Terri Ramsey Beavers This is the time of year I start creating meals to freeze for cooler fall months because with chilly days comes painful backaches. There are many days I don’t feel like standing and cooking so having premade frozen foods helps me a lot. I prefer to freeze what I can in individual-size mason jars because they store well in my freezer and I can pretty much see what’s in them as well.
Today I’m going to share how to make and freeze French onion soup. When I serve it fresh for company, I serve it in oven proof bowls. When I freeze it for myself, I freeze it and serve it in Mason Jars.
If you want to try the best French onion soup recipe you will ever create, grab your apron, and let’s get started.
A couple of things to note before we start. Don’t use red onions, sweet and yellow onions are perfect. Red onions will give your soup a dingy gray outcome versus a pretty brown soup with sweet and yellow onions. The other thing I want to note is that you need to add both the olive oil and the butter to the frying pan when cooking your onions. The oil keeps the butter from burning.
Alright, here we go.
The Best Freezer French Onion Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- For 5 small mason jar sizes of soup, use 5 large sweet onions.
- 1 carton of chicken stock. I use Swanson’s but I’m sure any kind you have will be fine.
- 2 Tablespoons of flour.
- 1/2 cup of cooking sherry.
- Salt as desired (I use 1 teaspoon).
- Pepper as desired (I use 1/2 teaspoon).
- 1 Tablespoon sugar.
- Toast or toasted french bread slices.
- Shredded parmesan cheese.
And that’s it. This recipe does not call for a lot of ingredients like some of my recipes. I like to throw it down in the kitchen and include everything but the kitchen sink in my recipes.
If you love French onion soup as much as I do, it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser for dinner if you’re not making it to freeze.
Instructions
Cut and slice your onions. I cut my onions in half, then in half again, then slice. There’s no right or wrong way to slice your onions. They’re going to cook down anyway, really small.
Turn stovetop burner on medium-low.
After cutting my onions, I add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil in my dutch oven or frying pan, whichever one I choose to use, and then I add a big dollop of butter to that. I’d say it’s a nice sized Tablespoon.
When the butter is melted, add all of the onions to your pan. Then coat all of the onions with olive oil and butter. Just keep stirring until it’s all coated.
Cover your pan, and cook until the onions are translucent. This generally takes about 20 minutes when I use my frying pan. 15 or so with a dutch oven.
Uncover, stir, add salt, pepper, and sugar. Don’t omit the sugar because the sugar is what helps caramelize the onions to give them that pretty brown color. Cook about 40 minutes on medium-low, stirring every 5 minutes (so the onions don’t stick and burn, and trust me, they will if you don’t stir).
Once your onions reach your desired color add the flour and stir until coated. Then stir and cook an additional 5 minutes. I stir constantly or mine tend to stick at this point.
Now add the chicken stock and cooking Pompeian cooking sherry.
Leave uncovered, and cook, for about 40 minutes, this really depends on how high you have your heat and the desired thickness you’re seeking.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
When it’s ready and has that pretty brown brothy look, add to ovenproof bowls if you plan to serve it for dinner, or mason jars if you’re going to freeze it.
Lightly toast bread rounds or french bread slices.
Add toasted bread or french bread to the top.
Then top that with cheese.
Pop in the oven until cheese is melted.
You can double or triple this recipe if you need to make enough for a large family or a crowd.