America's Test Kitchen LogoCook's Country LogoCook's Illustrated LogoAmerica's Test Kitchen LogoCook's Country LogoCook's Illustrated Logo

Easy Roasted Onions

By America's Test Kitchen

Published on September 15, 2011

Time

55 minutes

Yield

Serves 6

Easy Roasted Onions

Ingredients

6 medium yellow onions, halved crosswise, root and stem ends X'd twice (see illustration)1 tablespoon olive oil Salt and ground black pepper

Before You Begin

Roasted onions make a fine side dish, alone or with a glaze made from the onion pan drippings and 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, boiled until reduced by almost half. They can be peeled and cut into salads, mixed with white beans, used as a bruschetta topping sprinkled with minced fresh parsley or oregano leaves and shaved Parmesan, or served with other small bites as part of an antipasto.

Instructions

  1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet or jelly roll pan with aluminum foil; rub foil with oil. Place onions cut side down on baking sheet. Roast until dark brown around bottom edge and tender when pierced with thin skewer or knife tip, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to rack; let onions rest for 5 minutes before lifting off pan with metal spatula. Peel if desired, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Easy Roasted Onions

Easy Roasted Onions

Headshot of America's Test Kitchen
By America's Test Kitchen
Save

Time

55 minutes

Yield

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 medium yellow onions, halved crosswise, root and stem ends X'd twice (see illustration)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

6 medium yellow onions, halved crosswise, root and stem ends X'd twice (see illustration)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

6 medium yellow onions, halved crosswise, root and stem ends X'd twice (see illustration)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper

Test Kitchen Techniques

Why This Recipe Works

We developed a roasted onions recipe that met three criteria. To get a tender and moist interior, we roasted them cut-side down on a pan rubbed with a small amount of oil. Halving the onions also gave us a pleasing presentation, with the onions reasonably intact. Finally, we wanted a good amount of surface caramelization in our roasted onions recipe. We noticed that during cooking the outer rings of the onions rose off the pan and so caramelized less than the inner rings. The remedy was to cut two small X's at the top of each onion half; these slits allow steam to escape during cooking and helped to limit the tendency of the outer rings to lift up and off the pan.

Before You Begin

Roasted onions make a fine side dish, alone or with a glaze made from the onion pan drippings and 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, boiled until reduced by almost half. They can be peeled and cut into salads, mixed with white beans, used as a bruschetta topping sprinkled with minced fresh parsley or oregano leaves and shaved Parmesan, or served with other small bites as part of an antipasto.

Instructions

  1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet or jelly roll pan with aluminum foil; rub foil with oil. Place onions cut side down on baking sheet. Roast until dark brown around bottom edge and tender when pierced with thin skewer or knife tip, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to rack; let onions rest for 5 minutes before lifting off pan with metal spatula. Peel if desired, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Gift This Recipe

Enjoyed this dish? Let others know by sharing it as a gift recipe.

This is a members' feature.