How to make caramelized onions

Johnny Ornelas

Staff Editor

Caramelized onions taste amazing. They are buttery, earthy, sweet and full of complex flavor. This doesn't come in a matter of minutes. True caramelized onions take time and lot of it. The two most important ingredients for caramelized onions is time and attention. In the recipe below, we show you exactly how to do just that. Remember, the more onions, the longer the cook time.

We start off by adding some canola oil in a hot pan and seasoning the onions with salt to draw out their liquid. Then throughout the cooking process, we add in little dabs of butter and allow the onions to cook slowly on low heat. When the pan starts to brown, we deglaze with a touch of water. This happens until the onions reach the perfect deep dark brown color. Other recipes will call for sugar...Don't be fooled. The sugar is just cutting a corner. Allow the natural sugars in the onions to slowly caramelize --- that's the magic.

Cooktop Cove

caramelized onions

15 minutes

35 minutes

50 minutes

2 tablespoons canola oil

4 yellow onions thinly sliced

½ teaspoon salt

½ stick of butter cut into small cubes

½-1 cup of water as needed

Put a saute pan on medium high heat. Add in oil. When oil is hot add in onions.

Season onions with salt.

Add a dab of butter and mix. When pan starts to brown on the bottom deglaze with a couple tablespoons of water then mix well.

Repeat this process for 35 minutes to an hour until onions are deep brown color. Add more salt to taste.

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