Family Style French Onion Soup
January 7, 2022 | By Jeremy Scheck | 7 Comments
Family-Style French Onion Soup
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 5 large yellow onions, sliced with the grain
- 1 tablespoon diamond crystal kosher salt (half for Morton's)
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 cup dry sherry or dry white wine
- 8 cups beef broth (good quality, low sodium or homemade)
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 dried bay leaves
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 6 slices artisan bread
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 12 oz gruyere cheese, freshly grated
- Finely sliced chives, for serving
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium low heat. Add the sliced onions and salt. Cook between medium-low and low heat for 2-3 hours, or until well-caramelized. During the 2-3 hours, stir occasionally. You may cover the pot during the first half hour.
- When the onions are nice and caramelized, add the flour. Stir, and let cook 3-4 minutes to get rid of any raw flour taste. Add the sherry or white wine, and mix while scraping up and bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the beef broth. Bring to a simmer, and either tie up the thyme and bay leaves (with butcher's twine) or place inside a metal loose-leaf tea strainer (to be able to remove easily from the pot). Add these herbs and the pepper to taste. Let simmer on low while you work on the bread.
- Preheat your oven broiler. Arrange the bread on a half-sheet pan and spread over each slice. Sprinkle over the gruyere on each slice. Place under the broiler and watch carefully to make sure it gets golden-brown without burning.
- Remove the herbs from the soup pot. Taste for salt, and adjust if necessary. Add the toasted bread and gruyere to the pot. Serve and enjoy!
Jeremy Scheck spent high school perfecting his signature cupcakes, making quiches and coffee cake by the dozen at a local bakery, and teaching cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. As a 10th grader in 2016, he began documenting his favorite recipes on a blog called The After School Bakery. In college, Jeremy learned to make 50 gallons of ice cream in the food science lab, how to prune grape vines in the teaching vineyard, the best way to milk a cow in Northern Italy, and why film photography is an art worth saving. As a sophomore in 2020, he traded blog photos for video and became a TikTok culinary sensation. Jeremy has been featured on the Today show, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC Radio, People, and Access Hollywood, among others. Jeremy is a graduate of Cornell University with a double major in Spanish and Italian, and significant coursework in food science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Jeremy.
This soup looked too incredible to not give it a shot! I’ve never made homemade onion soup before, but this was simple, easy, and YUMMY! Just make sure you give those onions time to caramelize like Jeremy says! You won’t regret it. I unfortunately was not able to find thyme sprigs in my hometown, but I added a pinch of ground thyme instead. My friends and family loved it and already requested that I make it again some time soon! Don’t skip out on the Gruyère either. It’s the perfect flavor!
Made this last night and it was DELICIOUS! The onions I used were gigantic and I think my heat was too low so they 3.5+ hours to caramelize… I read a book in the meantime:) If you have the patience the recipe is otherwise simple and this soup is well worth the wait!
Loved the recipe! Fair warning carmalizing the onions might even take more than 3 hrs
Delicious!!! I caramelized the onions for 3 hours and it was just perfect! Better than the onion soup that I order from different restaurants 🙂
I loved the recipe! Made it last night and everyone just couldn’t have enough! We’re a vegetarian household so i had to swap the beef broth for a mushroom one + worcestershire sauce and it turned out amazing!
Once I saw this recipe, I knew it was going to be delicious. It did not disappoint!! I thought about going with a different type of cheese and I am so glad I didn’t! The gruyere pairs really well with the soup 🙂
Great recipe! Perfect for a snow day! Everything comes together so easily after the onions are caramelized. Highly recommend adding lots of extra cheese to everyone’s individual bowl at the end!