The Absolute Best Way to Make Onion Dip

There are so many cooking techniques that exist to be hacked: deconstructed, simplified, expedited, and improved upon.

And then, there is the caramelization of onions. Add enough baking soda to make a difference, and you will turn the contents of your sauté pan to mush. Increasing the heat will only give you burnt pieces interspersed with nearly raw ones unless you’re hovering over the skillet with a kettle of water in full stage-mom mode, ready to splash every few moments. Cheating with balsamic vinegar or cane sugar produces overly sweet caramelized onions that lack the characteristic depth and richness. You could add water at the beginning to speed up the softening, though you’ll only save a few minutes. But really take your time with the process—sink into it, become one with it—and you’ll be sumptuously rewarded as the alliums release their moisture until their cells break down, spilling out sugars that later caramelize into rich, heavily-flavored coats for your softened onion bits.

Onion dip, then—the home cook’s riff on the Americana classic, Lipton’s dehydrated soup mix stirred into sour cream—is inherently a luxury. Consider me fully luxuriated; after two weeks of testing across several heats of the homemade onion dip process (first, base combinations, then allium additions, then seasoning), I both smell like I have been coated in onion dip and left to marinate, and I am fluent in many of its permutations.

ROUND ONE: Base Changes

Controls:

For these recipes, only yellow onions were used, and I only seasoned with garlic powder and kosher salt.

Control Onion Recipe:

• 3 medium or 2 large yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and sauté for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add a few pinches of salt, and continue to sauté another 5 minutes or so, until they’re sweet and extremely fragrant, and darker around the edges. Add a big splash of water to deglaze, and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Remove pan from heat and let cool a few minutes.

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1. Sour Cream, Cream Cheese & Mayonnaise

• ¾ cup sour cream
• ½ cup cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
  
  In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, cream cheese, and mayonnaise until well combined. Once onions are cool enough to handle, add to the base mixture. (Note: if you prefer a very homogenous texture, chop them finely first.) Add garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve, up to 1 week.

2. Sour Cream & Cream Cheese

• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup cream cheese, softened
  
  In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream and cream cheese until well combined. Once onions are cool enough to handle, add to the base mixture. (Note: if you prefer a very homogenous texture, chop them finely first.) Add garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve, up to 1 week.

3. Sour Cream & Greek Yogurt

• ¾ cup sour cream
• ¾ cup full-fat Greek Yogurt
  
  In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream and Greek yogurt until well combined. Once onions are cool enough to handle, add to the base mixture. (Note: if you prefer a very homogenous texture, chop them finely first.) Add garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve, up to 1 week.

4. Sour Cream

• 1 ½ cups sour cream
  
  Add sour cream to a large bowl. Once onions are cool enough to handle, add to the base mixture. (Note: if you prefer a very homogenous texture, chop them finely first.) Add garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve, up to 1 week.

5. Labne

• 1 ½ cups labne
  
  Add labne to a large bowl. Once onions are cool enough to handle, add to the base mixture. (Note: if you prefer a very homogenous texture, chop them finely first.) Add garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve, up to 1 week.

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Findings:

The base that most accurately mimicked the classic “French Onion Dip” (the one made with Lipton’s mix) was, surprisingly, the mixture of sour cream, cream cheese, and mayo. Even though the Lipton’s version is traditionally made with just sour cream, the roundness of the cream cheese and the fatty richness of the mayonnaise added flavors that evoked the dried mix without any extra seasonings. In one trial, I had an issue where the cream cheese was a few degrees too cold to blend seamlessly with the other ingredients, but I just threw everything into the microwave and heated in blasts of 10 seconds, whisking in between, until the base became velvety.

My favorite base was labne; it was pert and extremely thick (labne has been strained to reduce its liquid content), which complemented the savory alliums in texture and flavor more comprehensively than the sour cream base, which began to weep liquid at the top after a few hours in the fridge. The sour cream base was certainly delicious, but as compared in a side-by-side tasting to the more sumptuous labne, it seemed to taste of a sharpness that outpaced its creaminess.

The combination of sour cream and Greek yogurt was an overall crowd pleaser for the rest of my tasters; it was less rich than the sour cream, cream cheese, and mayo, so tasters did not tire of it quite as quickly, and the Greek yogurt added a lightness that appealed broadly (but which, on its own, tasted lacking).

The sour cream and cream cheese was perfectly fine, though on the heavier side; even though the base with those two plus mayonnaise was technically richer, the lighter texture of the emulsified mayo kept it from feeling overly dense. If you’re a big fan of baked spinach-artichoke dip, though, you might enjoy a trial with the sour cream and cream cheese base, which really did allow the cream cheese to shine through.

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ROUND TWO: Allium Changes

Controls:

For these recipes, I used a base of sour cream & Greek yogurt, and seasoned only with garlic powder and kosher salt.

Control Base Recipe:

• ¾ cup sour cream
• ¾ cup full-fat Greek Yogurt
  
  In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream and Greek yogurt until well combined. Once alliums are cool enough to handle, add to the base mixture. (Note: if you prefer a very homogenous texture, chop them finely first.) Add garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve, up to 1 week.

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1. Yellow Onions

• 3 medium or 2 large yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and sauté for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add a few pinches of salt, and continue to sauté another 5 minutes or so, until they’re sweet and extremely fragrant, and darker around the edges. Add a splash of water to deglaze, and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Remove pan from heat and let cool a few minutes.

2. Red Onions

• 3 medium or 2 large red onions, quartered and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and sauté for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add a few pinches of salt, and continue to sauté another 5 minutes or so, until they’re sweet and extremely fragrant, and darker around the edges. Add a splash of water to deglaze, and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Remove pan from heat and let cool a few minutes.

3. Shallots

• 10 medium or 6 large shallots, quartered and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and sauté for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add a few pinches of salt, and continue to sauté another 5 minutes or so, until they’re sweet and extremely fragrant, and darker around the edges. Add a splash of water to deglaze, and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Remove pan from heat and let cool a few minutes.

4. Onion Mix & Shallots

• 1 medium yellow onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 medium red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch of scallions, (white and light green parts) ends removed and finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced alliums and sauté for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add a few pinches of salt, and continue to sauté another 5 minutes or so, until they’re sweet and extremely fragrant, and darker around the edges. Add a splash of water to deglaze, and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Remove pan from heat and let cool a few minutes.

5. Oven-Roasted Onions

A riff on this recipe from Bon Appétit

• 3 medium or 2 large yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
  Heat oven to 400°F. On a parchment-lined sheet pan, toss onions with olive oil and a splash of water, plus a few pinches of salt. Arrange in a mound in the center of the pan and roast 45 to 60 minutes, until deeply golden and fragrant. Let cool a few minutes.

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Findings:

The TL;DR of the many, many, many (many) hours I spent mandolin-ing and sautéing onions for this round of tests was that more is more, when it comes to onion dip anyway. The trial with a mixture of yellow onion, red onion, shallot, and scallion had far and away the most nuanced flavor profile; each brought a slightly different edge to the dip. The shallot (as observed in the shallot trial) was sweeter and milder with almost no bitterness at the beginning of the bite, but a hair of bitterness in the aftertaste. The yellow onion brought a ton of sweetness and a deep savory flavor that reminded me of a Ruffles chip. The red onion was intensely earthy. The scallion was fresh and vegetal.

That said, if you’ve only got one type of allium, use that; the dip will still dip.

The biggest surprise in this series of tests was that the oven-roasted onions produced specimens that were just as delicious as their meticulously caramelized stovetop counterparts. The method comes from an Andy Baraghani recipe, in which sliced onions are tossed with oil and mounded on a sheet pan and roasted at 400°F. While the technique was no more efficient than the sauté (yes, it was a bit hands off, but it required monitoring and intermittent tossing and two rounds of chopping), it did render bottomless flavor; in addition to the concentrated sweetness of the onions, there was a slight (favorable) char coming from the onions around the edges of the pan.

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ROUND THREE: Seasoning Changes

Notes:

These miscellaneous variables can be added to any base recipe, unless otherwise noted.

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1. Soup Mix Copy Cat

Based on this recipe from Fountain Avenue Kitchen

• 3 tablespoons dried minced onions (onion flakes; found in the spice aisle)
• 2 teaspoons cup beef bouillon powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 pinch celery seeds
• 1 pinch granulated sugar
• 1 pinch freshly ground pepper
• 1 pinch paprika

2. Lemon Juice

• 1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, added to any base recipe

3. Raw Garlic Clove

Inspired by this recipe from The New York Times.

• 1 raw garlic clove, grated

4. Roasted Garlic (No Powder)

• ¾ cup sour cream
  
• ¾ cup full-fat Greek Yogurt
  
• 3 medium or 2 large yellow onions, quartered and thinly sliced
  
• 5 garlic cloves
  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
  Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and sliced onions and sauté for 25 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add a few pinches of salt, and continue to sauté another 5 minutes or so, until they’re sweet and extremely fragrant, and darker around the edges. Add a splash of water to deglaze, and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Remove pan from heat and let cool a few minutes. Remove the garlic and smash into a paste with the blade of a chef’s knife or a fork.
  
  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream and Greek yogurt until well combined. Once onions are cool enough to handle, add onions and garlic to the base mixture. (Note: if you prefer a very homogenous texture, chop them finely first.) Add garlic powder. Mix well to combine. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve, up to 1 week.

5. Worcestershire & Balsamic Vinegar

Riff on this recipe from Martha Stewart and this recipe from Food & Wine

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

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Findings:

While the copy cat mix did taste closest to the soup mix, I’m not sure I can in good faith recommend spending that much money in the spice aisle; if you already have most of the ingredients and are a classicist, then god speed.

Otherwise, the salt and garlic powder certainly did the trick, and a hit of fresh lemon juice brightened and elevated. The raw garlic clove batch was also delicious, like adding the vaguest, most distant hint of toum. The roasted garlic of course added sweetness and complexity, so, if you’re a garlic girl, why not add some. The balsamic was not my bag; it tasted out of place. But Worcestershire added some umami flavor that I did enjoy.

BASE

• For an onion dip base that best mimics the dried soup packet variation, use a blend of ¾ cup sour cream, ½ cup cream cheese, softened, and ¼ cup mayonnaise.
• If you’re interested in mimicking the classic onion dip but don’t want to fuss with whisking potentially lumpy room temperature cream cheese into lighter brethren, go for a 50/50 mix of Greek yogurt and sour cream for richness and tang.
• For the thickest and most satisfyingly tangy base, use only labne.

ALLIUMS

• Caramelize a mixture of alliums for the richest flavor; yellow onions, red onions, the white and light green parts of scallions, and shallots all bring something unique and worthwhile.
• In a pinch, any onions will do; just be sure to let them cook down until the flavors are so concentrated and salty-sweet that you have to swat yourself away with a spatula.
• If you’re looking to try something new and incorporate a tiny bit of char flavor, roast your onions on a sheet pan instead of caramelizing on the stovetop.

SEASONING

• Season as you would anything else, with your own preferences in mind
• For a simple and straightforward dip, salt and garlic powder will get the job done.
• For more meaty depth, add a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce.
• If you please, go full copy-cat seasoning blend in the spice aisle—but at your own expense.
• A healthy squeeze of lemon juice will elevate any seasoning blend and play nicely with the existing flavors.

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Which iteration of onion drip will you be bringing to your next party? Let us know in the comments.