Onion Soup Les Halles
TIME/SERVINGS
Makes: 8 servings
From: Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook
Special equipment: Make this soup in ovenproof soup crocks.
A propane torch is a very handy-dandy piece of equipment, especially if your stove is not the greatest. Nearly all professional kitchens have them; they’re not very expensive and they can be used for a variety of sneaky tasks, such as easily caramelizing the top of crème brûlée or toasting meringues.
Half-assed alternative: Your broiler sucks. Your oven isn’t much better. Can’t find those ovenproof crocks anywhere. And you ain’t ponying up for a damn propane torch, ’cause your kid’s got pyromaniac tendencies. You can simply toast cheese over the croutons on a sheet pan, and float them as garnish on the soup. Not exactly classic—but still good.
For the broth:
- 6 ounces butter
- 8 large onions (or 12 small onions), thinly sliced
- 2 ounces port wine
- 2 ounces balsamic vinegar
- 2 quarts dark chicken stock, or low-sodium chicken or beef broth
- 4 ounces slab bacon, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 bouquet garni
For the croutons and cheese:
- 16 baguette croutons (sliced and toasted in the oven with a little olive oil)
- 12 ounces grated Gruyère cheese (real, imported Gruyère!)
- In a large pot, heat the butter over medium heat until it is melted and begins to brown. Add the onions and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and browned (about 20 minutes). Onion soup, unsurprisingly, is all about the onions. Make damn sure the onions are a nice, dark, even brown color.
- Increase the heat to medium high and stir in the port wine and the vinegar, scraping all that brown goodness from the bottom of the pot into the liquid. Add the chicken stock. Note that the better and more intense your stock, the better the soup’s going to be. This soup, in particular, is a very good argument for making your own. Add the bacon and the bouquet garni, and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, skimming any foam off the top with a ladle. Remove the bouquet garni.
For the croutons and cheese:
- When the soup is finished cooking, ladle it into the individual crocks. Float two croutons side by side on top of each. Spread a generous, even heaping amount of cheese over the top of the soup. You want some extra to hang over the edges as the crispy, near-burnt stuff that sticks to the outer sides of the crocks is often the best part, once it comes out from under the heat.
- Place each crock under a preheated, rip-roaring broiler until the cheese melts, bubbles, browns, and even scorches slightly in isolated spots. The finished cheese should be a panorama of molten brown hues ranging from golden brown to dark brown to a few black spots where the cheese blistered and burned. Serve immediately—and carefully. You don’t know pain until you’ve spilled one of these things.
- If your broiler is too small or too weak to pull this off, you can try it in a preheated 425°F/220°C oven until the cheese is melted. A nice optional move: Once the mound of grated cheese starts to flatten out in the oven, remove each crock and, with a propane torch, blast the cheese until you get the colors you want.
Beverage pairing: Argyle Pinot Noir, Oregon. Depending on the depth and meatiness of the stock you use in this soup, you could go with wines of varying weight. Pinot Noir captures the middle ground, and this one from Oregon brings deep plum and berry fruit as well as a touch of smoke and lush texture to match the soup.
This recipe, while from a trusted source, may not have been tested by the CHOW food team.
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
I have made this recipe, it's one of the best french onion soups I've ever had. Don't go the half-assed route. Go cook at a friend's place to do it the right way and it'll make you shiver with delight and joy at the simple things, done well.
I swear the recipe in the book used veal stock...
I just checked, bhill. It's dark chicken stock, but brown veal stock would be delicious too.
Thanks. I remember this whole thing about how to make veal stock but I guess it was in a different spot.
And here I was wondering what I was going to do with all the beef stock I made from about 10 pounds of bones that I had in the freezer. I'm so firing up the torch and making this this weekend.
Does anyone have a weight or cup measurement on the onions? 8 large onions (or 12 small onions) is pretty vague.
What's vague about 8 large or 12 small? Look at the onions at the market, you'll spot the different sizes, then just go from there.
This soup rules, it's such a rich, classic delight. I love Bourdain.
In Jacques/Julia's version, they toss a few croutons in before they ladle the soup. The croutons rehydrate and become amazingly flavorful. Another option involved punching a hole through the melted cheese, whipping a raw egg with some port, and pouring it through the hole.
This is AMAZING on a cold winter day with a glass of red wine and some fresh bread.
I am going for the french onion soup!!!!
you know, i'm sure the soup is great - i want to try it, but that picture.... looks like crap.
Oh I don't think it looks like crap. I think it looks like a real person made the soup and then took a picture of it, just as it was. I like it.
I make this all the time at my restaurant and that's how it looks when it comes out of the broiler. I've never touched a bowl of it with a towel.
Isn't a baguette croûton just the tiny little pointy end piece?
I made the recipe with what I had on hand. I didn't have balsamic and just added more red wine (port). I also didn't have enough bacon, but used what I had.
This was SUCH a fantastic soup. I am looking forward to using the balsamic and the called for amount of bacon.
I made this a couple of weeks ago. Used the peruvian sweets that were in abundance at the time. It really takes a while (45 minutes) to get that many onions nice and brown. I had two skillets going and deglazed both of them. It worked fine. A GREAT RECIPE.
I definitely need to work on my torching skills though.
A forgiving and delicious recipe, this has become my favorite for vegetarian french onion soup. I use veggie broth and add a bit more vinegar and red wine. I also use a few different kinds of onions. Perfect w/no knead bread!
Great recipe. Love'd it. Did not have any port on hand, and no bacon. Replaced the Port with a couple of Tbs of red wine. Did not replace the bacon - turned out great...vive la France!
Sounds delicious!!! What kind of onions are you using?
I made the soup yesterday!! Delicious indeed!! It did take me a good 90 minutes to get the onions browned, I think the time probably depends on the kind of cookware you are using. I was using a non-stick pot, maybe it's better on stainless steel.
Bacon and chicken stock!?! What has this classic old soup come to?
Yellow spanish onions, 1/2 chicken/ 1/2 beef stock. Delish
Man... soupe a l'oignon is my favourite... it's 1:00 (AM) and I'm seriously considering going out to buy ingredients :-D