Caramelized Onions

One of my favorite memories growing up is the smell of onions being sautéed by my Mom in our kitchen. The smell eventually wafted through the house. If I was coming home from school, it was the first thing which greeted me walking through the side door. At that moment, I knew dinner was gonna be good! 

To this day, this has been one of my favorite parts of a recipe, dropping those onions into a shimmering pan of oil, hearing them sizzle and smelling their strong flavor. For me, it's been the first sign of an delicious meal! In my two decades in the hotel/restaurant business, I have loved walking through the grand hotel kitchen, smelling the sautéing onions by a sous-chef on a huge ass stove for an upcoming banquet. 

Here is the recipe I found online for caramelized onions which I have made several times. A couple people have asked me why does it take so long? Well the easiest and most basic answer I can say is that cooking them long and slow allows the naturally sweet onions to become even sweeter as the added sugar begins to caramelize. It brings out an incredibly rich flavor. 

So when making this recipe, prepare yourself some extra time to stir them every couple minutes for the time stated below. I had a timer I would set every 4-5 minutes. It is so worth it!  I use them on burgers, hot dogs, steak, as a pizza topping, or with scrambled eggs! 

Caramelized Onions

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients: several medium or large onions- yellow, white, or red, olive oil, butter (optional), salt, sugar, balsamic vinegar (optional)

1. Slice onions.

2. Coat bottom of pan with olive oil (1 tspn per onion) or a mixture of olive oil and butter (1 tspn per onion).

3. Heat pan on medium high heat until oil is shimmering.

4. Add onions, coat with oil, cook, stirring occasionally. 

5. Reduce to medium - medium low heat to prevent burning.

6. After 10 mins, sprinkle salt over onions and add sugar to help the caramelization (1 tsp sugar to 5 onions).

7. add a little water to prevent drying out. 

8. Cook 30 mins to an hour more, stirring every few minutes. As soon as the onions start to stick to the pan, let them stick and brown, then stir before they burn. 

9/ After 1st 20-30 minutes, lower the temp a bit an add a little more oil if you find the onions on the verge of burning. 

10. As onions cook down, cook and scrape the brown bits, stir them until a rich brown color. 

11. At the end, add a little balsamic vinegar or wine if you wish to help deglaze the pan.

12. Store in the fridge, sealed, several days. 

REMEMBER, better to take this one slow and on lower heat. Patience is the key! 😊