Homemade French Onion Dip

French Onion Dip made from scratch will knock your socks off. It’s worth making because you will never, ever get this flavour in store bought dip! Not from the most expensive gourmet store in town, and certainly not in those tubs at the grocery store. It’s seriously incredible!

Homemade French Onion Dip

Confession time: I’ve made shortcut French Onion Dip using a packet of French Onion Soup mix many, many times…. and in fact, here’s the recipe!

BUT a REAL Homemade French Onion Dip, made from scratch by making your own caramelised onion trumps the shortcut soup mix version 10 times over.

Thank you Ina Garten!

I will never give up the packet soup mix French Onion Dip. It’s an 80’s thing, it’s an Aussie thing, and it’s a nostalgic thing.

But if you want a French Onion Dip that’s elevated to incredible status, make this Homemade French Onion Dip from scratch!

The BEST chips to serve with French Onion Dip are plain crinkle cut potato chips. It’s the classic way it’s served in the US – try it once and you’ll be converted for life!

French Onion Dip gets its name from French Onion Soup, with the flavour base of both being caramelised onion.

What French Onion Dip is made of

Here’s what you need for this recipe. Just a note on a few of the items:

• The dip base is cream cheese (tang + richness), mayonnaise (flavour + fat) and sour cream (tang + reduces richness a bit);

• Less butter – as much as I love Ina Garten, I often find myself cutting down the fat she uses in her recipes quite substantially. This is one such example. The original recipe called for 4 tablespoons of butter AND 1/4 cup of oil. I swear, this does NOT need that much – way too rich! I made it with 3 tablespoons of butter, no oil, which is plenty; and

• Hint of spice – adds a touch of extra flavour and warmth to the dip!

How to make it

And here’s how to make it. The key flavour base is the caramelised onions. It will take a good 20 to 25 minutes and it can’t be hurried otherwise the onions just burn instead of turning golden and sweet!

What homemade French Onion Dip tastes like

It’s a creamy dip, a gorgeous soft creamy texture rather than the rock-hard dips you get from the grocery store where your chips break every time you try to scoop some up.

The caramelised onion infuses it with beautiful flavour that’s savoury with natural sweetness – there’s no sugar in this recipe, it’s all from the natural caramelisation of the onion!

It’s great on the day it’s made, but it’s even better the next day once the flavours have had time to meld together even more!

How long can you keep homemade French Onion Dip?

I’ve kept it for 4 to 5 days and it was 100% perfect, no flavour loss at all.

How to serve French Onion Dip

Hands down, the BEST thing to dip in Onion Dip is plain crinkle cut potato crisps. This is an American thing that hasn’t yet made it across the waters.

And it might sound strange to some people, dunking potato crisps in dip.

But trust me. For French Onion Dip, plain potato crisps are the BEST. Better than corn chips, better than crackers, better than bread. It beats ’em all! – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

Note: typo in video! Says “paprika” instead of “cayenne pepper”. Though actually, you could totally use paprika instead!

More dip recipes

This Snack Monster has shared plenty of dip recipes!!!

• Guacamole (done right!) or Avocado Hummus Dip

• Hummus

• Retro Soup Mix 2 Minute French Onion Dip

• Hot Corn Dip – you’ll love the flavour in this creamy, bubbly dip!

• Cheese and Bacon Dip

• Hot Buffalo Chicken Dip

• Spinach Artichoke Dip

• Mexican Queso Dip

• Smoked Salmon Dip (flavour you can’t buy in tubs!)

• See all Dip Recipes

Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.

Homemade French Onion Dip

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 25 mins

Total: 35 mins

Dip, Party Food

Western food

4.94 from 44 votes

Servings2 1/4 cups

Tap or hover to scale

Print

• 228
• 17510

Recipe video above. Classic French Onion Dip - made at home! The key to the amazing flavour base is to cook the onions slowly because they sweeten and caramelise.

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 tbsp butter
• ▢ 2 1/2 cups diced onions (2 to 3 onions) (brown, yellow or white)
• ▢ 3/4 tsp salt
• ▢ 1/2 tsp black pepper
• ▢ 1/2 tsp onion powder
• ▢ 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• ▢ 4 oz / 120 g cream cheese (cold), cut into cubes
• ▢ 1/4 cup whole egg mayonnaise
• ▢ 1/2 cup sour cream (full fat is best, but you can use low fat or even yoghurt)

Instructions

• Melt the butter in a fry pan over medium heat.
• Add the onions, salt, pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring. Then reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. The onions should be sweet and golden. Remove from stove and allow to cool.
• Place the cream cheese, sour cream and mayo in a bowl, mix until smooth (use microwave in 10 sec bursts if needed to assist)
• Add the caramelised onions. Mix until just combined. Refrigerate at least 2 hours to allow flavours to develope, overnight is better!
• Serve at room temperature, garnished with chopped chives if desired. Best served with crinkle cut plain potato chips!

Recipe Notes:

1. Based on an Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) recipe.

2. Changes I made (feel free to revert to the original recipe!):
a) Original recipe called for 4 tbsp butter + 1/4 cup oil. I reduced it to just 3 tbsp of butter. This is very rich as it is - you don't need any more!
b) Original recipe also called for 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. I found this too rich so I reduced it to 1/4 cup.
c) Original recipe said to beat the cream cheese (at room temperature) with the mayonnaise and sour cream using a stand mixer. I tried this once and it is a bit fluffy at first but then it becomes denser after refrigerating it. So I make this by softening the cream cheese or even heating the cream cheese very gently in the microwave if necessary then simply stirring it with the other ingredients. Works perfectly, it's creamy and lump free (other than the onions of course!)
d) I added onion powder as an optional extra because I like the extra kick of onion flavour.
e) Original recipe called for 1 tsp of salt. I find this slightly too salty so I reduced it to 3/4 tsp.

3. Nutrition per serving assuming 8 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 77gCalories: 162cal (8%)Carbohydrates: 6.3g (2%)Protein: 2.1g (4%)Fat: 14.8g (23%)Saturated Fat: 8.1g (51%)Cholesterol: 35mg (12%)Sodium: 134mg (6%)Potassium: 95mg (3%)Fiber: 0.8g (3%)Sugar: 2.1g (2%)Vitamin A: 450IU (9%)Vitamin C: 4.1mg (5%)Calcium: 40mg (4%)Iron: 0.4mg (2%)

Keywords: french onion dip, onion dip

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Originally published July 2015. Updated with new photos, brand new video, process step photos and of course the most important thing – new Life of Dozer section added!

Life of Dozer

No onion dip for Dozer – onion is bad for dogs! How about some carrot instead?? 😂 (He looks so keen, he hasn’t gotten a sniff of what it is yet!!)

And from the first time I published this recipe:

Dozer assuming his usual position while I shot the dip. Patiently waiting for a big dollop to land on the ground. Didn’t happen. Never will – onion is bad for dogs!!

SaveSave