This flavorful, hearty best ever French Onion Soup recipe is a pure bowl of comfort for any night of the week. You’ll love the sweet onions, rich broth and toasted cheese on top!
Love today’s soup? You’ve got to try our instant pot french onion soup next. Same great flavor in less time! Or give our delicious pasta e fagioli a try soon!
Why this Recipe is Best
This past year I’ve been working my way through classic recipes. Things like Coconut Cake, Divinity Candy, French Silk Pie, and Broccoli Cheese Soup.
I have found through the years of blogging, that what you want, is dinner inspiration.
And while I definitely would not define myself as a great chef or savory cook…I do think that the dinner recipes you’ll find on my website here are easy enough for a new cook. And delicious enough for a great cook!
That being said, one recipe that has been on my list to make for a very long time is French Onion Soup. I’ve avoided making it, let alone sharing a recipe because I thought, it’s too hard.
You guys, just because something takes longer to cook, doesn’t make it hard! If that were true, you’d never get the chance to enjoy homemade caramels!
Yes, caramelizing the onions can take 30 minutes, but you don’t have to stand and slave over the pot (just don’t forget about it completely, haha)! I even shared a video below on How to Make French Onion Soup, so you can see for yourself how easy it is!
Important Ingredient Notes
There are a few things that make french onion soup…the BEST.
- Onions – wondering what kind of onions to use for French onion soup? We love using Vidalia and other sweet onions. The sugars caramelize during the cook process, giving this soup the rich flavor you love.
- Cheese – Typically I use Gruyere. You can shred it or use it thinly sliced. It’s worth the extra cost for its flavor and texture. If you can’t find Gruyere, you could use Comte or Beaufort, Jarlsberg or Emmental. Last resort could be a mild white cheddar or provolone cheese.
- Beef Broth – provides the base flavor.
- Brandy – you could swap this out for red wine too, if preferred. Want to keep it alcohol free? Just leave it out.
How to Make French Onion Soup
Caramelize onions. In a large soup pot or dutch oven, saute butter with sliced onions on medium low heat for about 30 minutes. Stir once or twice during that time. Cook the onions until caramelized and browned. (photos 1 & 2)
Add liquid. Once the onions caramelized, add in beef broth, garlic, brandy, thyme, salt, and pepper. (photo 3)
Cook. Simmer over low heat for an additional 30 minutes, to allow flavors to mingle. (photo 4)
When ready, remove twigs of thyme.
Ladle soup into individual oven safe crocks. Top with toasted baguettes and about 1/2 cup of gruyere cheese.
Broil for several minutes until cheese is browned and melted.
Serve immediately. ENJOY!
Tips and Tricks
- Use sweet onions. Not only do they taste amazing when they caramelize, they don’t have that onion “bite” a typical yellow or white onion will have. However, they do tend to have a higher water content, so they may take a little longer to caramelize. But the sweetness only gets better with time, so it’s a win-win!
- Don’t skip the secret ingredient: BRANDY! This adds a wonderful depth of flavor. I’ve heard you can also use white wine or sherry, but I have not tried those options!
- It’s all about the final touch. Adding the toasted bread and cheese. While the soup was simmering, I sliced a baguette (from my grocery bakery) and toasted it in the oven. I also shredded some Gruyere cheese to have ready. When the soup was done simmering, ladle it into your oven safe crocks and top with baguette slices and a handful of cheese. Broil for a few minutes in the oven until melted!
- If you don’t have oven safe crocks, you can toast the baguette with the cheese on them, then drop them onto your individual bowls of soup! ENJOY
What to Serve with French Onion Soup
Whether you serve French Onion Soup as a starter or an entrée, it’s a very versatile dish.
We love serving it before baked pork chops or even our family’s favorite meatloaf.
If you want the French Onion Soup to be the entree, pair it with a wedge salad, or a fruit platter!
More Easy Dinners
- I adore making soup for dinner. It’s easy to make and who doesn’t love a good bowl of Chicken Taco Soup or Lasagna Soup?
- Chicken Tetrazzini
- White Castle Sliders
- French Dip Recipe
- Instant Pot Crack Chicken Pasta
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
French Onion Soup
Ingredients
- 6 medium sized sweet onions sliced
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 64 ounce beef broth
- 2 cloves garlic pressed
- ¼ cup Brandy
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups gruyere cheese (for topping
- 1 baguette *see note below*
Instructions
- In a large pot, saute butter and onions on medium-low heat for 30 minutes. Stir once or twice during that time. Onions will caramelize and become browned.
- Once caramelized, add in beef broth, garlic, brandy, thyme, salt and pepper. Simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, to allow flavors to meld together. When ready, remove twigs of thyme.
- To serve, ladle into individual oven safe crocks. Top with toasted baguettes and about 1/2 cup of gruyere cheese. Broil for several minutes until cheese is browned and melted. Serve immediately. ENJOY.
Notes
- Use sweet onions. Not only do they taste amazing when they caramelize, they don’t have that onion “bite” a typical yellow or white onion will have. However, they do tend to have a higher water content, so they may take a little longer to caramelize. But the sweetness only gets better with time, so it’s a win-win!
- Don’t skip the secret ingredient: BRANDY! This adds a wonderful depth of flavor. Not a fan? Use sherry or red wine instead. Or keep it alcohol free by just omitting it.
- It’s all about the final touch. Adding the toasted bread and cheese. While the soup was simmering, I sliced a baguette (from my grocery bakery) and toasted it in the oven. I also shredded some Gruyere cheese to have ready. When the soup was done simmering, ladle it into your oven safe crocks and top with baguette slices and a handful of cheese. Broil for a few minutes in the oven until melted!
- If you don’t have oven safe crocks, you can toast the baguette with the cheese on them, then drop them onto your individual bowls of soup!
- See blog post for more recipe tips and tricks.
Such a classic! Haven’t had this soup in awhile. This inspired me to make it soon!
This is my huband’s favorite but I’ve always been too scared to try it at home until I found your recipe. Oh my gosh, he was loving it! Thank you so much!!
You’re speaking my kind of language! Love this classic comfort food!
I’ve been craving soup these past couple rainy days and you can’t beat the bread and cheese on top for comfort.
This is my all time favorite soup recipe. I love the tip for toasting the bread!
A classic! There’s nothing like caramelized onions. Looks SO good.
Delicious! This is one of my favorite soups!
French onion soup is one of my all time favs!! This looks delicious 🙂
This looks delicious! I am a novice cook, so sorry if this seems like a silly question – what do you mean by pressed garlic? I usually use minced garlic in a jar for recipes. Thank you! I really want to try this soup.
Minced garlic in a jar would work just fine! I have a garlic press that I put the whole clove in, and it comes out minced 🙂
This soup is looking yummy and mouth watery. I will be making this soup for my upcoming party or family get together which is going to happen in my house.
Two questions: Can you give a type of sweet onion to use? Also, what would you substitute brandy with?
Thanks!
I bought a bag of sweet onions from Aldi…but Vidalia would work! As for the brandy, you can use sherry or a dry red or white wine. If you don’t want any alcohol you can use extra beef broth, but you’ll lose some of the depth of flavor.
Thank you for sharing the recipe Aimee! I use one by Chef Melissa D’Arabian and want to point out that her recipe calls for dry red wine – it makes the soup smell heavenly! I think if you are in a situation that you find you don’t have the brandy or white wine, it’s nice to know that a dry red works well, too. Since she featured this on her Ten Dollar Dinner show, she even suggested using swiss cheese in place of gruyere. Goes to show this is an extremely flexible recipe! Happy to add your recipe to my files!
I LOVE this recipe! Perfect for our chilly spring nights here on the coast of Maine. I may have to make it tonight – it looks so easy!
It really is easy! We made it again this week, and ironically I didn’t have any gruyere cheese so I used Cabot seriously sharp cheddar. Was still crazy good!!!
French Onion Soup should be made with white wine and nothing else..no brandy or sherry.
In France they’ll prepare it with white wine.