French Onion Dip
Once you’ve tried this completely homemade French onion dip, you won’t be able to go back to store-bought or shortcut versions ever again. Because the real thing is just so much better, and very easy to make too!
This dip is creamy and delicious, with an intense sweet and savory flavor thanks to homemade caramelized onions (no soup mix packets here!). Cooking onions on the stove in butter until soft and caramelized takes time, but it’s easy and mostly hands-off, and the rest of assembly takes only a few moments in a food processor or blender.
Serve this caramelized onion dip with potato chips, crackers, or toasted baguette slices, and watch how quickly it disappears! It’s the perfect snack or appetizer for parties, holidays, tailgating and more. I make it aaaaall the time, and once you’ve tried it I know it’ll be a repeat for you as well.
Table of Contents
- Ingredients you'll need
- How to make homemade French onion dip
- Serving suggestions
- Ceramic Chip & Dip Serving Platter
- Recipe FAQs
- More appetizers perfect for sharing
- Get the recipe
Ingredients you’ll need
Here’s everything required for this French onion dip (full recipe below):
- Butter
- Sweet onions (you’ll need two)
- Cream cheese
- Sour cream
- Light or dark brown sugar
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh chives (for garnish)
How to make homemade French onion dip
- Caramelize the onions. Cook the onions in a large skillet over medium heat until they’ve softened and turned a nice golden color, which takes about 45 minutes. Keep an eye on them, and stir as needed to make sure the onions cook evenly and nothing burns. Stir in the brown sugar and then cool to room temperature.
- Blend everything in food processor or blender. Blend onions, cream cheese, and sour cream until combined and mostly smooth. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
- Chill. You can serve this dip right away, but I like to let it rest in the fridge so the flavors have time to really meld together.
- Serve. A sprinkling of fresh chopped chives on top really makes this blah-looking (although great tasting!) white dip look appealing. Serve alongside chips or your favorite dipper and enjoy!
Serving suggestions
- Chips: In my opinion, plain crinkle-cut potato chips are the BEST dippers for this caramelized onion dip, but regular plain potato chips are great too.
- Crackers, pita or toasted baguettes: Really anything goes!
- Veggies: Carrot sticks, celery sticks or sliced bell peppers.
Ceramic Chip & Dip Serving Platter
Perfect for showcasing this French onion dip!
Recipe FAQs
Yes! I prefer the flavor of sweet onions for this dip, since they have a milder flavor, but yellow onions or white onions are fine to use too.
This French onion dip will keep for 5-7 days stored in the fridge. It’s a great make-ahead snack or appetizer!
I have only tested this recipe as written, with full-fat sour cream and cream cheese. However, this recipe should still work fine with Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and/or lower-fat sour cream and cream cheese options. Dips will be less rich and creamy, but should still be plenty tasty!
Definitely! Finely chop onions, and then keep an eye on them since smaller onions may brown and burn more quickly. Once caramelized and cooled, use an electric mixer to combine everything until smooth (you can even do it by hand with some elbow grease).
More appetizers perfect for sharing
- Rosemary Pretzel Bites with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
- Chili Cheese Nachos
- Spinach-Artichoke Stuffed Mushrooms
- Sweet and Spicy Snack Mix
Get the recipe
Homemade French Onion Dip
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter (, 4 tablespoons)
- 2 sweet onions , thinly sliced
- About 1 teaspoon coarse salt , plus more to taste
- About ½ teaspoon ground black pepper , plus more to taste
- 1 tablespoon light or dark brown sugar
- 8 ounces cream cheese , softened to room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream
- Chopped chives , for garnish (optional)
- Chips, crackers or toasted baguette slices , for serving
Instructions
- In large skillet set over medium heat, melt butter. Add onions, salt and pepper. Cook until caramelized, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally as needed. If onions begin to burn, turn down heat.
- Stir in brown sugar and cook for 1 minute more. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
- In food processor, pulse onions, cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Put dip into bowl and serve right away or chill in the fridge until ready to serve. Dip will keep in the fridge for about a week.
- Top with chives before serving, if desired for an appealing pop of color. Serve with potato chips, crackers, bread, veggies or as you like!
Video
This recipe was originally created for Go Bold With Butter and published in 2021. View the recipe on their website.
Great! I like chips
Who doesn’t? Enjoy! 🙂
This looks delicious and I put it on my list to make over the holidays! The recipe calls for brown sugar, does this get added to the pan with the onions, salt, and pepper?
Just fixed the recipe! The brown sugar gets added to the onions once they’re caramelized.