Louisiana French Onion Soup
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Listen up! Making this beef stock from scratch is the key to this recipe. While you are at it, make enough to freeze and use for so many other gravy-laced Cajun and Creole dishes.
Recipe by:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
Beef Stock
  • 5 pounds beef bones
  • 2 large yellow onions, quartered
  • 4 celery stalks, broken into large pieces
  • 4 whole carrots, chopped into large chunks
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons Creole mustard or coarse-grained mustard
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 4 quarts water
  • 1 pound chicken feet
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
Onions and Soup
  • ½ cup bacon fat
  • 10 large yellow onions
  • 5 medium sweet onions, such as Vidalia
  • 2 purple onions
  • 3 stalks of leeks, green stems removed
  • 6 large spring onions, green stems removed
  • 1 tablespoon sugarcane molasses
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup dry sherry
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Bunch of fresh thyme sprigs tied in a bundle
  • Slices of French baguette, toasted
  • 3 cups shredded Gruyere cheese or Comté cheese
  • Several sprigs of fresh thyme, for garnish
Instructions
Beef Stock
  1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
  2. Rinse the beef bones in cold water until all of the blood is removed. Assemble the bones on a large sheet pan and place in the oven. Roast for 1 hour and add the tomato paste and Creole mustard by brushing on the bones. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and continue roasting until browned, about 30 minutes. Once completely browned and caramelized remove from the oven and let cool.
  3. In a large stockpot over medium heat, add all the meats and vegetables from the pan. Pour off all the grease from the roasting pan. Turn a high burner under the pan and add the wine. With a spatula scrape up the bits and piece as you deglaze the pan and reduce the wine by at least half. Add all the contents to the stockpot. Add the chicken feet, peppercorns and bay leaf. Cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer. Cook for 5 hours skimming the surface to remove residual fat and scum every hour.
  4. Once done, strain the liquids in a fine strainer removing the bones and chicken feet, and place in a covered container to cool. Refrigerate overnight. The next day, skim the fat from the top of the liquid. The beef stock can be used immediately or frozen for future use.
Onions and Soup
  1. Peel all of the yellow, sweet, and purple onions and remove the stem parts of the leeks and spring onions. Slice the yellow onions ¼-inch thick so that once cooked down they will hold their shape. Slice the rest of the onions thin for flavor.
  2. In a large cast-iron pot over medium heat, add the bacon fat along with all the onions and leeks. Cook slowly and caramelize to eliminate bitterness and achieve sweetness. Try not to stir too much as it will prevent caramelizing. Once the onions begin to brown, add the dark sugarcane molasses – a touch of Cajun country sweetness. Cook for 45 minutes total.
  3. Cooking these onions requires the same attention as making a dark Cajun roux. Speaking of roux, this is where you add 1 tablespoon of flour.
  4. Stir the onions and let the flour combine with the bacon grease. You want to achieve a dark caramel color to bring out all the sugars inside the onions, but stop short of burning or they will go from sugary sweet to a burnt bitterness in no time at all. Low, slow, and stirring constantly is the key.
  5. Remove the onions from the pot to a platter. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the sherry. Stir with a spatula and deglaze the pot scraping up all the browned bits along the bottom. Reduce the sherry by half and turn off the heat.
  6. Add the onion mixture to a stockpot over medium heat. Add the beef stock until just covering the onion mixture. Add the thyme and let cook for 1 hour.
  7. After 1 hour, the soup should be combined and thickened. Remove the bundle of thyme. Taste the soup and adjust with salt and pepper.
  8. In an ovenproof individual bowl, fill with soup and place a toasted baguette on top. Sprinkle a generous handful of cheese and run under a broiler until browned and gratinéed. Garnish with a small sprig of fresh thyme.
Notes
Any Latin grocery should have chicken feet. I buy mine at La Morenita market in Lafayette. Buy the finest aged Gruyere (or Comté) cheese you can find. When I make this I make a ton of it and portion and freeze the extra. Warmed up in a slow cooker, it is the perfect make-ahead dish.
Recipe by Acadiana Table at https://acadianatable.com/2025/03/24/soupe-a-loignon-gratinee-the-french-louisiana-version/