Do you love rich and delicious, gourmet-style, restaurant-style French onion soup?, you came to the right place! Welcome! I’m a big lover of French onion soup too. Especially in the winter months, but of course I can not pass a chance to enjoy it any time, especially when I’m at a French restaurant or any time French onion soup is calling my name 🙂

I’m quite surprised that my two kids (tweens) are a big lovers of French Onion soup too ( the reason I’m surprised is because most kids don’t like onions). When we go together to a restaurant or a diner, my girl is trying to decide whether she wants to order a French Onion soup or wings. Yep, she’s like me… lol. My son will be deciding between wings and a burger with french fries. 50/50 he will go for wings and burger. Yep, We created our new generation of wing lovers and onion lovers. lol

Back to French onion soup home made recipe, my recipe is not the average recipe found on the internet.

Most recipes I saw claim to be easy and quick, claim to be the best and claim “How-to” make it quick. Most importantly they do not teach you how-to or don’t tell you what is the key to make a delicious French Onion soup. I have tried them all and my French onion soup was always average. I have made it on the top of the stove, in my pressure cooker and so on. It was still good, but not the top-notch restaurant quality rich and gourmet amazing.

So recently (a year ago) when I was blown away by a French onion soup from my local French restaurant in Manhattan and another time I was even more blown away by a French onion soup from the French restaurant on a cruise ship, I started to think why can’t I make the same rich a delicious, gourmet-style French onion soup at home with restaurant quality and top-notch best chef quality..

I started researching, looking up dozens of videos on YouTube and most importantly I was reaching out to the restaurants and asking for the list of ingredients. Of course many of them replied that their recipe is “secret” but yes, others shared.

Seriously, what could be so “secret” recipe about French onion soup when some people make a joke of this soup – “One onion and the bucket of water – that’s your French onion soup” Lol… this is funny of course, but not true.

You need to have lots of onions, prepare to cry, prepare to stink your house and prepare at least one hour of your time to put your heart and soul into your French onion soup.

Also the key is to caramelizing the onions to perfection

Then adding few additional extra ingredients and touches.

Here I made a Pinterest friendly image. Go ahead and save and pin this recipe. If you don’t have time to make it right now, you will easily find it when you’re ready.

The Best French Onion Soup, Instant Pot or Stove top

So let’s begin to the perfect French Onion Soup

My recipe is for 6 quarts pot (Because I like to make a lot of soup for ahead of time) but you can adjust it accordingly to your pot size and desirable amount.

Ingredients:

3-4 Tablespoons butter (unsalted or salted is ok)
7-9 medium or even large onions (note: the onions will reduce their size dramatically during their caramelizing process) – white onions, sweet onions and yellow onions are ok. You can use 1 purple onion to add to the process as well. Slice the onions into half circles
2 quarts organic beef broth, full sodium (about 2 liters) I usually get mine from Trader Joe’s. You can use low sodium of course, then adjust your salt taste to your liking.
2 teaspoons dried thyme (some extra fresh thyme is good to use too)
1 cup red wine (Cabernet, Merlot or Pinot Noir is great)
1/2 cup dry sherry cooking wine (found in most supermarkets) Similar to this Holland House Sherry Cooking Wine. I see Amazon has crazy prices for this, but in your local supermarket you should be able to find it for $3-5 per 16 oz bottle.
3-4 Tablespoons Demi-Glace. This is optional, but I highly recommend this. It helps to thicken the soup and adds the rich gourmet taste to it. I searched for many different demi-glace; most of them sadly have added not needed chemicals and preservatives, but this one – More than Gourmet classic French demi-glace makes a cut. It is all natural, with no preservatives, GMO, fillers or chemicals. It is not cheap, but so worth it. I suggest you get a 16 oz tub to get a better price. Will last you much longer and you can use it for other gourmet style sauces.
Salt and pepper to taste
French bread or french baguette
Gruyere cheese (Swiss, Mozzarella and Provolone will work too, but I suggest to mix it as well) My favorite combination is Gruyere and Swiss or Gruyere and mozzarella.
1 TBS Flour (optional and it helps thicken the soup)
Green onions for decoration and to add the last touch (you can use fresh thyme too)

Directions

The directions above will apply to Instant Pot. If you don’t have one – no worries, just follow the precise directions below and after the last step – let the soup simmer for an additional 40-60 minutes.

This is how to slice onions for French onion soup. Cut one onion in half. Then cut “the half” in half and start slicing.

1. Melt butter on medium-low heat in Instant Pot. You can use a large Dutch oven or large heavy pot instead, preferably stainless steel.

2. Add onions

3. This is very important step, pay attention: Cook onions at this point, stirring just as needed to keep onions from sticking, until they are melting and soft, golden brown, and beginning to caramelize, about 1 hour. (Note: If onions become to stick (And they will), simply keep adding some water and start “deglazing”. Deglazing is a simple process, you just take your wooden spatula and keep scraping up the fond from the bottom of the pan and keep stirring it into the onions. This is how your onions should look now, after about an hour.

this is how your onions should look - French onion soup recipe

This is how your onions should look. After about 1 hour. Beautiful caramelized onions. They are sweet at this point. So no even need to add any sugar. By the way, these caramelized onions are gourmet style and perfect addition to any dish or I know a lot of people that add them to hamburgers. Enjoy!

4. Sprinkle 1 TBS flour over onions, and stir to coat.

5. Add red wine, sherry, stock, and thyme, and bring to a simmer.

6. In a small sauce pan over low heat mix 3-4 TBS Demi-Glace with water, according to instructions, and add the mixture to the soup.

7. At this point take a spoon and taste your bullion and see if any more salt is needed.

8. Add 1 tsp Ground pepper and 1 tsp ground garlic powder.

9. Close the Instant Pot lid, seal to pressure, and set pressure cook for 10 minutes. (Note: if you’re not using Instant Pot, let your soup simmer on low heat for 40-60 minutes)

10. While the soup is cooking, toast breads in your toaster; set aside.

11. Once soup is done, add hot soup into ovenproof bowls. I used French onion soup crocks with handles. If you don’t have those, just make sure the bowls you’re using are oven proof. Arrange the bowls on a baking pan. Place 1 or 2 slices of toasted bread over each bowl of soup. Sprinkle 1/2 cup grated cheese over bread in each bowl, and place under the broiler until cheese is melted and crusty brown around the edges. Watch carefully that bread doesn’t burn. Serve immediately and enjoy. Yes, it will be very hot at first.

(If you’re a low-carber you can skip the bread. I actually skip the bread myself. Firstly I enjoy the soup without the soggy bread, but my hubbs and kids love the bread of course. My daughter even requests the ramen noodles into the french onion soup. lol…. I tried it and it tastes amazing with ramen noodles.

There’s no French Onion Soup Police!

So you can have it the way you like it. My daughter enjoys it with noodles and I enjoy it with no bread.

So yeah… now you have this amazing recipe and now I want to hear from you – did you try it and how you enjoyed it and how you like it? Is it like an average recipe? Or is it better than gourmet style? If you have any additions I would love to hear from you too. Please comment below and if you post your creation on social media I would love if you add a tag #thebigapplemama so it’s easy for me to find your creation; and you’re so welcome to post your photos on my Facebook Page.

I really hope you will enjoy this French Onion Soup made in a Pressure cooker, Instant Pot or Stove top.

How to make the best french onion soup. Pressure cooker or stove top

Disclosure: This post is not sponsored or compensated in any way. This is my own recipe and I only share what I love and cook in my own kitchen. This post has some affiliate links.

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Irina

Irina is mom of 3 from NYC, blogger, loves to cook, travel and entertain. Follow her blog and enjoy her tips on Food & Travel, Lifestyle & Healthy Recipes.