Caramelized Onion Dip Recipe (2024)

This creamy Caramelized Onion Dip features lightly caramelized onions in a sour cream, and mayonnaise based dip. Loaded with sweet and tangy flavors, this dip is a sweet & savory food lover’s dream!

Imagine dipping a chip into a deliciously decadent bowl of chilled Caramelized Onion Dip. Each dip of your thick, ruffled chip pulls out a few sweet and savory onion slices and a creamy seasoned base. That is exactly what you get with this chunky, thick dip.

What to Expect

This recipe is a little more time-consuming than most dip recipes because you will be lightly caramelizing onions in a large skillet with butter.

Traditional onion caramelization takes around 45 minutes, but to save time, we reduced the process to just 30 minutes.

Why the reduced time?

The addition of brown sugar and balsamic vinegar helps to further achieve the sweet, savory flavor of caramelized onions. Therefore, reducing the time doesn’t affect the final taste.

The end result is tender, soft onions that are golden in color with a sweet taste that pairs nicely with the creamy sour cream, mayonnaise, and spices.

Ingredients

This dip is made with the following easy-to-find ingredients:

• White onions
• Sour cream
• Mayonnaise
• Light brown sugar
• Balsamic vinegar
• Black pepper
• Garlic powder
• Kosher salt
• Butter

How to Make

Prep Onions: On a cutting board, trim the root end, and tip of the onion off. Half each onion and remove the thick, papery outer skin layer. Thinly slice each half from top to bottom. My onions were about 1/4″ thick- you can go thinner. I love onions so mine were on the thicker side.

Cook Onions: Add 2 tablespoons of butter to a large skillet and melt it over low heat. Add onion slices into the pan, and mix to coat with butter. Over low heat, cook the onions with a cover, stirring every 5 minutes. They will start to break down and get soft, translucent, and take on a nice deep coloring as they cook.

Once they have cooked for 15 minutes, add the salt, sugar, and vinegar to the pan. Cook onions for an additional 15 minutes. Note: These are lightly caramelized, if you want a deeper amber colored onion, caramelize for the full 45 minutes over low heat. For this recipe, they will be golden colored, and soft in texture at the 30-minute mark. Allow onions to fully cool in the pan before adding them to the cold ingredients.

Mixing the Dip: In a large mixing bowl, add cooled onions to the sour cream, and mayonnaise. Sprinkle with garlic powder, and black pepper. Stir to combine dip fully.

Chill the Dip: This dip benefits from chilling, and allowing the flavors to meld. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill dip for at least 4 hours, or up to 24 hours to allow the flavors to meld.

Serving: Serve with thick potato chips. This is a chunky dip so ruffled chips work best. Sprinkle with chopped parsley for garnish *optional.

Substitutions

Onions: You can use Vidalia onions or yellow onions for this dip. You can also chop your onions into smaller pieces. I love long, stringy onions so this worked for us, but might not for you!

Sour Cream: You can use reduced fat sour cream, fat-free, or Greek yogurt for this dip.

Mayonnaise: I do not recommend using salad dressing for this dip as it will make it beyond sweet. You can however use a lighter version.

Vinegar: You can swap out the balsamic vinegar for white wine vinegar.

Printable Recipe

Get the recipe for this amazing onion dip below:

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