Stuffed Onions

Jeff the Chef

Intro:

This Stuffed Onions recipe layers an extra-thick, French onion “soup” (almost more of a stew) over a generous amount of chopped bacon. It’s topped with a glorious Parmesan/Gruyère cheese sauce.

Unique Features:

You use the onion shells as serving vessels. When you dip a hearty toast spear into the cheese sauce, it uncovers a runny egg yolk. Pushing through this into the caramelized onions and bacon creates an umami experience is absolutely heady.

Stuffed Onions
Pin
Print

Stuffed Onions

Recipe by Make It Like a Man!Course: Dinner
Makes

4

servings

Ingredients

  • For the onions:

  • 4 medium-to-large white onions

  • 4 slices of bacon

  • 3 Tbs butter

  • 3 Tbs oz olive oil

  • 1 bay leaf

  • Salt

  • 2 Tbs flour

  • 1/2 cup white wine

  • 1/2 cup water, plus more if needed

  • 1 tsp spicy brown mustard

  • 2 Tbs chopped, flat-leaf parsley

  • 4 egg yolks

  • Grated Parmesan, for sprinkling

  • Pepper

  • For the béchamel:

  • 3 Tbs butter

  • 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs flour

  • 2.25 of warm milk

  • 1 cup (packed, 3.5 oz.) shredded Parmesan

  • 1 cup (packed, 3.5 oz.) shredded Gruyere

  • Salt and pepper

  • For service:

  • 4 sliced of rustic bread, toasted, buttered, and sliced into spears

Directions

  • Bake the onions.
  • Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Rip off a 15-inch piece of aluminum foil; roll and twist it into a snake. Wrap the snake around your hand to create an “O” shape and lay it into an 8-inch-square baking dish. Repeat with three more foil sheets. These are your onion holders. Remove any loose or peeling layers of the onions. (Do not peel the onions; just minimally neaten them up.) Trim the tops (exactly opposite the root ends) just enough to allow for a cake tester to be inserted easily. Wash the onions and place them into their foil holders, root-side-down. Bake until they start to brown on the outside and get soft in the middle, 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let them cool (about 30 minutes), then cut the tops off of each of them to make an opening wide enough to allow ample room to insert a tea spoon. Use a tea spoon to remove the onions’ pulp, being careful not to pierce the skin. Place the empty onions shells into their holders.
  • Meanwhile, fry the bacon, but not until fully crisp. Leave it with a little bit of limpness and chew. Mince, or chop very finely.
  • Chop the onion pulp finely. Melt butter in a large skillet over a medium-low flame (setting 3 out of 9). Add the oil, wait a few seconds, and then add chopped onion pulp. Add bay leaf and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally at first, frequently in the final ten minutes, and almost constantly in the end, until caramelized, 30 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add white wine, let the alcohol evaporate for 20 seconds, then stir in water. The mixture will almost immediately thicken to a rich, soupy consistency. Off heat. Stir in mustard. Taste for seasoning. Cover to keep warm.
  • Make the béchamel.
  • Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat (setting 4). Add the flour and cook for 1½ minutes, whisking constantly, until the flour is golden. Pour in the milk and bring to a boil, whisking vigorously. Lower heat (setting 2) and cook for 2 minutes; off heat. The béchamel should be thick, creamy, and smooth. Stir in the grated cheeses until smooth, heating over low heat (setting 2) if necessary, to fully melt the cheese. Season carefully with salt and black pepper. Set aside.
  • Finish up.
  • Reheat the oven to 350°F. Divide the bacon between the onion cavities. Remove and discard the bay leaf from the onion mixture. Use a tea spoon to divide the mixture between the onion cavities. Use the back of the spoon to create a divot in the onion mixture, as a destination for the yolks. Lightly oil the tea spoon and use it to transfer 1 egg yolk very gently into each of onion shells; season with salt. Spoon in bechamel until each shell is heaping full. (You’ll have some bechamel leftover.) Bake until nicely golden on top, 30 minutes.
  • To serve, move each onion to a small plate. (They’ll stand on their own at this point.) Accompany with toast spears.

Notes

  • Substitutions: Swiss for the gruyere.
"Stuffed Onion," from Make It Like a Man!

Flavor Profile / Taste Experience:

These stuffed onions take French onion soup as their inspiration, from the caramelized onion to the cheesy topping. However, their thicker, richer texture concentrates the flavors and makes them seem to pack more of a wallop. To eat them, start by dunking a toast spear into the cheesy, yolky goodness. Once you’ve eaten all your spears, get at the rest of the deliciousness with a spoon.

Social Learning:

For aesthetic reasons as well as evenness of cooking, it’s important that you choose similar-size onions.

These onions take a lot of time to prepare, but fortunately, it can be done in stages: bake the onions one day, make the onion soup another day, finish everything the next. You will have to bring things to room temperature before the final bake.

You can test the onions during their initial bake with a cake tester, pushed into the very tip of the onion (exactly opposite the root end). If it doesn’t go in easily, don’t force it; you don’t want to bend your cake tester.

To remove the onion pulp, use a tea spoon and work on the very center first. Work your way, layer by layer, toward the outermost layer. Swirl the spoon around and then use a hooking motion to pull the onion pulp out, layer by layer. With patience, you’ll get the hang of it.

The leftover béchamel goes great with pasta or potatoes. You may want to thin it out a bit with milk. And here’s something weird, but true. Do you love chicken noodle soup? Well, if you mix the béchamel with pasta, and then have some of that leftover, you can spoon some into a dish, top it with chicken soup, and microwave to warm though. Delectable.

"Stuffed Onion," from Make It Like a Man!
Stuffed Onions

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: Grana Padano, Martha, NYT. Thank you, Kesor. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #13 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.

Keep up with us on Bloglovin’

Large Blog Image

Thanksgiving Leftovers Breakfast Hash, Midwestern Style
Ginger Cookies

36 thoughts on “Stuffed Onions”

  4. That takes French Onion Soup to the next level! What a gorgeous starter! I’m definitely going to make this for a dinner party when we get back home.

    Reply

    • It would be a fabulous starter! But it’s quite filling, so I’d keep that in mind when dreaming up the other dishes to go with it – which I’d love to hear about!

      Reply

  5. I’ve had stuffed onions before, but nothing like this recipe – oh wow this looks and sounds fantastic, with all the cheesy and bacon goodness. And stuffing onions with onion soup is such a genius idea!

    Reply

  7. What a creative way to serve soup! I’ve been wanting to make stuffed onions with beef, but now I might have to stop and make ’em with French onion soup first!

    Reply

  8. Bonjour .
    Une très bonne recette d’ohions une recette bien appétissante .
    Je te souhaite une bonne semaine .
    Bisou .

    Reply

  10. Jeff, you have taken French Onion Soup to a whole new level. There are so many exciting layers in this dish. So restaurant worthy, indeed cooking show worthy. Congratulations.

    Reply

  14. These sound unbelievable, Jeff! I have never had a stuffed onion, and I have to say it appeals very much. I mean, really, bacon and cheese with onion? Aren’t those all major food groups?

    Reply

  17. Jeff, this is truly amazing! What a brilliant and extra delicious (bacon!) take of French onion soup. And so adorable, to boot. Love it! 🙂 ~Valentina

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Website

CommentLuv badge