How to Make Caramelized Onions

Caramelized onions make a savory addition to many dishes. Making them is simple--it just takes time. Here's how to make those onions sweet.

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• Sweet yellow or white onions
• Good white port wine reduction wine or wine vinegar
• A bit of brown sugar
• Salt

Steps

1. 1
   Determine how many onions you will need. Caramelizing significantly reduces the volume of the onions so even if you start out with a pan full of raw onion, they will cook down substantially. For most purposes, one onion per person serves as a good rule of thumb.
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2. 2
   Find a large, heavy skillet. A heavy non-stick or well-seasoned iron skillet is best.
3. 3
   Get sweet yellow or white onions. After cleaning the onion of the dry skin and the root and stem tips, cut the onion in half, top to bottom. Then slice the onion, flat side down, to make thin strips of onion. Make sure to separate the layers.
4. 4
   Pour enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the skillet plus about a tablespoon more. Heat the skillet on high until the oil is very hot but not smoking. Add the brown sugar to your desired taste.
5. 5
   Add the onions all at once and reduce the heat to low-medium low.
   
   
   • If you are doing lots of onions at once, they may pile high in the skillet. With time, they will cook down.
   • Alternatively, you can caramelize the onions in small batches; this will help them to be more caramelized than steamed.
6. 6
   Using a spatula, turn (toss) the onions so that all the pieces get some oil on them.
7. 7
   Continue to turn the onions with the spatula about every 8 to 10 minutes. If some of the onion appears to be burning, move the onions to the side and add more oil (one or two tablespoons at a time) and stir the onions into the fresh oil.
8. 8
   Continue to toss the onion with the spatula until all the onion slices have reached a dark, rich brown color. After 25 to 30 minutes, the onion will be well on the way to browning. This is the sugar in the onion caramelizing.
9. 9
   Remove the onions, turn off the heat and add a little water or white wine to the pan to deglaze it and get the delicious dark brown glaze that has cooked to the pan. Use only a little liquid, no more than 3 to 4 tablespoons, to deglaze. Then stir the resulting glaze into the onions.

Alternate Methods

• Alternate method: Letting the onions wilt a bit in a hot pan before adding any oil is also very successful to improve sweetness. Add sliced onions to very hot pan. Grind some pepper over them (about 3 twists per onion). Sprinkle a little sugar over them (about 1 tsp. per onion). Stir well and watch to make sure the sugar doesn't burn (keep stirring). Once the onions start to wilt, add the olive oil. This tip is customized from a book of Jewish recipes.
• Another Alternate Method: Peel and slice your onions (at least 6 - leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to a month). Place in a slow cooker. Drizzle the onions with about 2 tablespoons of oil. Place the lid on the slow cooker and turn it on high. Cook 8-10 hours.

Tips

• Expect to spend 30 to 45 minutes to prepare this, depending on the level of heat used and quantity of onions to caramelize.

• Tip to save a lot of time: Before following the instructions above, soften the onions in a microwave oven. Place in a covered microwave safe bowl for 5 to 6 minutes. Your time will vary with amount of onions and power of oven.

• If the onions are sweet to begin with, there will be no need to add any sugar to the process. If the onions are strong and not sweet, then you can add some sugar (granulated or raw) about 10 minutes into the cooking. Use approximately 1 tablespoon per onion. You will need to watch it very closely throughout the cooking to ensure the sugar does not burn.

• The flatter the onion, the sweeter it will be. Rounder onions tend to be stronger.

• The timing to toss the onions is loosely suggested to be every 8 to 10 minutes. Vary this time if the onions on the bottom are browning too much or too little.

• Add a splash of soy sauce near the end of the cooking. This is a powerful "secret ingredient" as it adds color, sugar, salt and savory flavor. Do not add too much as you want the soy sauce to caramelize too. This is especially good for fajitas or on steaks, as the soy sauce provides carmelization without having to cook the onions til completely limp. Also add a bit of butter and a pinch of salt right at the end to enhance flavor and texture.
• Another method: Let oil get hot (not burning) before adding the onions. Then cook on medium low. Cook for 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes.

Warnings

• Using too much oil can fry the onion.
• Use pure olive oil, not virgin olive oil or other types of oil. It will be labeled "olive oil," and is usually the cheapest available. Other oils will either be too low temperature to work well or will add flavors that you don't need. One exception; Peanut oil can take the high heat and has a high smoke point, it will also add additional sweet flavors to the onions. Watch out for people with allergies though.
• One of the best oils for cooking is canola oil. It withstands high heat, is lighter than olive oil and has the best fat profile of all vegetable oils.
• Never add water to the onions when you start to cook them. This will steam them and your caramelizing will not work.
• You can also use butter...even better, use clarified butter (also known as ghee).