Garnish Your Dinner With This Pantry Staple For A Better Meal In Under A Minute

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

I almost forgot about store-bought fried onions — until I remembered what a pain they are to make from scratch, at least relative to the deep-frying I did not have time to do when I needed them. I skipped the near-sweet, crunchy ingredient that night and it was fine, but it wasn't long before I added a tub of French's Crispy Fried Onions to my shopping list. I've tossed them on all manner of plates ever since; they're infrequently compulsory, but even a scant handful can make almost anything just a little more delicious. 

Once you have a pack, you'll find plenty of uses for them beyond the green bean casseroles that top holiday tables all across America. They're just as terrific in less-famous veggie and protein pairings as they are in that iconic dish. Those new to the ingredient can tinker with the addition amid dinners already in rotation, or you can take a page from my home's back-of-the-envelope recipe book to begin peeling back layers of fried onion inspiration. Even better, the battered yellow alliums can last a whopping two years on the shelf (depending on the brand) when stored in cool, dry conditions.

We love a classic Cobb salad around here, but between the stove work required to cook the chicken, bacon, and hard-boiled eggs, not to mention all the botanical chopping, cheese crumbling, and vinaigrette shaking done on the counter, it can feel more like making a multi-course meal than throwing a salad together. So, I sometimes swap bacon with fried onions for a similarly salty, texturally stimulating effect. I've even used both, in admittedly overboard fashion. The onions can have a bigger impact in simpler, less labor-intensive salads.

If I'm buying blue cheese for Cobb salad, I'm probably making steak that week, too, great as blue cheese and steak are together via compound butter, or even with the dairy roughly chopped as a low-lift garnish. Fried onions give this tasty twosome even more restaurant-quality intentionality. Such is the case for other steak preparations as well. Fried onions are also ideal for zhuzhing up quicker meals, including the comforting coupling of grilled cheese and tomato soup. A sprinkling of French's (or your own fave), even over a mass-produced carton of tomato soup, manages to make it seem more homemade — without having to make anything at all.