So Good You'll Cry: Stuffed Onions

Bill and I teamed up to make an amazing dinner tonight: grilled filets and skillet stuffed onions. I leave the charcoal grilling completely to Bill, so I can't give you his steak recipe, but I will tell you how to make these awesome stuffed onions. I can't imagine a more perfect side dish for a big, juicy steak! And trust me, they are well worth the tears you'll shed when cutting them.

Skillet Stuffed Onions
Ingredients:
3 slices white sandwich bread (I used sourdough), torn into pieces
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 large white onions (I used Vidalias)
3/4 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Directions:
Adjust oven rack to middle position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place bread in food processor and pulse until coarsley ground, 6 or 7 pulses. Bake on rimmed baking sheet, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

To prepare the onions, trim 1/2 inch from both the stem and root ends and peel. Halve each onion through the equator and pop out the center of each half, leaving the outermost 3 rings. Finely chop onion centers to measure 1/2 cup.

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chopped onion until softened, about 5 minutes. Off heat, add 1/4 cup chicken stock, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1/4 cup parmesan, lemon zest, and parsely to the skillet. Transfer to the bowl with the bread crumbs and toss to combine. Set aside.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon butter in skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle onion halves with sugar, salt and pepper. Place wide side down in skillet and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Flip onions over, add remaining chicken stock to pan, and simmer, covered, until liquid evaporates and onions are softened, about 5 minutes.

Heat broiler. Fill onion halves with breadcrumb mixture and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Broil until stuffing is golden brown and heated through, about 5 minutes.


I love, love, love the smell of onions cooking in butter or olive oil, and this dish had Bill drooling every time he came in from the backyard. I think I made the right choice in picking super sweet Vidalia onions, too. They ended up being really rich, with just the right amount of zip from the sourdough breadcrumbs and lemon zest. YUM!