Crock Pot Caramelized Onions

First off, let me tell you that getting an appealing picture of caramelized onions is a hard job – a job at which I did not succeed.  Bummer. It’s as hard as Stacy trying to caramelize onions in the skillet without burning the snot out of them. I burn stuff a lot.

I had a 3 pound bag of onions in the fridge that NEEDED to be used…or else they were going straight to the trash without passing Go and collecting $200. I saw a recipe that called for caramelized onions and I thought I’d just try them in the crock and see how they turned out. Bingo, baby. Bingo.

I love grilled and sautéed onions. They just speak to me. They can take a drab dish and make it FAB. Wow – that was totally a Food Network comment.

I only lost one onion to the trash. It was too far gone to be saved. RIP onion. RIP. You would have been so tasty. *Sniff*

You will NEED to use yellow onions for this. They caramelize the best. They have more natural sugars. Slice your onions, but not too thinly – otherwise they’ll just disintegrate into your crock.

I ended up using 3 pounds of onions for this recipe – minus the one that kicked the bucket.

As you can see, my crock is pretty full. I wish it was full to the top – but alas, I used all the onions I had. A 4 quart crock with 3 pounds of onions works best. It’s okay to really stuff your crock full because they’re going to cook down a LOT.

Then just place 3 tablespoons of butter on top – sliced pieces. Cover and cook on low for a total of about 8 hours.

You will stir occasionally to avoid burning onions around the outside edges. I stirred a total of 5 times in 8 hours – so this is not a “fix and forget” dish. This is a “make it in the crock so you don’t burn the snot of out of it” dish.  If you slice your onions thinner, they might be done before 8 hours are up – just eyeball it and when they’re done to your liking quit cooking.

After 8 hours, there will be some liquid in the bottom of the crock. To get rid of some of it, take the lid off the crock and turn it to high. I let mine cook another 30 minutes like this and then I just served the onions with a slotted spoon.

This is the first time EVER that I’ve made caramelized onions without burning the snot out of them. They are SO good!

Here is a warning though – they are very fragrant. They’re so fragrant that your mom might come over and go home to smell like onions the rest of the day. Light a candle and open the windows. Or just be like me and revel in it.

There are so many ways to serve caramelized onions. For this batch we ate some on top of turkey burgers, some with hot dogs, and some just plain…okay, so a LOT plain. I didn’t think anyone was looking and I would sneak bites here and there. I like them…so back off!