French Onion Soup | Byron Talbott

Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back. Today's recipe is very highly requested and anticipated. So today I'm gonna show you how to make a delicious French onion soup. So let's get started. First up, it really starts with the onion. So grab a few onions, and you're just gonna slice them up as thinly as you can. I have two little tips to show you guys. So when you start slicing your onion, you're just gonna slice it straight down in half, and then you're gonna start slicing all the way across. But make sure you slice in the shape of the onion. It almost has this little rainbow shape to it. And you wanna cut in that same shape. And halfway through, you can just flip the onion over, get a little bit more leverage, and continue slicing to the center of the onion. Now, of course, you can use a mandolin or other devices to slice your onions if you don't feel so comfortable to slice it with your knife like I'm doing, but it really depends on your comfort level. Once you're done slicing up all your onions, you're gonna get a small saute pan on medium to high heat, add a little knob of butter to it, and then you're gonna start caramelizing your onions for about 20 to 30 minutes. It could take a little bit longer, but really the color that you're looking for is a very dark amber golden brown. Now, about halfway through your caramelizing process, you're gonna wanna add just a tiny bit of water to help deglaze the bottom of the pan. A lot of the onion fond or the little sediment that the caramelized onions leave at the bottom of the pan tends to stick there, so you need a little bit of liquid to sort of get a little bit of separation and cause even more of that rich color to come through. Once you're done doing that, you're gonna add just a splash of red wine and then a bay leaf, followed by a sprig of thyme, and then of course, you're gonna top it off with your beef broth. You can also use chicken broth or just vegetable broth if you're a vegetarian, and then you're gonna finish it off with just a little bit of salt and some sherry vinegar. Allow this to cook for at least 15 to 20 minutes, let it reduce by a quarter or so, and that should yield a wonderful base for your French onion soup. All right, so while you're waiting for the broth to reduce, you're gonna make your little crouton for the topping of your French onion soup. So here I have a nice little kaiser bun that I picked up at a local grocery store. You can use sliced baguette or just a variety of bread for this little crouton, but I like to use something that's naturally round since my bowl is round and it's gonna be sort of a perfect fit. I'm also gonna use a ring cutter to help me get that perfect circle shape. I'm also gonna season this with just a little bit of salt, pepper, and olive oil, and then throw it into a 375 degree oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, just until it turns golden brown. All right, so once your soup is ready to go and your crouton is nice and crispy, you're gonna grab your bowl, fill it up about three quarters of the way with your delicious French onion soup base. Leave just a little gap on the top for your crouton, and then you're gonna top it off with that delicious crouton and then you're gonna top that off with some freshly grated Comte cheese or some Gruyere cheese. You can even use some sharp cheddar or Swiss cheese, depends on what you prefer, but this is sort of the original take. Make sure you layer a good amount on top because that's just gonna melt to perfection, and then you're gonna throw this into a 400 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes, just until that cheese gets all wonderfully bubbly and just starts to melt over the sides. Once that's done, you're gonna pull it out, let it cool down for at least 10 to 15 minutes before you consume it, but once it's done, that's your delicious French onion soup that you can share with your friends and family. French onion soup, guys, this looks amazing. As you can tell, I've already been kind of picking at it a little bit. This was just too good. I had to start digging in, and Rachel had a few bites, so excuse the half torn apart French onion soup, but this looks amazing, and I wanna tell you guys how I did and sort of just run you through the flavors of this French onion soup. All right, I love it. The top, the little, the crouton is just amazing. Nice and cheesy. Has a nice little crispy crust right on the outside, the little charred bit, which I really like. Wow. Really good. Tons of robust flavors in the broth. Of course, has that wonderful, you know, sweet caramelized onion flavor that's just permeating throughout this, you know, the soup, which is basically the base of the soup is that caramelized flavor from the onion, and also the broth is just wonderful. I used Swanson's broth. It's very simple. I just went to a local grocery store, picked it up, but if you guys prefer your own broth, you can make your own chicken stock or your beef broth and make this, you know, maybe even 10 times better than the recipe that I made today by using your own broth or homemade broth, but it's really good just using some store-bought broth. It's not that big of a deal. Also, the thyme in this is really good. Nice little herbaceous touch. The sherry vinegar adds a much needed, you know, bite of acidity and also adds a little bit of that sherry flavor to it as well, and of course the bread, that little nice, you know, crouton on top adds just a wonderful amount of texture to this dish. That's why it's there. It's to provide a little bit of body to the dish, but also it's to give this dish really texture, a nice little crunch that cuts through some of the tender aspects of the actual broth and the tender onions, and of course the cheese on top is to add just a wonderful amount of richness to the dish. I mean, who doesn't like bubbly, crispy cheese on top of anything, right? It's just a good little complimenting aspect to this savory dish, but I love French onion soup. By no means am I the authority on French onion soup or am I trying to say that this is like the traditional way to make it. I'm sure you guys have loads of your own soup recipes and especially the French onion soup being probably one of the most popular soups, but this is my little spin on it. I really love making this soup. I've made it a million times before in other restaurants, but this is sort of the recipe that I've adapted to making and it's really quick, simple, easy, but nonetheless, this is a great soup, a really good French onion soup. I really love making this dish whenever I do make it. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this recipe and I definitely encourage you guys to make your own French onion soup using some of these techniques and ideas behind this recipe and make it your own, do your own little spin on it if you guys have that intuition. And if you guys did enjoy this video, please thumbs up, subscribe, comment below for future video requests, things that you'd like to see on this channel. And of course, I'll see you guys next time with another delicious recipe. Bye, everybody.