Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions + VIDEO

Make fuss-free caramelized onions in your slow cooker or Instant Pot. No more standing over a stove stirring onions!

What Are Caramelized Onions?

Caramelization is when sugar is browned to produce a dark brown color and nut flavor. Onions have natural sugars so if you cook them slowly over a long period of time, the natural sugars will caramelize. The end result is flavorful onions that can eaten as-is or reused in other recipes.

Why Make Caramelized Onions In The Slow Cooker or Instant Pot

The main reason to make caramelized onions in your slow cooker or pressure cooker is because it’s so easy!  The traditional way to make caramelized onions involves standing over a stove constantly stirring the onions so they don’t burn. Here you just let the appliance do the work. There’s pluses & minuses to using either one. Using the slow cooker in particular makes it truly set it & forget it. I like to start mine at night so come morning the onions are ready to go. For the Instant Pot (pressure cooker), there’s an additional step or two but it cooks a lot faster than the slow cooker.

What Type Of Onions To Use

The good news is that you can use your preferred onion whether it be white, yellow, or even red. All onions caramelize. I used white onions because they were on sale at the grocery store this week.

Other recipes you might enjoy:

Salsa

Ghee

BBQ Sauce

Use These Onions In Recipes

Sky is the limit when it comes to using caramelized onions. Of course you can eat them straight up by themselves. Most people will add them to foods like hamburgers, pizzas, sandwiches or even salads to add extra flavor. If you’re looking for a use, these onions are great in my low-carb/keto French onion soup recipe.

Slow Cooker – Cooking Off The Excess Liquid

Onions release natural juices while cooking and when you use your slow cooker the liquid has no where to evaporate. As a result, over the course of the first 7-9 hours, you’ll notice the onions will be sitting in a small pool of liquid. Don’t worry, you can easily cook this off. Around the 9-hour mark, place the lid to the slow cooker slightly ajar. Let the lid remain this way for the last few hours of slow cooking to evaporate the excess liquid off the onions. Or you can just wait and strain the liquid from the onions with a slotted spoon. For the electric pressure cooker, you will have to manually drain the excess liquid as explained below.

Instant Pot  – Straining The Excess Liquid

First off, if you make this in your Instant Pot, it takes a heck of a lot less time to cook. Forget 10 hours, it’s done in less than 20 minutes.  But there’s slightly more work than if you were to make the caramelized onions in the slow cooker. After the electric pressure cooker as pressurized and cooked the onions, you will need to strain the excess liquid and then return the onions to the pressure cooker and saute them until they’re caramelized to your liking.

I use a 3.5-quart slow cooker and a 6-quart Instant Pot (the only size I have) for this recipe.

 

 

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