t sure about the time. Was hoping someone knew :)
Thanks for this easy recipe, it came out delicious and the house smelled amazing the whole time it was simmering. I love the leftovers and will share with friends tonight. Didn’t change a thing and had a lot of the ingredients on hand, will def make it again!
Hello everyboy,
i am new to onion soup and to slow cooking.
my husband is a huge fan of this soup and i really want to try this recipe.
but i was wondering if onion soup freezes well, so i can double this recipe and freeze some for later. if it doesn’t freeze well, how long would it be good for in the fridge?
also, i have a 5 and a half quartz, oval slow cooker. do i have to change the cooking time as well?
thanks in advance.
I’m making this tomorrow for dinner! My mom is coming into town and I’m going to surprise her (if I can keep my mouth shut) with our favourite soup! I can not wait to dig in tomorrow, it looks so delicious!!!
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Hey Jessica, thought I’d let you know that I made your soup the other day and loved it! :) Your recipes never fail me.
http://www.amuse-your-bouche.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/slow-cooker-french-onion-soup.html
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The Crock-Pot Duo is perfect for entertaining
and having the two slow cookers that adjust independently of each other.
Take this 5 minutes to go ahead and clean up the slow cooker.
Make the most of your slow cooker by making clean up a breeze with these simple tips.
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What do you think will happen if I just throw all the ingredients in the pot and set it to low before running out the door? In case I hypothetically read “throw it in one pot and forget it” and then neglect to read all the directions until I scroll down a bit to check the type of cheese… Is it ruined?
I did the same thing and I’m very worried :( how did yours turn out?
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a friend shared this on BookFace. LOVE your description!!!!! hehehe Thankx fer the awesome recipe. This is my favorite soup…..
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I AM SORRY TO SAY THAT WHILE THIS SOUP LOOKS DELICIOUS, IN MY HANDS THE END RESULT WAS TOTALLY TASTELESS…FLAT. WHEN I SERVED IT THE SECOND TIME I ADDED MORE BREAD AND MORE CHEESE AND…. A LITTLE BETTER BUT JUST A LITTLE. I’LL NEVER MAKE THIS RECIPE AGAIN. :(
After reading all the comments i am not doing this recipe. The orginal recipe that this came from is different. This recipe has switched the red wine with beer, and doesnt have brown sugar in it and has bay leaves in it.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/french-onion-soup-recipe2.print.html
I was going for the original(tyler florence recipe) but now im going for this recipe!
La Madeline’s French Onion Soup Ingredients
1 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 whole bay leaf
1/4 Tbl freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 quart beef stock
2 cubes bouillon
1 quart water
1 french baguette; sliced and toasted
3/4 cups gruyere cheese, grated
Instructions
Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a heavy, large saucepan. Add onions, bay leaf and pepper. Saute mixture over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. While onions are cooking, dissolve boullion cubes in 1 quart of water. Cook the onions until they caramelize, and have a beautiful golden brown color. Add garlic and thyme and stir well. Cook for two minutes.
Pour beef stock and boullion mixture into the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, covered. When ready to serve, prepare ovenproof soup bowls on a baking sheet.
For an extra rich treat, I like to sprinkle gruyere cheese in the bottom of the soup bowls. Ladle soup into the bowls, place a slice a baguette on top of the soup and sprinkle with gruyere cheese. Place the baking sheet under a broiler to melt the cheese and brown the top. Serves 4.
sounds great I have some giant strawberry onions,and maybe some uncle johns hot sausage .
Do yourself a favor and actually caramelize the onions in a sautée pan first. They WILL NEVER caramelize in a slow-cooker. (Onions excrete water when cooking. Water boils at 212°F, far lower than the caramelization temp of fructose (230°F), or sucrose (320°F). As such, the temp cannot get much above 212° until the water has vaporized and departed. This cannot happen when the lid is on.)
Beyond the profound incompetence of instructing readers to do what is not permitted by the laws of physics, I have high hopes for this recipe.
Mine caramelised just fine :)
That is why you cook them in the pot with no liquid for the first hour – you pompous ass.
Nice!
Actually I carmelize onions in my slow cooker. Slice up a 5# bag of Vidallia onions into the slow cooker with a stick of butter and T salt. Low temp 12 hours perfect carmelized onions. Divide and freeze.
Yep. I do the same thing. Carmelized the onions overnight in the slow cooker, than added broth and the rest the next morning. Voila!
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There are so many different types of beer. Which one did you use and it might explain why someone had a disappointing result. Would be grateful for the name or type of beer you used . Thank you.
do not waste your time, like I just did!
It was horrible and I had to dump it all out!
This is the best recipe I have ever done for FO soup! My husband requests it all the time! It’s sooo easy and cheap to make ! Makes restaurant FO soup totally forgettable & not worth it , especially since they charge so much for a teeny tiny bowl. I’ve added my thing to it (we are huge pepper and RWvinegar fans ) but overall, it’s the way to go as far as FO soup goes for us! Thanks Tyler !
I love this recipe !
Normally I would not post on a recipe, but this one needs warning. Do not make this. There is a reason you can not just take a normal recipe and make it in a slow cooker.
This soup lacks all depth. It is flavorless, and too sweet. The onions are tough, and do not caramelize in a slow cooker. So disappointed.
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