Name: Instant Pot Caramelized Onions
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 2 pounds yellow onions, sliced ½-inch-thick (8 cups); 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces; Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prep Time:

10 mins

Cook Time:

10 mins

Total Time:

25 mins

Servings:

20

Yield:

2 1/2 cups

Our recipe for Instant Pot caramelized onions uses a multicooker to significantly cut down the time it takes to make the impossibly savory, deeply flavored ingredient. Rather than stand over the stove for close to an hour, you’ll only need about 25 minutes until these onions are ready to use. The easy process begins by pressure cooking the onions for five minutes, which drastically softens them by cooking them at a high temperature and draws out their liquid. After straining them, you’ll pop them back in the multicooker and sauté them until golden (just five more minutes!). Use these sweet, buttery onions to make french onion soup, add them to tarts and quiches, or pile them onto a patty melt.

Caramelized Onions vs. Sautéed Onions

While both caramelizing and sautéing onions means cooking them until mellow and softened, there's a big different between the two.

Caramelized onions: To caramelize onions means to cook them until they are deep golden in color, very soft, and ultra sweet in flavor. Typically, they're cooked low and slow for nearly an hour on the stovetop, which caramelizes the alliums' natural sugars. Thanks to the pressure-cooking power of an Instant Pot, this recipe achieves the same result in a fraction of the time.

Sautéed onions: When you sauté onions, you're still cooking them down to remove their intense bite and soften their texture but are stopping far short of caramelization. Sautéing is usually done over medium heat and takes closer to 10 minutes.

When prepping onions for this recipe (and others), don't toss the skins and trimmings. Instead, stash them in a resealable bag and freeze them for making a future stock or broth. Both will add plenty of flavor—and, in the case of the skins, a deeply golden color—to the finished stock.

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Ingredients

2 pounds yellow onions, sliced ½-inch-thick (8 cups)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a multicooker; cook on high pressure:

Add onions, butter, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to the bowl of a multicooker; stir to combine. Secure the lid and adjust vent to seal. Cook on high "Pressure Cook" setting for 5 minutes.
Release pressure and remove lid:

Once cycle is complete, immediately release pressure. Carefully remove lid.
Strain onions; return to multicooker:

Strain onions and discard excess liquid. Return onions to multicooker.
Cook on sauté setting until caramelized:

Cook over high "Saute" setting, stirring constantly, until onions are deeply golden and caramelized, 3 to 5 minutes.

How to Store Caramelized Onions

After letting caramelized onions cool completely, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week or in the freezer for up to three months.