The Art of Caramelizing Onions and Creating a Delicious Holiday Dipping Sauce

When it comes to cooking, one of the most essential techniques is caramelizing onions. This process involves slowly cooking sliced onions over low heat for an extended period of time, allowing them to develop a rich, sweet flavor and a deep golden brown color. To start this process, we need to prepare our onions. The first step is to slice the onions thinly, making sure they are all roughly the same size so that they cook evenly.

Once our onions are sliced, we heat up a bit of oil in a pan over medium-high heat. We add the sliced onions to the pan and sprinkle them with salt to bring out their natural sweetness. The key is to not stir the onions too much at this stage, as we want them to develop a nice crust on the bottom of the pan. This crust will eventually become caramelized.

As the onions start to cook, we reduce the heat down to low and let them simmer for 30-40 minutes. During this time, we need to occasionally stir the onions to prevent them from burning. We also want to make sure that they are cooking slowly enough so that they don't get too dark or develop an unpleasant flavor.

After about 30-40 minutes of slow cooking, our onions will start to darken ever so slightly and develop a sweet, jammy flavor. At this point, we can start to work the heat back up to increase the intensity of the caramelization process. We also want to add some dry cherry to the pan, which will help to bring out the flavors of the onions.

Once our onions are caramelized to our liking, we need to remove them from the heat and let them cool slightly. This is an important step, as we don't want to burn ourselves when we start working with hot pans. While the onions are cooling, we can prepare the rest of our ingredients for the holiday dipping sauce.

To make the dipping sauce, we will need a few additional ingredients, including sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, chives, salt, and a pinch of black pepper. We will start by pulsing together some crispy bacon that was cooked until it was nice and crunchy, as well as the caramelized onions. This will help to create a chunky paste that still maintains some texture from the bacon.

Next, we add in 3/4 cup of sour cream, 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce, about 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder, and about 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. We will also add some chopped chives on top for extra flavor and texture.

Mix all the ingredients together until they are well combined, then give it a taste to ensure that it is not too salty. If necessary, we can always add a bit more salt to bring out the flavors. The sauce should be smooth and creamy, but still have some chunkiness from the bacon and onions.

Finally, we are ready to start making our potato chips for the holiday dipping sauce. To do this, we need to slice up some thin potatoes into perfect rounds. We will fry these potato slices in hot oil until they are perfectly golden brown and crispy.

The secret to making perfect potato chips is to maintain a consistent frying temperature of around 300°F (150°C). This requires constant monitoring of the temperature to ensure that it doesn't get too high or too low. If the temperature gets too high, we will drop it back down to low; if it gets too low, we will increase the heat back up.

As we fry our potato slices, we will need to flip them constantly to prevent them from burning or developing unevenly. Once they are perfectly cooked and golden brown, we can remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and season them with a pinch of salt.

To finish off our holiday dipping sauce, we will toss some additional chopped chives on top of the chips and serve it alongside the caramelized onion dip. The combination of crispy potato chips and creamy, sweet caramelized onions is the perfect thing to enjoy during the holidays.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennow before we get into the caramelized bacon onion dip that my family is obsessed with at the holidays and is so good that you can eat it with a spoon first we need to learn how to make perfect potato chips and just the heads up I lost most of the audio on this camera be doing a little bit more voice over on this video okay so for potato chips we're using rusted potatoes we're going to need thin uniform strips of potatoes and there is no better tool unfortunately than the mandolin which I hate this Japanese Ben rener brand is a great one and I've got my little protective glove which I highly recommend now you see this side of the mandolin that's the most unstable in my experience so I try to keep things on this side I find my cuts are much more even that way and we're going for about an eighth of an inch thick you don't want it too thin or it'll be too frail and you don't want it too thick otherwise it won't cook properly cut a few slices and just dial in your thickness to start and then with consistent pressure confidently push the vegetable through the slicer and what you'll find is if you push a little harder you get them a little bit thicker and if you push a little bit lighter they're going to be thinner you'll have to sort of find your own Groove and your own pressure to get them as consistent as possible and then once sliced get those into some fresh cold water to get some of that starch starting to get rinsed off and go through slice the rest of the potatoes this is a perfect kind of thickness and slice nice and even all the way through now we want to SLO that all up get that starch into the water and then we want to rinse that water out maybe maybe three times or until the water runs clean then we can add a few tablespoons of white vinegar to it you don't have to add it I've cooked it both ways and both ways are delicious but the potatoes seem to fry up a little bit better when they're soaked in vinegar so we're going to let that soak for 30 minutes in the fridge while we slice our onions we're going to take about two large onions or four small onions like I have here and we're going to go through and just slice them very thin the more consistent they are the more even they're caramelized they will get Blended at the end though and then we're going to take a package of some bacon and we're just going to slice those up into little pieces that we're going to then get nicely crisped then we're going to take a green onion cut those down into manageable pieces and then slice those down the middle and cut into little strips toss those into ice water and they're going to curl up and create a nice garnish for our dip get those in the refrigerator till we're ready to use and now once the potatoes have been soaking for we're going to get them out of the vinegar water bath and onto some paper towels to dry now as you see one of these is a little thinner one of them is a little thicker you're going to have different variations to the thickness cuz you're not a machine and you can't slice things perfectly that's okay to keep in mind we're just going to need to cook them differently then we're going to take some chives and dice them up into a fine dice about 1/2 cup and then we're going to take a few cloves of garlic and slice those up thin those chives we save for later so we're going to wrap those throw them in the fridge so they don't dry out and then we can start cooking the bacon we've got a large frying pan on the stove a nonstick will work but it's not the best cuz we want to build a little fond and we're going to start this off in a little bit of a high heat just to get the bacon kind of sizzling and once it starts sizzling we're going to drop it down to like a medium low and slowly Rend around this Bacon fat and you're going to see a lot of moisture evaporate the bacon has fat in it it also has moisture and so we first have to evaporate that moisture out like we have to do a lot of things before the bacon will be able to start frying in its own fat and getting nice and golden brown we're just going to slowly let that bacon render and the moisture cook out now we have this dry Sher and Sherry is a a fortified wine from Spain that is fortified with like a brandy and it's great for cooking and we're going to use that to De glaze the Fawn that builds up on the bottom of the pen going to just keep going we're going to take our time and it's just going to sit on low and it's going to just sort of cook in its own fat when I see the fat start to Bubble more that's a good indication that we're close so I like to tilt the pan and let the fat cool to one side and let the bacon almost deep fry in it to get really even golden brown around all the bacon you give it a little bit of stir here and there and as the foam of the Bacon Fat starts to thicken and become more white that's a Telltale sign you're getting closer and closer to like a perfectly crisp bacon and there is carry over cooking so you don't want to take it too far in the Pan Once you can see a nice golden brown across all the bacon you really want to get that out of the pan and drain the fat and allow the bacon to kind of firm up and crisp as it rests and then we're going to take a few tablespoons of that bacon fat and get it back into the pan and then we're going to toss in our onions and just like the bacon we're going to start them a little bit on a high heat get them going a little bit we're going to add a little bit of salt break the onions down from their clumps get them a little bit softened and once they begin to soften we're going to add that garlic get that worked in and once we see the onions just start to darken ever so slightly we're going to drop the heat down and just sort of let them cook slowly after about 30 or 40 minutes of cooking slowly and they start to get a little caramel and color we're going to slowly work the heat back up so that instead of just only a Jammy onion sweetness we're going to build a little bit of roasty caramelization flavor and start to build up a little fond on the bottom of the pan so it's like a fried caramelized onion I'm going for and once they're just a really nice color they're nice and soft and a little bit crispy and the fond is developed on the bottom of the pan we're going to start to work in a few tablespoons of that dry Cherry just enough to pick up all of the fond and brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan for safety reasons I always add my alcohol off the heat then take a flat bottom spoon and just scrape up the bottom of the pan get the heat back on and just cook that alcohol out until the bottom of the pan is cleaned out and then we're ready to start to move into the next stages so we're going to take our caramelized onions and our crispy bacon and add those to a food processor with all that fat that the onions were cooking in and then we're just going to pulse it until we create like a chunky paste that still maintains some texture of the bacon get that into a bowl then we're going to go in with 3/4 of a cup of sour cream and 1/4 cup of mayo you could just do all sour cream if you don't like mayo and then we're going to do a capful of white vinegar two dashes of wishes Shear sauce about a/ teaspoon of onion powder a/ teaspoon of garlic powder the diced chives and then we're going to mix it all up and give it a taste it should be salty from the bacon but you might need to add a little bit of salt and at this point it is amazing but it's going to be even better if we let those flavors sit for a little bit in the refrigerator then I'm going to pull pull out my potatoes and you see this thickness of a potato this is kind of the ideal thickness you're going to want to go for we're ready to fry now the secret the potato chips is the frying temperature it is not 350 it's not 375 it's not 325 we want to maintain it around 300° so I have a thermometer here I'm keeping track so if the temperature ever gets too high I'm going to drop the temperature down to low and alternatively if it gets too low I'm going to jack the temperature back up so that I regulate the temperature on until the chips are perfectly golden brown and crisp if a chip is nicely Brown throughout then get it out of the oil until they're all perfectly cooked once they get out of the fryer we're going to hit them with a small amount of salt you don't want to go too hard on the salt we're going to add another batch keep frying the batches keep regulating the temperature of the oil don't let anything get too hot or too cold and you'll have perfectly cooked chips I promise you just want to give them a toss move them around make sure you're flipping all the way through the frying so they're all universally perfectly golden Brown you're going to have some chips that are a little bit Browner they're going to have some nice caramelization to them others are going to be lighter and more of a light crisp I don't know let's see how we did super thin potatoes get this like glassy texture the thicker ones have this nice Brown caramelized texture that I really like all of it's delicious spoon a little bit of that dip on for a little test incredible you hear that crunch now we can just plate up those chips with some of that onion dip should be nice and thick a little bit of those curled green onions and the thicker chips can really dig in but if you're having any trouble with Frailty you can always spoon the dip onto the chips and I'm telling you it's so good you can eat it with just a spoon for this recipe and all my holiday recipes you'll find it in my holiday plan of attack it's going to be linked down in the description it's the ebook version this book is a one of one but you have access to all the exclusive videos and holiday content on my website but that's all that I have today I'll see you next time until then take care of yourself and go feed yourself for more holiday recipes I got four more in the screen including this beautiful roasted Chateau Bon with a port wine reduction sauce that is a perfect thing to serve this Christmasnow before we get into the caramelized bacon onion dip that my family is obsessed with at the holidays and is so good that you can eat it with a spoon first we need to learn how to make perfect potato chips and just the heads up I lost most of the audio on this camera be doing a little bit more voice over on this video okay so for potato chips we're using rusted potatoes we're going to need thin uniform strips of potatoes and there is no better tool unfortunately than the mandolin which I hate this Japanese Ben rener brand is a great one and I've got my little protective glove which I highly recommend now you see this side of the mandolin that's the most unstable in my experience so I try to keep things on this side I find my cuts are much more even that way and we're going for about an eighth of an inch thick you don't want it too thin or it'll be too frail and you don't want it too thick otherwise it won't cook properly cut a few slices and just dial in your thickness to start and then with consistent pressure confidently push the vegetable through the slicer and what you'll find is if you push a little harder you get them a little bit thicker and if you push a little bit lighter they're going to be thinner you'll have to sort of find your own Groove and your own pressure to get them as consistent as possible and then once sliced get those into some fresh cold water to get some of that starch starting to get rinsed off and go through slice the rest of the potatoes this is a perfect kind of thickness and slice nice and even all the way through now we want to SLO that all up get that starch into the water and then we want to rinse that water out maybe maybe three times or until the water runs clean then we can add a few tablespoons of white vinegar to it you don't have to add it I've cooked it both ways and both ways are delicious but the potatoes seem to fry up a little bit better when they're soaked in vinegar so we're going to let that soak for 30 minutes in the fridge while we slice our onions we're going to take about two large onions or four small onions like I have here and we're going to go through and just slice them very thin the more consistent they are the more even they're caramelized they will get Blended at the end though and then we're going to take a package of some bacon and we're just going to slice those up into little pieces that we're going to then get nicely crisped then we're going to take a green onion cut those down into manageable pieces and then slice those down the middle and cut into little strips toss those into ice water and they're going to curl up and create a nice garnish for our dip get those in the refrigerator till we're ready to use and now once the potatoes have been soaking for we're going to get them out of the vinegar water bath and onto some paper towels to dry now as you see one of these is a little thinner one of them is a little thicker you're going to have different variations to the thickness cuz you're not a machine and you can't slice things perfectly that's okay to keep in mind we're just going to need to cook them differently then we're going to take some chives and dice them up into a fine dice about 1/2 cup and then we're going to take a few cloves of garlic and slice those up thin those chives we save for later so we're going to wrap those throw them in the fridge so they don't dry out and then we can start cooking the bacon we've got a large frying pan on the stove a nonstick will work but it's not the best cuz we want to build a little fond and we're going to start this off in a little bit of a high heat just to get the bacon kind of sizzling and once it starts sizzling we're going to drop it down to like a medium low and slowly Rend around this Bacon fat and you're going to see a lot of moisture evaporate the bacon has fat in it it also has moisture and so we first have to evaporate that moisture out like we have to do a lot of things before the bacon will be able to start frying in its own fat and getting nice and golden brown we're just going to slowly let that bacon render and the moisture cook out now we have this dry Sher and Sherry is a a fortified wine from Spain that is fortified with like a brandy and it's great for cooking and we're going to use that to De glaze the Fawn that builds up on the bottom of the pen going to just keep going we're going to take our time and it's just going to sit on low and it's going to just sort of cook in its own fat when I see the fat start to Bubble more that's a good indication that we're close so I like to tilt the pan and let the fat cool to one side and let the bacon almost deep fry in it to get really even golden brown around all the bacon you give it a little bit of stir here and there and as the foam of the Bacon Fat starts to thicken and become more white that's a Telltale sign you're getting closer and closer to like a perfectly crisp bacon and there is carry over cooking so you don't want to take it too far in the Pan Once you can see a nice golden brown across all the bacon you really want to get that out of the pan and drain the fat and allow the bacon to kind of firm up and crisp as it rests and then we're going to take a few tablespoons of that bacon fat and get it back into the pan and then we're going to toss in our onions and just like the bacon we're going to start them a little bit on a high heat get them going a little bit we're going to add a little bit of salt break the onions down from their clumps get them a little bit softened and once they begin to soften we're going to add that garlic get that worked in and once we see the onions just start to darken ever so slightly we're going to drop the heat down and just sort of let them cook slowly after about 30 or 40 minutes of cooking slowly and they start to get a little caramel and color we're going to slowly work the heat back up so that instead of just only a Jammy onion sweetness we're going to build a little bit of roasty caramelization flavor and start to build up a little fond on the bottom of the pan so it's like a fried caramelized onion I'm going for and once they're just a really nice color they're nice and soft and a little bit crispy and the fond is developed on the bottom of the pan we're going to start to work in a few tablespoons of that dry Cherry just enough to pick up all of the fond and brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan for safety reasons I always add my alcohol off the heat then take a flat bottom spoon and just scrape up the bottom of the pan get the heat back on and just cook that alcohol out until the bottom of the pan is cleaned out and then we're ready to start to move into the next stages so we're going to take our caramelized onions and our crispy bacon and add those to a food processor with all that fat that the onions were cooking in and then we're just going to pulse it until we create like a chunky paste that still maintains some texture of the bacon get that into a bowl then we're going to go in with 3/4 of a cup of sour cream and 1/4 cup of mayo you could just do all sour cream if you don't like mayo and then we're going to do a capful of white vinegar two dashes of wishes Shear sauce about a/ teaspoon of onion powder a/ teaspoon of garlic powder the diced chives and then we're going to mix it all up and give it a taste it should be salty from the bacon but you might need to add a little bit of salt and at this point it is amazing but it's going to be even better if we let those flavors sit for a little bit in the refrigerator then I'm going to pull pull out my potatoes and you see this thickness of a potato this is kind of the ideal thickness you're going to want to go for we're ready to fry now the secret the potato chips is the frying temperature it is not 350 it's not 375 it's not 325 we want to maintain it around 300° so I have a thermometer here I'm keeping track so if the temperature ever gets too high I'm going to drop the temperature down to low and alternatively if it gets too low I'm going to jack the temperature back up so that I regulate the temperature on until the chips are perfectly golden brown and crisp if a chip is nicely Brown throughout then get it out of the oil until they're all perfectly cooked once they get out of the fryer we're going to hit them with a small amount of salt you don't want to go too hard on the salt we're going to add another batch keep frying the batches keep regulating the temperature of the oil don't let anything get too hot or too cold and you'll have perfectly cooked chips I promise you just want to give them a toss move them around make sure you're flipping all the way through the frying so they're all universally perfectly golden Brown you're going to have some chips that are a little bit Browner they're going to have some nice caramelization to them others are going to be lighter and more of a light crisp I don't know let's see how we did super thin potatoes get this like glassy texture the thicker ones have this nice Brown caramelized texture that I really like all of it's delicious spoon a little bit of that dip on for a little test incredible you hear that crunch now we can just plate up those chips with some of that onion dip should be nice and thick a little bit of those curled green onions and the thicker chips can really dig in but if you're having any trouble with Frailty you can always spoon the dip onto the chips and I'm telling you it's so good you can eat it with just a spoon for this recipe and all my holiday recipes you'll find it in my holiday plan of attack it's going to be linked down in the description it's the ebook version this book is a one of one but you have access to all the exclusive videos and holiday content on my website but that's all that I have today I'll see you next time until then take care of yourself and go feed yourself for more holiday recipes I got four more in the screen including this beautiful roasted Chateau Bon with a port wine reduction sauce that is a perfect thing to serve this Christmas\n"