Caramelized Onions Will Do Wonders In Your Favorite Egg Dishes

When brunch or dinnertime rolls around, we're all about eggs, whether they're scrambled, poached, fried, over-easy, or sunny side up. And, here at Tasting Table, we aren't talking about eggs without mentioning caramelized onions. They're the one-stop secret ingredient to elevating your egg dishes to the Culinary Hall of Fame, no matter what time of day you're enjoying them. 

Caramelized onions should be sweet and silky, but the line between Onion Promised Land and a skillet full of inedible, bitter, burnt morsels resembling an ashtray full of spent matches is slim, to say the least. Properly caramelizing onions is a ballet, especially when you're pairing them with delicate eggs, which won't give much to hide behind.

When caramelizing onions, slow and low is the way to go  — 35-40 minutes minimum. Opt for a wide, open skillet that will allow the moisture to evaporate from your onions as they cook. During caramelization, your net amount of onions will reduce by roughly ⅔, so be sure to chop up more than you think you'll need. 

Some folks caramelize their onions in oil, and other folks use butter, but the choice is really up to you. Yellow and Spanish onions are the best varieties to caramelize, thanks to their sweet-savory flavor. Steer clear of Vidalias, which are already naturally sweet and may overwhelm instead of complement your eggs after they're caramelized.

To help get your brunchy brainstorm churning, we've rounded up some egg-onion pairings to serve a crowd or suit a solo brekky. You could even pre-make a big batch of caramelized onions and keep them in the fridge for about a week or freeze them for convenient use later on. 

For a fresh option, pair your caramelized onions with a poached egg and capers on avocado toast. You could use them with eggs benedict, Quiche Lorraine, or a Spanish omelet. Caramelized onion would instantly add savory depth to simple Chinese stir-fried tomatoes and eggs. Or, use them to up your frittata game. Chef Jonathan Olson of The Keep in Columbus, Ohio, is serving up an egg white frittata with caramelized onions, potatoes, roasted peppers, spinach, and Gruyère cheese (via Insider). 

For dinner, you could even whip up a batch of Chorillanna, a traditional Chilean dish that's essentially salchipapas' cooler older sister: French fries topped with sausage, scrambled or fried eggs, and caramelized onions. You could even top it with sour cream and melted jack cheese for a hearty skillet dish that makes for the ultimate comfort food. Just toss some eggs, cubed Yukon gold potatoes, sausage, red and green bell pepper, and caramelized onions together for a filling evening meal.