Crock Pot Caramelized Onions

“I made these exactly as listed and they were fantastic.I squished them down into an ice tray that I sprayed with oil and froze them, popped them out and stored them in a freezer bag.They thawed out perfectly every time I used them. Thanks Mirj!”

“You cannot get any easier than this for carmelized onions. I was worried at first, I put them in the old fashioned tall crockpot. You need the surface for them to carmelize properly. I did finally turn it up on high in the am and with 3 hours PERFECT carmelized onions. I mixed them in with garlic mashed potatoes to serve with BBQ ribs. The rest will be turned in French Onion Soup. Thanks Mirj for the great recipe!!!”

“These were fantastic.I loved the smell of them as I was waking up.Thank you so much.”

“This is a fabulous recipe! So easy and tasty. I see alot of people posting about how much liquid ia left at the end of cooking – DON’T ignore it! It is packed with delicious onion flavor. I’ve used the liquid in soups, sauces, beef stew…it adds a deep onion-y flavor. And when you refrigerate the liquid then remove the solidified butter that forms at the top, you have an awesome onion-butter to brown meat, scramble eggs….so many possibilities. Great recipe.”

“Inturned this recipe into soup, after the onions were carmelized I added 4 cans of beef broth, some thyme and a little bit of dry sherry. Served with the usual crouton and swiss melted on the top, it was fantastic.”

“Very good and VERY simple. I halved the recipe (1.5 lbs. onions and about 1/4 cup butter). Next time I think I will use less butter, as there was too much liquid in the crock pot and I had to remove it at times. The end result was delicious, but not quite caramelized onions… I think the excess butter made them sweeter than usual. It took about 11 hours total, with the final 4 hours on high.”

“Depending on the moisture content of your onions, it can take longer for them to caramelize.I have been very successful, using the crock pot on high…BUT you need to stir it occasionally .Also note that at one point it will look like you have a pot of boiling onions, resist the temptation to give up….it will be worth the wait.You will find yourself adding the onions to everything.For a quick yet impressive onios soup, add broth, wine and seasoning to the caramelized onions and enjoy”

“Can be frozen”

“I was very disappointed that I did not have the results so many other posters experienced. After 8 hours in the crock pot, three of which were on high, all I had was a pot of cooked onions sitting in a lot of liquid. I don’t know if this was due to my crock pot, or if this is what other people consider to be carmalized onions. I ended up pouring them into a frying pan and cooked out the water and then browned the onions. I will not be doing this method again. My normal method of cooking them very slowly in a large frying pan works so much better. They come up so sweet in the frying pan. I really wanted this recipe to work for me, as I love making caramelized onions and the do take a long time. However, the difference in taste is worth taking the extra time.”

“This recipe is really delicious. The second time I made it, I tried adding a 1/2 cup of water mixed with a simple soup base, such as OXO chicken or vegetable stock, which created a “French Onion Soup” at the end. Then I simply spooned the onion “soup” mixture from crockpot into bowls, put Swiss cheese and bread toasts on top, broiled a few mintues, then served.”

“We have an overabundance of onions at the moment, thanks to our online supermarket supplying a 2.5 KG bag of onions, even though we didn’t order any.I made these yesterday and they are divine!My only concern is that there seemed to be a lot of liquid produced – in the end I turned the crock pot up to high and took the lid off to try and reduce the liquid and that was successful.I’m blaming the onions rather than the recipe for that since nobody else seems to have had the same issue and the onions have clearly been in storage for some time.It made absolutely no difference to the taste or the smell when it was cooking.Thanks, Mirj!”

“This WAS a very easy recipe, and I think that the next time I will try to cut down the butter to 1/2 , and cook it for a longer period of time. I had over 10 oz. of liquid at the bttom of the crockpot and only the onions along the edges seemed to carmalize.The rest of the onions were just soft, tho tasty.I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t carmalize like the ones I make in a pan on the stovetop.I did use a batch for an omelet this morning, and that was very good.I froze most of them in small containers for later use.I kept one container in the fridge for use in the next few days. I ended up cooking them for almost 20 hours, with 2 hours on high.The house did have a marvelous smell, and guests coming in wanted to know what I was cooking (they were not here for dinner!).I will make these again, but adjust the butter and cooking time.Thank you for posting this easy recipe, Mirj.”

“This recipe inspired me, though I almost always try to “get smart alecky” and put my own twist on what I read. In this case, I considered using sweet onions first, but read in another recipe that the yellow, storing onions were actually better for this sort of thing, as they don’t have as much water in them to shed, and the sulfides in them convert to sugar in the cooking process. I chose to use 8 (yes, EIGHT!) onions, as I have a big crockpot. I also added several large batches of sliced green onions to the batch, as I love the flavor of these as well. Then I decided I’d better increase the butter a bit (as it turned out, I didn’t need to) I let all this cook down over 12 hours on “low” (I didn’t add the salt either), then I increased the heat to “high”, and cracked the cover partly open, letting them cook and reduce for another 8 hours. (remember, this was a big batch) The results are wonderful. I had trouble keeping my boyfriend from just eating them out of the pot with a spoon as-is. I was able to freeze 5 quart-size freezer bags full, plus a couple of small bowls for boyfriend to eat. Thanks for the great idea! I will likely try this again soon!”

“This was a great way to caramelize onions and drive my neighbors crazy with the aroma of cooking onions all day!I stirred it a couple of times during the cooking process.I cooked them for 7 hours on low and then turned the lid half way to partially uncover and cooked for an additional hour on high to reduce and evaporate the liquid.Turned out perfect!Going to the store to buy more onions and cook more of these to store in my freezer for future use.”

“I will definitely order more Vidalia onions next year.Thanks Mirj.”

“Simple and tasty!My two favorite words….this is wonderful.I didn’t use all the onions so I froze them in small baggies to use whenever I need them.Thanks for a great recipe!”

“Thanks to the reviews I was not expecting the caramelized onions to have the same consistency as pan fried ones, but having said that, I am delighted with the results. I am making a number of dishes today that start with sauteed onions and I thought that I would get a good head start by letting a big batch cook overnight while I slept. It worked perfectly, and the house smelled wonderful in the morning.”

“Yum! These were good.I have had issues with making the perfect onions in the past because when I do them on the stove I have a tendency to overcook them. I did not do overnight but I set this while I was doing other things in the house. I cooked on high for an hour and then switched to low and checked them every now and then.4 hours later they were perfect for me.I served them with Grandma’s Polish Perogies from this site.I would recommend just checking up on them every now and then to ensure they are the best consistency to suit you.”

“Simple, efficient, tasty. Divided into portions for the freezer, and just as good from frozen. Used a portion when I made perogies and it was great. Glad I tried this!”

“Tasty and made my house smell so delicious while it was cooking.Thanks for posting this easy and yummy recipe.It will be a staple now for keeping in the freezer for fajitas and french dip sandwiches and philly cheesesteak sandwiches.”