French Onion Soup for a Crowd

“French onion soup is not just a forever favorite of mine,” writes Deb Perelman, author behind the award-winning blog Smitten Kitchen. “It’s what I consider a core recipe in my arsenal because it aligns with so much that I think is important in cooking. It’s totally budget-friendly (and downright cheap) to make. It’s made from buy-anywhere ingredients and very few of them—99% of the flavor comes from just onions, cooked very slowly, transformed by a technique you need no advanced cooking skills to master. And it has a depth of flavor that is unparalleled in almost anything else I know how to make.”

Ingredients:

  • 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) (2 oz./60 g) unsalted butter
  • 5 lb. (2.5 kg) thinly sliced yellow onions
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1/4 cup (2 fl. oz./60 ml) dry sherry or 1/3 cup (3 fl. oz./80 ml) white wine
  • 3 quarts (12 cups) (96 fl. oz./3 l) beef, chicken or vegetable (mushroom is excellent here) stock, the more robust the better
  • A few sprigs of thyme (optional)
  • 1 garlic clove
  • One 3/4- to 1-inch (2-cm to 2.5-cm) thick slice of slightly stale bread for each bowl of soup
  • 1/4 cup (1 oz./30 g) grated Gruyère, Comté or a mix of Gruyère and Parmesan cheese per toast
  • Finely chopped fresh parsley, chives or a few leaves of thyme to finish (optional)

Directions:

In a 7-quart (6.5-l) Dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onions, toss to coat and cover the pot; it's going to be very, very full, but the onions are going to shrink drastically while they cook. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let them slowly steep for 15 to 20 minutes, checking on them once or twice to make sure nothing is scorching at the bottom. They otherwise don’t need your attention.

Uncover the pot, raise the heat a bit and stir in salt—I start with 1 Tbs. kosher salt (Diamond brand, half of any other)—and cook onions for another 60 minutes, until caramelized. I start at a higher temperature, stirring only every 5 minutes, until all the liquid has cooked off. Once it has, I reduce the temperature to medium-low or just low, stirring more frequently, until the onions are a deep golden brown, tender and sweet. If the onions are sticking to the pan towards the end, add 1 Tbs. of water as needed to keep them moving.

Raise the heat to medium-high and add the sherry or wine, scraping up any onions stuck to the pan. Cook until the liquid disappears. Add the stock, thyme and a lot of freshly ground pepper and bring soup to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed; discard the thyme sprigs if you used them.

While the soup is finishing, heat your broiler, and if you don’t have a broiler, heat your oven as hot as it goes. Rub each piece of bread lightly with the garlic clove. Line a baking sheet with foil and arrange ovenproof soup bowls/vessels on top. Ladle the soup into the bowls. Fit a piece of toast (trimming if needed) onto the bowl and sprinkle with the cheese. Transfer the baking sheet with the soup bowls to the broiler and broil until the cheese is melted and brown at the edges. Garnish with the herbs. You can eat it right away, but it’s going to stay hot for a good 10 minutes or so, if you need more time. Serves 12 to 14.


Recipe courtesy of Deb Perelman, cookbook author and founder of Smitten Kitchen