Save Yourself Time And Effort And Use The Oven To Caramelize Onions

Caramelizing onions on the stovetop is a labor of love that imbues beautiful bowls of French onion soup, homemade pizzas, and charcuterie boards with an extra bit of hard-earned sophistication. It's also a huge pain that takes forever and ever — about an hour of active work since you have to keep those Alliums moving around the pan — for something that's more often an ingredient rather than the main event. But you can actually make the whole process a little more passive if you're willing to increase your caramelized onions' cook time.

Just like sheet pan meals can revolutionize your easy weeknight dinners, so too can the similarly hands-off oven-baked caramelized onions. Because you ultimately sap a ton of the vegetable's moisture, effectively concentrating its flavor and totally transforming its texture, begin with a great big pile of properly sweet sliced onions. They reduce considerably by the time they're ready to use. Also, dust off your no-tears onion cutting tricks before you break out the sharp knife or mandoline.

Once you start preheating your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, you can get to slicing six or so onions. A mandoline is ideal for speed and uniformity if you know how to use it, with uniformity promoting a more even finish. An everyday chef's knife is also fine for the uninitiated, if a little more time consuming and potentially less consistent. Your ¼ inch-thick onion ribbons can go right into a large, heavy, lidded pot. Once you've accumulated a mighty pile, toss it all with oil and salt, cover, and place in the oven. You need to stir the onions about every 15 minutes for around two hours before they're finally done (a few glugs of water as needed on each round of stirring promotes steaming to achieve the soft final product of your expectations). This only takes a few seconds in between other chores (or streaming shows) — the stovetop method more or less keeps you tethered to this one task.