Crock Pot French Onion Soup is a warming and flavorful soup full of delicious caramelized onions, topped with toasted bread and melted cheese!
Nothing beats a bowl of warm and comforting Crock Pot French Onion Soup, and when it’s this easy to make, you can enjoy it often! Caramelized onions, beef broth, and seasonings create savory flavors with a touch of sweetness. Then, let the crock pot take over and simmer the soup to perfection, so all you have to do later is top the soup with crunchy, toasted bread and a mix of delicious cheese!
Simple and Rich
My family raves about Crock Pot French Onion Soup every time I make it and how they feel like they’re at a fancy five-star restaurant when they sit down to eat it! They don’t even notice the laundry basket behind them or the stack of games that must be put away, so I appreciate their enthusiasm. We love the caramelized onions and the toasted bread covered with melted cheese, but the broth is what makes this soup amazing. Simmering French onion soup in the crock pot all day brings out all the flavors of the onions and herbs, making this soup rich and incredibly flavorful and a family favorite meal!
If French onion dishes make you drool, you’re in great company. French Onion Dip and Skillet French Onion Chicken are two delicious ways to satisfy your cravings!
Other Recipes to Serve with Crock Pot French Onion Soup
- Light with various textures and flavors, Apple Pecan Brussels Sprouts Salad is a wonderful start to such a rich soup!
- There’s always room for a little dessert, especially after a beautiful bowl of French onion soup, and what’s a more impressive way to end the meal than an Easy Creme Brulee?
Ingredients
Veggies: To make this soup, you will need large sliced yellow onions and fresh garlic.
Dairy: This dish requires butter, Gruyere cheese, Emmental cheese, Mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese.
Pantry Items: Set out the granulated sugar, cook Sherry, and use reduced-sodium beef broth for this recipe.
Herbs and Spices: This soup requires salt, dried thyme, and a bay leaf.
Bread: Pick up a loaf of French bread to slice for this soup.
How to Make Crock Pot French Onion Soup
STEP ONE: Melt butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the sliced onions and stir, cooking for 10 minutes until the onions become translucent.
STEP TWO: Sprinkle sugar over the onions and reduce the heat to medium. Stir the onions constantly for about 30 minutes, allowing them to soften and brown. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute. Deglaze the pan by adding the sherry and scraping up any browned spots.
STEP THREE: Transfer the onions to a crock pot and add the beef broth, salt, thyme, and bay leaf. Cover and cook the soup for 4-6 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.
STEP FOUR: About 10 minutes before the soup is cooked, arrange sliced French bread on a baking sheet and broil each side for 1-2 minutes, toasting each side. Combine the Mozzarella, Parmesan, Emmental, and Gruyere cheese in a small bowl and stir to mix.
STEP FIVE: Remove the bay leaf from the soup. Arrange oven-safe soup crocks or bowls on a sheet pan and fill each crock 3/4 full with soup. Place a slice of toasted French bread on top and sprinkle cheese over each bowl. Set the sheet pan in the oven and broil the cheese until it is browned and bubbly. Serve the soup immediately.
Tips for Success
- The key to caramelizing onions is to go slow. Deliciously caramelized onions are achieved by simmering them over medium heat for a reasonable amount of time, so try not to crank up the heat to make them cook faster.
- Don’t have cooking sherry on hand? No problem! You can use sherry vinegar, apple cider vinegar, white white, or rice wine vinegar instead.
- Leftover soup can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to three days. You can also freeze it for up to three months. To reheat, warm it on the stovetop, top it with a slice of toasted bread and cheese, and broil it until bubbly.
How do I caramelize onions in a crock pot?
To make this amazing soup even easier, you can caramelize the onions in a crock pot the night before and enjoy French onion soup for dinner the next night! Toss the sliced onions, butter, and a pinch of salt into a crock pot and cover. There is a split in opinions on whether or not sugar should be added when using this method to caramelize the onions; some folks feel that the prolonged cooking time brings out a lot of the onions’ natural sweetness, while others still like to add sugar, especially if they are using white onions. The choice is yours. Cook the onions for 8-10 hours on low, stirring once or twice. Once the onions are done you can add the rest of the ingredients to make the soup, it’s that easy!
What kind of onions are best to use for French onion soup?
With so many different kinds of onions, picking the right one for this soup can be a little overwhelming! In reality, there are no wrong onions for this soup. They all taste wonderful, especially after they are caramelized. The choice comes down to preference and availability. White onions are great if you prefer less sweetness in your soup. Many people prefer sweet yellow onions, like Vidalia’s, which brings a great balance to all the savory flavors in the soup and is the traditional choice. Red onions are also fine to use and will caramelize beautifully. Try out a few versions of French onion soup using different onions to find the one you like best.
More Easy-to-Make Warming Soups to Enjoy
- Crock Pot Chicken Tortellini Soup
- Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheese Soup
- Slow Cooker Copycat Wendy’s Chili
- Slow Cooker Classic Tomato Soup
- Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
*This post originally posted on 10/10/2013.
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 4 large yellow onions peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ½ cup cooking sherry
- 7 cups low-sodium beef broth
- 1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 slices baguette
- ½ cup Gruyere cheese shredded
- ⅓ cup Emmental cheese shredded
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- 2 tablespoons mozzarella cheese shredded
- Fresh parsley chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Place a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the butter and once melted, add the onions. Cook until they become translucent, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes
- Sprinkle the onions with sugar and reduce the heat to medium. Cook, stirring constantly, until onions are soft and browned, at least 30 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute
- Stir the sherry into the onion mixture and scrape the bottom of the pot to incorporate any small browned bits sticking there.
- Transfer the onions to a slow cooker and pour in beef broth. Add the salt, thyme, and bay leaf and stir to combine.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 4 to 6 hours or LOW for 8 to 10 hours.
- About 10 minutes before serving, set one of the oven racks about 8 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler.
- Arrange the bread slices on a baking sheet. Broil bread slices until toasted, about 1 to 2 minutes per side.
- Combine the Gruyere, Emmental, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses in a medium mixing bowl. Toss gently to combine.
- Fill oven-safe soup crocks about 3/4 full of onion soup and then place a bread slice across the top of each bowl so that the bread floats on the soup.
- Top each bread slice with about 2 tablespoons of the cheese mixture. Place filled bowls onto a baking sheet and broil until cheese topping is lightly browned and bubbling, about 2 minutes.
- Carefully remove from the oven and sprinkle with chopped parsley (if desired) before serving warm.
Cindy @Hun... What's for Dinner? says
I LOVE LOVE LOVE french onion soup!!! Dear Ms Jamieson:
Thank you for your inquiry.Some restaurant locations do offer a peanut butter cookie. While the meats, breads are kept separate from the cookies we cannot 100% guarantee cross contamination will not occur
Sincerely,
Denise Schilling
Customer Care Representative
Comment ID: 3085704
Rebecca Lee says
Thank you so much for this yummy recipe as I heard that it the most time spending is to caramelize the big onion slices. I will try as too many restaurant did not serve good and tasty French Onion soup in Paris !! May be they used water instead of stock.
Stacey says
Thank you The Tasty Fork for featuring my {Crock Pot} French Onion Soup in your round-up!