If you’re a fan of comfort food with bold flavors, Roy Choi’s French Onion Soup is a must-try. Known for his innovative approach to classic dishes, Choi brings his signature fusion of French technique and street-food-inspired flair to this beloved soup. This classic French onion soup recipe delivers rich, caramelized onions, a deeply flavorful broth, and that irresistible cheesy toast topping that makes this easy French onion soup recipe an all-time favorite.

Who is Roy Choi and why should we love his soup? 

If you found this post, you probably already know who Chef Roy Choi is, and why his French Onion soup is worth making. But in case you don’t, Roy Choi is a Korean-American chef, based in Los Angeles. He became well-known for his Korean-Mexican taco truck, Kogi, and The Chef Show, which he created with Jon Favreau. On that show, he made his famously delicious French Onion soup. 

Traditional French onion soup is made with simple ingredients – caramelized onions, broth, toasted bread and cheese – and uses cooking technique to elevate the simple soup into something spectacular. This soup is super versatile in that you can use a variety of cheese, broths, or bread to tone it up or down based on your budget and what you happen to have on hand.

Ingredients

• Onions: Yellow, white or red onions can be used in this recipe. We like to use sweet onions, however, if you want to make an authentic French onion soup, you’ll want to use yellow onions. 
• Butter: Butter is the tastiest way to caramelize onions, however olive oil or another oil will work too. 
• Wine: I usually use wine for deglazing because it adds a nice rich flavor – either a dry white wine or red wine (honestly, whatever I happen to have on hand). The alcohol cooks out as the soup cooks, but for a non-alcoholic option, you can use broth. 
• Flour: I use flour to thicken French onion soup. For a gluten-free option, add an arrowroot slurry once the soup heated (before putting into bowls)
• Broth: Beef broth is traditionally used in French onion soup. However, if you only have chicken broth or vegetable broth, that will work too. Likewise, you could just use water as the liquid if no broth is available, it will still be a delicious soup, but it won’t have the depth of flavor it would have if you  used broth. Broth is incredibly inexpensive to make so learning to make and can (or freeze) homemade beef broth is a great endeavor. 
• Seasonings: The seasonings will add depth to the rather simple soup, especially if you’re using water and not broth as the liquid. I like to use garlic, bay leaf, fresh thyme, salt and pepper. You can also add Worcestershire sauce which is especially good if you’re using water instead of broth as your liquid. Feel free to adjust the recommended seasonings to accommodate your family’s preferences. If you happen to have some herbs de Provence on hand, you could use that instead of the fresh thyme.
• Bread: For the bread, you want it dry. So, if you have a some stale bread, that would be ideal. If you’re buying bread a baguette loaf is perfect. If you want to make bread, try this easy French bread recipe.
• Cheese: Like most of the other ingredients, you can use whatever cheese that melts well that you happen to have on hand. Gruyere cheese is the most popular but you could also use Swiss cheese, gouda, provolone or even mozzarella which is what I normally use because I keep it on hand for pizza night. 

How Make French Onion Soup

Start with making the crostini, aka toasting the bread slices. Preheat the oven to 400F. While the oven is preheating, slice the baguette at an angle into 1/2-inch slices. Put the slices on a baking sheet and brush generously with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with a little salt and bake until golden brown, about 12-15 minutes.

Peel and slice the onions into 1/4-inch slices. 

In a large stockpot, melt a bit of butter over medium-high heat. When the butter is melted and hot, put a slice of onion in the stockpot. If the butter is bubbling around the onion, the butter is hot enough.

Decrease the heat to medium and add all the onions to the stockpot. Stir occasionally. You wan some browning to happen 

Once your crostini is in the oven, start working on the soup. Coat the bottom of your pot with a layer of butter and heat over medium-high heat. While that heat is coming up, make sure your onions are sliced. To check when your oil is ready, toss a slice of onion in and look for bubbling.

If you’ve got the heat right, add all of the onions into your pot and decrease to medium heat. Stir your onions occasionally.

Once the onions are translucent, you can begin to break them down with a wooden spoon. Add salt and pepper to taste, then a pat (1-2 tsp) of butter and continue stirring until the onions begin to brown. Continue cooking until the onions are a deep, golden brown color. They should have nice, sweet flavor. If the onions get over-caramelized, they’ll loose their sweetness and the soup will be a bit bitter – not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you want a more savory broth.

Once you onions are ready, increase the heat under your pot to high. Move the onions to one side of the pot and add 3-4 ounces of wine (or other liquid) to deglaze the bottom of the pan. (If you don’t know how to deglaze, here’s a really handy resource.)

Next, add a light coating of flour to your onions, then the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Pour the beef stock over the whole mixture and bring it up to a boil. Then cook over low heat, so the pot is simmering, and leave for 30 minutes.

When the soup is done cooking, ladle hot soup into oven-safe bowls and top with toasted bread and cheese. Leave room at the top of the bowl so you can cover it generously with cheese. Then place the bowls on a baking sheet and then put in the oven under a broiler until the melted cheese is golden brown. The bowls can be put directly on the oven rack, but it’s harder to remove them from the oven when they’re done.

Remove the bowls – be careful, as they’re hot – and enjoy!

Storing Leftover French Onion Soup

When I serve French onion soup, I make individual bowls – one for each person. If there’s any soup left over, the cooled soup can be stored in an airtight container for 4-5 days in the refrigerator. It can be frozen up to 3 months. 

The important thing is to just store the soup without the bread and cheese. You can add the bread and cheese when you serve the leftovers. 

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Thanks for sharing!