Warning: When you make these your entire house will smell like fajitas and make you hungry all. day. long.
If you have an excess of onions this fall and want to put some up instead of putting them all in your cold storage pantry, this is a recipe you might want to try. As far as canning recipes go, this one is fairly simple although you may want to wear some goggles while you make it! This recipe is made in the crockpot before you can it so you actually have very little hands on cooking time.
Onions do need to be pressure canned since they are low acid and it is unsafe to water bath can them. Please check with your local extension office for any changes on times/temps/high altitude.
Start by peeling your onions. I just used what I had so it was a mixture of yellow and red.
Rinse off any remaining dirt and cut off the tops and roots.
Then....chop! I used a Vidalia Onion Chopper. A food processor would work fine just make sure to not chop them too small or mush them up. Place the onions in the crock pot and add a little bit of olive oil and salt. Stir to coat the onions with the oil. Let these cook on high for about 8 - 10 hours or until caramelized.
Once they are finished. Strain the oil and juices off. You can also can the juice but you will want to can it separately. I did can mine up for "onion stock".
Fill clean half pint jars with the onions, leaving some headspace. Clean the rims of the jars and add clean rims and lids and tightly seal. Pressure can at 10 pounds of pressure for 70 minutes. Do not remove or touch your canner until it has de-pressurized.
For more reference you can check out more step by step canning photos on THIS post.
Linked to Frugal Days.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
This recipe looks so good!! I love caramelized onions. I just wish I could grow them. Onion sets for green onions always to well. But when I plant the onion plants, they die. I was told to plant with the roots barely covered. This year was very dry. Any tips on growing them?
I’ve never had luck in the hard soil in my garden but my mom’s onions are the ones in the picture. She uses raised beds with a mixture of sand and soil to make the ground very soft.
I planted 50 plants this year and each and every one grew wonderfully! This was the first year they worked. But i too switched to raised beds, so the soil was probably softer. But they did wonderful! I planted some wit the beets and carrots the rest with tomatoes.
I wonder if you could can them in those LITTLE jars. The 4 ouncers…. It’s just hubby and I and we don’t eat a lot of onions, but when we do it would be nice to have these in the cupboard.. I just can’t see us eating a full 8 ounces of them between us at one time (and you can’t give them to the dogs after!!).
Yes, you could put them in any size jars! I definitely would have done the smaller jars if I would have had them on hand. In my case I will open a jar, use some of them and stick the rest in a freezer bag for the next recipe.
lol. DOH! I didn’t even think about the ability to freeze what I don’t use. Silly me. {smacks forehead} I am always in the “do as little that requires electricity because one day you may not have it” mentality so I didn’t even think of freezing. Thanks Merissa!!
Haha, no I love the idea of NOT having the freezer involved and if I had the tiny jars I would have for sure used them!
Haha.. well I have never even thought of canning caramelized onions.. Thats awesome! Im definitely going to give it a go one of these days.
How wonderful to have them on hand for a quick steak!
Im curious as to how many 8oz jars that crockpot full made..
It made 5 8oz jars plus 2 jars of onion broth.
What do you do with carmalized onions ?
I’m planning on adding them to soups, maybe casseroles.
I think they would be great with steaks and on beef sandwiches. I am definitely making this! Thanks for the idea. I love your “everything.” Have a wonderful day!
What settings did you use to can the onion broth?
I used the same settings as I did for the caramelized onions above.
Love this web site
Well thank you!
Hey- thanks for this recipe. My friend canned these last year. I bought a huge bag of onions at Costco for the holidays and only used a few. I don’t want them to spoil and I love these onions…I use them to top mac and cheese and for real onion dip!
Mmm onion dip, now I’m hungry!
I don’t have a pressure canner. Do you know if I made them with balsamic vinegar if it could be water canned?
I make up batches like you in the crock pot and freeze them. But, like another commenter, I had the thought of “what if there was no electricity?”, and I could also give them as shelf stable gifts.
Thanks!
Because of their acidity level, no matter what is added they will need to be pressure canned for safety. A pressure canner is totally worth it though!