French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese & Balsamic Caramelized Onions: SRC

Yippee!  It’s Secret Recipe Club Day!!

This month’s assignment was Ellie’s blog, The Hobo Kitchen.  As the name suggests, Ellie resides in Hoboken, NJ.  As I started going through her recipes, some seemed familiar, and as I dug further, I found out that The Hobo Kitchen was formerly the Bitchn’ Kitchn’, a SRC blog assignment from last year!  Then I got really excited, because I knew about all the completely fabulous recipes on her blog!

Ellie even has a whole section of her recipe index dedicated to boozy cupcakes!  AHHH!!!  So tempting!

In the end, I decided to make a French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese sandwiches with Balsamic Caramelized Onions because yum.  Once I saw the recipe, I simply couldn’t get it out of my head!

I made a few slight alterations to the balsamic caramelized onion recipe.  I used butter instead of oil, because I love love love onions caramelized in butter.  I also used beef broth instead of water, since I knew these were destined to become a French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese.

I also scaled it down to make enough for one sandwich…plus also I only had two onions in the pantry…and the one of them was rotten (Boo! Hiss!)  So for the full recipe, do check out Ellie’s original at the Hobo Kitchen. 

Thank you, Ellie!  It was a pleasure to cook with you again!

Balsamic Caramelized Onions

Adapted from The Hobo Kitchen

½ tbsp butter

1 large onion, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)

6 tbsp beef broth (just over 1/3 cup), divided

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1 small sprig fresh rosemary, minced (about 1 tsp)

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onions and stir to coat.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened.  Add 2 tablespoons of beef broth and cook until it evaporates. 

Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking until the onions just begin to brown.  Add another 2 tablespoons of beef broth and cook until it evaporates.

If needed, reduce the heat to low, stirring frequently until the onions are deeply browned.  Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons beef broth, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, rosemary, and pepper.  Cook, stirring constantly until the liquid evaporates.  Set aside until ready to use.

French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese

Adapted from The Hobo Kitchen

2 slices of bread, preferably homemade or whole wheat

Butter

1 batch balsamic caramelized onions or beer caramelized onions (heaping ¼ cup)

2 slices swiss cheese (or mozzarella or provolone)

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat.

Butter one side of each slice of bread. 

Place one slice, butter side down, in the skillet.  Quickly top with 1 slice of cheese, all of the onions, the second slice of cheese, and the second slice of bread (butter side up).  Cook until the bottom bread is toasted to golden-brown.  Carefully flip the sandwich and cook until the bottom is golden-brown and the cheese is melted. 

Serve immediately.

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