BEST FRENCH ONION SOUP - COOKS ILLUSTRATED

Best French Onion Soup - Cooks Illustrated image

Categories Vegetable Winter Dinner Braise Fry

Number Of Ingredients 11

Ingredients

4 pounds Onions, halved and sliced through the root and into 1/4 inch-thick pieces
3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, cut into 3 pieces
1 teaspoon Salt and Pepper, to taste
2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
1/2 cup Dry Sherry
4 cups Low Sodium Chicken broth
2 cups Beef broth
6 sprigs Fresh Thyme sprigs, tied with kitchen twine
1 l Bay Leaf
1 loaf Baguette, small, cut into 1/2 inch slices
8 ounces Gruyere Cheese, shredded (2 cups)

Steps:

1. FOR THE SOUP: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle positions and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of Dutch oven with vegetable oil spray. Add onions, butter, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cooke, covered, for 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
2. Carefully remove pot from oven (leave oven on) and place over medium-high heat. Cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and oniobns brown, 15-20 minutes (reduce heat to medium if onions brown too quickly). Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until bottom of pot is coated with cark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any browned bits that collect on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in 2 cups water, chicken broth, beef brot, thyme, bay leaf and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any finalbits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. FOR THE CHEESE CROUTONS: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on rimmed baking sheet and bake until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, aout 10 minutes. Set aside.
5. TO SERVE: Adjust oven rack 7 to 8 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set 6 broiler-safe crocks on rimmed baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do ot overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyere. Broil until chese is melted and bubbly around the edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.