Ready to upgrade your burger game? French Onion Burgers are a savory, mouth-watering burger loaded with caramelized onions and rich Gruyere cheese. These burgers will taste like you ordered them straight from your favorite burger restaurant!
Recipe at a Glance
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40-50 minutes
Notes: The longest part of this recipe is cooking the caramelized onions. These take time to get to the proper consistency, but trust me it’s worth it!
How to caramelize the onions
Other than the juicy burger meat, the caramelized onions are star of this French Onion Burger. The thing is, true caramelized onions take time. It’s not a quick saute to brown them. It’s a process of about 40 minutes and you really can’t rush it, or you’ll end up with onions that aren’t really the caramelized version. So you’ll need 40 minutes and these ingredients:
- 2 white onions
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon each of butter, flour, beef stock, and white wine (you can use red too, but I had white on hand so used that)
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon white sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
The bulk of the cook time is just letting the onions start to get soft and browned. You want to watch the heat, and stir them occasionally. The goal is to get a rich brown to the onions, and not a blackened char. For the full recipe scroll down to the recipe card!
If you like juicy burgers, this is for you. I cooked these to medium well, and with the cheese and onions these were absolutely perfect. These are anything but dry and boring!
Do you have a meat thermometer? My digital meat thermometer is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. It’s so important for me to test and know for sure that the chicken or beef is cooked to the safe temperature. For these burgers, my goal temperature was 160 degrees. If you don’t have one I recommend buying on, it will save you from under cooked or over cooked meat! It’s been a lifesaver when I’m cooking chicken in a pan that might be a bit thick. In the past, I’d cook the heck out of it just so I knew it was safe and done. But now, just use my trusty digital meat thermometer and I can tell when it’s safe to take it out of the pan!
Cooking Tips
- When you’re pan frying burgers the most important thing to remember is after you’ve made your patties, take your thumb make a medium sized indentation in the center. Doing this will mean the center of the burger will rise evenly has it cooks. If you miss this step you’ll wind up with a puffed up rounded burger that looks more like a meatball!
- I like to add my cheese when the burgers have about 90 seconds left to cook. Cover, and let the heat melt the cheese over the burger!
- Like I mentioned above, if you want caramelized onions you can’t rush the cooking time on them! Give them the full 40 minutes and you won’t regret it!
Like burgers? Checkout my Buffalo Chicken Burgers! Spicy and loaded with blue cheese and bacon!
French Onion Burgers
French Onion Burgers loaded with caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese! These juicy and savory burgers will become your new favorite. Get the taste of restaurant burgers right from your own kitchen!
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 burgers
- Category: Burgers
- Method: Saute
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the Onions
2 white onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon beef stock
1 table spoon white wine
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
For the Burgers
1lb ground beef
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Gruyere cheese
Arugula
4 hamburger buns
Instructions
1. Slice the onions into thin slices. In a large pan over medium heat, add the olive oil then the sliced white onions. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat to medium low if the onions are getting blackened or charred. The goal is to get a rich brown, but not black or burnt.
2. After 30 minutes, reduce the heat to medium low if you haven’t already. Add the butter and allow it to melt, then add the flour and mix it into the butter. Add the beef stock, wine, thyme, sugar, and salt and mix to blend over the onions. Cook for another 10 minutes, then spoon onto a plate.
3. While the onions are cooking, prepare your ground beef. Add the beef to a mixing bowl and add the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Mix well, then add the Worcestershire sauce and mix lightly to blend in. Form into 4 patties, using your thumb to make an indent in the center of each patty so that they cook evenly.
4. To cook the burgers, heat a large pan over medium heat. Add the patties and cook for 4 minutes on the first side. After 4 minutes, flip and cook for another 4 minutes. During the last 90 seconds of cooking, top each burger generously with slices of Gruyere cheese, then cover the pan for the remaining cooking time. Internal temperature of the burgers should be 160 degrees.
5. To serve, top each burger with the caramelized onions and plenty of arugula.
Enjoy!
Notes
Use fresh meat, not frozen, for the best tasting burger.
Keywords: french onion burger
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