How To Make Classic French Onion Soup:

The first thing you’ll need of course are onions. You can use white, yellow, or sweet Vidalia onions, today I am using yellow. You just want to slice those right up.

I used 6 onions, you want to end up with about 6 cups. So if they’re smaller maybe add a few more, if they’re larger maybe you’ll only need 5. The key to any French onion soup is caramelizing the onions. It does take time, but it’s a super easy process.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Then we’re gonna add all of our sliced onion into the pot. Your onions should basically fill up the whole pot, but don’t worry they do shrink down quite a bit.

For the first 7-10 minutes or so, you’ll want to stir these over medium-high heat, until they start to get tender. Once you have the initial sauté on the onions, then it’s time to reduce the heat to medium-low, continue cooking the onions over a medium-low heat until they turn a golden brown, which will take about 25 minutes. 

Caramelizing onions is a long but simple process, you just need to be patient. While the heat’s on medium-low, you’ll only need to stir them maybe every 3-5 minutes. It takes some patience but you should end up with this deep golden brown color.

Then we’re gonna add in 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, and we’re gonna let this cook until the butter is melted and the garlic is fragrant, which will take about 2 minutes. 

Then we’re gonna pour in 8 cups of beef broth, and you want to use a high quality beef broth. 

Increase the heat to high and bring this to a simmer. When making soups I always recommend using a low sodium broth, that way you can control the salt content at home. 

I start off with about 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, and add more to taste.

You’ll also want to add in 1 teaspoon of dried thyme. 

This next ingredient is optional, but it is the classic addition, which is 1/4 cup of dry sherry. Or you can use white wine or leave it out altogether. 

Give it a stir and bring it to a simmer. Once it comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it continue simmering for a good 20-30 minutes. 

In the meantime you’ll want to prepare that delicious cheesy baguette topping. You’ll want to slice up a crusty baguette. You’ll need 2 slices of baguette per bowl. I always throw on a few extra. 

We’ll lay these out onto a baking sheet, then we’re gonna brush a little bit of olive oil onto each side of each little slice of baguette. 

We’re gonna toast these under the broiler setting of our oven, which is a top down heat.

Once they get golden brown pull them out and flip them over so that the other side can get toasted as well. How long it takes to toast will depend on your oven, the key to using the broiler setting is to watch it closely. 

Once they’re toasty on both sides, go ahead and pull them out of the oven and set them aside. Traditionally French onion soup is served up in individual bowls, and they need to be oven safe. 

If you don’t have oven safe bowls, then you can use a little cheater method and put your cheeses onto your toasted baguette slices, and make a little cheesy toast. 

Then when you serve, people can just ladle their soup into a regular soup bowl, and top with a little cheesy toast.

The full instructions will be on my website. For the traditional option, you’ll want to place 4 bowls onto a baking sheet, and they should be able to hold about 2 cups of liquid. 

Ladle your soup into the bowls, leave just a little room around the top, place on 2 slices of your toasted baguette, top that with 1 thick slice of gruyere or provolone cheese, then sprinkle about 1/2 tablespoon of freshly grated parmesan cheese on top of that. 

Then carefully slide this all into the oven underneath the broiler setting until the cheese is brown and bubbling. 

Just watch them really closely and pull them out when they’re bubbly and brown. You’ll want to serve it up immediately while they’re still hot. 

If you want to add a little pop of color to make things a little prettier, just sprinkle on some freshly chopped parsley.