Copycat Applebee's French Onion Soup Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Does Applebee's have good French onion soup? ›

Applebees French Onion Soup is a classic French Onion soup, so flavorful and so perfect for when you want a light meal.

A few sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf elevate the soup even more, but I take it a step further, adding a splash of fish sauce for complexity and depth—don't worry, it won't taste fishy—and a hit of cider vinegar to balance some of that oniony sweetness.

The key to good French onion soup is to cook the onions so long that they threaten to melt into a viscous, dark brown paste, à la Marmite. As has already been extensively reported in Slate, there are no shortcuts when you're caramelizing onions; it always takes at least an hour, usually longer.

Wine is optional to deglaze the pan and add flavour to the soup. I recommend a dry white or red wine, such as a good quality Pinot Grigio/Gris, Sauv Blanc, Sémillon, Chardonnay, Merlot or Pinot Noir. Generally, if you can't drink it, don't cook with it.

French onion soup is the ultimate comfort food. Onions get slowly cooked until sweet and caramelized, then simmered in rich broth until they're practically falling apart. To finish it off, toasted bread is added to give it that lovable crisp-gone-soggy texture and a generous amount of Gruyère cheese is melted on top.

What is the Difference Between Onion Soup and French Onion Soup? French onion soup is always made with beef stock. Other onion soups can be made with chicken, vegetable, or beef stock. Additionally, French onion soup typically contains wine or sherry, which isn't typical or necessary in other onion soups.

The caramelized onions for this soup cook more quickly due to a pinch of baking soda but still have that deep, slow-cooked flavor. Topping the soup with hot, cheesy toasts prepared while the soup simmers, eliminates the need to bake the soup in specialty French onion soup bowls.

If you don't add enough salt, pepper, or other herbs and spices, the soup may taste bland.

Other Swiss types of cheese like Raclette cheese or Appenzeller Cheese or Dutch cheeses like Edam cheese or Gouda or Jarlsberg cheese from Norway or American Swiss cheese can all be substituted.

Use Water. Like I mentioned above, we want to get rid of all the water in the onions to allow for browning to take place. But once the onions do start to brown, water can be your best friend! Adding water periodically into the pan while caramelizing your onions will prevent burning.

Why does my French onion soup taste bitter? ›

On the other hand, you can not caramelize onions for too long – they will be bitter. Salting the onions at the beginning of cooking helps to soften them more quickly. Photo 2 – this is how the onions will look like after 15 minutes of cooking time. Photo 3 – this is how they look like after 30 minutes.

While certain vegetables can work just fine added directly to simmering soups and stews (say, carrots and celery), other vegetables (onions, garlic, and the like) will almost always need at least a brief sweat in a fat-based liquid before adding the remaining ingredients.

restaurants serve French onion soup in a Lion Head soup bowl made of porcelain, because of the style and also, because it is an oven-safe bowl.

Well, you'll be pleased to know that french onion soup is, in fact, a highly nutritious choice. Onions, as part of the Allium family, contain Quercetin which is a powerful anti-inflammatory and should not be overlooked as a vegetable when considering your daily 7-a-day.

If you want to thicken your French onion soup, you can add a bit of flour. Combine a couple of tablespoons of flour with a teaspoon of salt and whisk in about a quarter cup of water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, until thickened.

Applebee's French Onion Soup (1 Serving) contains 26g total carbs, 24g net carbs, 22g fat, 16g protein, and 360 calories.

With such a soup, a knife is your friend, not your enemy. Using both the soup spoon and the knife, push the baked cheese against the rim of the cup or bowl and cut it gently with the knife. Once you've broken the cheese barrier, you can use the knife again to nudge bits of cheese onto the spoon.

Later, it was also discovered that the soup masked the smell of alcohol from drinking the night before, thanks to the use of Comté or Gruyère cheeses, which have a strong aroma. French households would use the soup as a hangover cure as well.