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French Onion Chicken Soup

This post was updated on March 17, 2023. It contains affiliate links.

French Onion Chicken Soup is two iconic soup recipes traditional french onion soup and chicken soup into one soup recipe! It’s a great main course that is great for a dinner party.

Caramelized Onions make the most delightful soup recipe, and adding in protein-packed chicken and hearty vegetables makes this a comforting meal that is a family favorite.

You will love this recipe post if you’re a fan of gruyere cheese, golden brown melted cheese, and a hearty soup recipe with the sweet flavor of sliced onions.

If your favorite soup is french onion soup, and you love chicken soup, you will love this recipe! It’s the best part of both soup worlds perfect for a good bread to dunk in!

How to Make French Onion Chicken Soup

First, you’ll need to gather the ingredients for this easy dinner recipe. These ingredients are in no particular order, but rather the components of the recipe:

Yellow Onions – these are the best for caramelizing. It’s a sweet onion, and they have a fantastic flavor for a french onion soup recipe.

Beef Broth – you can make your own, or you can buy the boxed version. If you’re working on eating more protein then use beef bone broth! It’s got a deep rich flavor that makes this taste like it’s been simmering all day long! If you don’t do beef broth, feel free to use chicken broth!

Gruyere Cheese or Swiss Cheese – this nutty cheese is what you need for that melted cheese pull you crave with french onion soup!

French Bread – cube up some french bread and place it on top of the soup before your cheese. You could use herby garlic croutons, or make your own with garlic powder, onion powder, and some other ideas you can find in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Fresh Thyme – using this fresh herb brings a bright, lemony flavor to the soup recipe

Chicken – you could use chicken thighs, tender chicken breasts, or cooked chicken like a rotisserie chicken. The broth gets richer when you simmer the chicken in it to cook it, however, if you’re looking for a semi-quick dinner recipe, use already-cooked chicken.

Vegetables – I love using hearty carrots and celery with this soup recipe. They’ll be sauteed on medium heat with the reduced red wine and caramelized onions, and they absolutely all pack a delicious flavor!

Red Wine or White Wine – any soup needs a hit of wine! This soup uses a lot of wine, based on my favorite french onion soup recipe I had once in Winston-Salem, NC! They reduce an entire bottle of wine into their french onion soup, and it’s incredible! Check it out HERE!

Other soup enhancers that are lovely, but not necessary are a bay leaf or two, marsala wine, a little brown sugar with caramelized onions, and a hefty crack of black pepper.

Making this Easy Recipe

When you’re ready to make this french onion chicken soup, you’ll start by caramelizing your onions.

If this is your first time caramelizing onions, or they never turn out how you want I’m here to help you with some expert experience!

Tips for Caramelizing Onions:

  1. Use butter AND olive oil. This helps not only flavor the onions but gives some lubrication to the operation.
  2. Slice your onions evenly. Using onions that are the same size allows them to caramelize evenly, leaving no large chunks.
  3. Use a large skillet or dutch oven, giving more space for things to move around in. In the recipe card below you can find my favorite pot to cook onions in! Or, check it out here.
  4. Take your time! Caramelizing onions takes longer than you think, on a lower heat than you think.
  5. Put a lid on it. Once you’ve added your onions to the melted butter and warm olive oil, you’ll want to use a lid to start the breakdown process of the onions.
  6. Allow the onions to soften over low heat, covered for a good 15-20 minutes.
  7. Then, you can remove the lid, and let the dark brown color form with the onions.
  8. During the last 5-10 minutes of caramelizing onions, you’ll want to stick close by. They burn quicker than you think! So, once it’s close to the creamy, sweet onions you know and loves, turn the stove off. Allow the carry-over cooking process to finish them.
  9. Now, you can store these in a container in your fridge for a week, or continue with this soup recipe.

Once you’re onions are caramelized, you’ll add in the red wine, letting this reduce by half.

Then, you’ll add your chopped carrots and celery, and let them cook and soften. You can definitely use the power of your lid, and put a lid on it to soften the vegetables faster.

When the vegetables are soft, stir in your shredded chicken, fresh herbs, and beef stock. Allow this to simmer for 30-45 minutes.

Serving French Onion Chicken Soup

When you’re soup is ready to serve, you’ll want to shred up a mound of gruyere cheese. If you don’t have gruyere cheese you can use swiss cheese, and in a pinch, mozzarella cheese.

Ladle your soup into oven-safe soup bowls. These classic french onion soup crocks are the iconic option!

When your soup is in your oven-safe dishes, top them with a pile of shredded cheese, and broil in the oven, keeping a close eye! It will take 2-3 minutes, and the melty cheese is what your entire family will love!

Other Recipes You’ll Love

If you’re a big fan of this classic soup and the flavors of french onion soup mix make your skirt fly up, check out these recipes!

french onion chicken and rice casserole

French Onion Chicken and Rice Casserole is an all-one meal you will love! It’s the perfect dinner tonight, or any night, and freezes beautifully!

Spoon of French Onion Soup

Classic French Onion Soup with Red Wine is a riff on my absolute favorite restaurant french onion soup I’ve ever had!

Maui onion Dip as a hearty appetizer

Maui Onion Dip is a simple appetizer dip recipe! It’s just two ingredients, sour cream, and caramelized onions. Salt and pepper are nice additions, but the flavors are incredible in this dish! Serve with chips, and fresh vegetables, or even slather it over chicken breasts for an incredible french onion chicken recipe!

toni's chopped salad recipe
Chopped Salad

Finally, when you serve this meal, you can serve it with a big chopped salad, like Toni’s Chopped Salad! This is a crunchy addition to any meal and the perfect easy make-ahead side dish.

what to serve with chicken soup

If you need ideas for what to serve with chicken soup, this post is filled with great ideas! From salad ideas to different types of bread, this recipe round-up is a great resource for filling out your menu. Check it out by CLICKING HERE!

This Blueberry Heaven on Earth dessert recipe is the best way to round out your meal!

Save this graphic to your favorite soup board on Pinterest!

french onion chicken soup
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French Onion Chicken Soup

  • Author: Sweetpea
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 50
  • Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
  • Yield: 8 1x
  • Category: soup
  • Method: stove top
  • Cuisine: american

Description

French Onion Chicken Soup is the best of both worlds, combining two iconic soups recipes into one. Sweet caramelized onions and rich, hearty vegetables make a delicious chicken soup recipe everyone loves.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/2 stick of butter
  • 3 medium yellow onions, sliced thinly
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 2 carrots, small dice
  • 2 celery sticks, small dice
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 32 ounces of beef stock
  • 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
  • bread cubes
  • Gruyere cheese


Instructions

  1. Begin by melting your butter over medium heat in a large dutch oven.
  2. Add sliced onions once the butter begins to bubble, and cook until caramelized. This takes a while — depending on your stovetop, up to twenty minutes.
  3. Once onions are caramelized, add red wine to the pot and turn the heat up to medium-high. Reduce by half.
  4. Once the wine is reduced by half, add in carrots, celery, and garlic and saute until tender — maybe 10 minutes — over medium heat.
  5. Pour in thyme, bay leaves, beef stock, and chicken.
  6. Simmer over low heat for half an hour.
  7. You could also pour all this into a crock pot and cook on low for a few hours.
  8. When you’re ready to serve, ladle the soup into oven-proof soup dishes.
  9. Cover the top with shredded gruyere cheese, and broil for 2-3 minutes until melted.
  10. Serve immediately, but be careful! It’s HOT!


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