Sous Vide Onions in Beer

Sous vide onions in beer is a great recipe for sous vide beginners and is an easy make-ahead dish for your next party or barbecue! These delicious caramelized onions combine with your favorite beer to create a bold flavor to upgrade your next pasta dish, sandwich, burger night, or even pizza. Ready in just a few minutes with only five ingredients, this is easily my new favorite way to cook onions.

As an onion and sous vide enthusiast, it didn’t take long for me to wonder: Can you sous vide onions?

Well, my friend, the answer is YES, yes you can!

And my favorite way to cook onions is to marinade them in beer — so why not combine the two? This sous vide onions in beer recipe produces sweet onions that really do melt in your mouth.

Want to cook onions on the stove instead? See how to caramelize onions.

Ingredients for sous vide onions in beer

Sous vide onions are made with only six ingredients: Salt, pepper, olive oil, onions, garlic and beer. You will want to slice your onions in thin, half-inch slices to prepare them to cook.

How to make sous vide onions in beer

Step 1. This recipe calls for a few minutes of cooking the sliced onions on the stove before adding them to the sous vide bath. Add olive oil, onions, garlic, salt, and pepper to a pan on medium heat and stir for about 5 minutes.

Step 2. Next, add in the beer and reduce heat to medium-low for another 5 minutes or until the onions become translucent. Make sure you stir the ingredients while the onions cook!

Step 3. Vacuum seal the caramelized onions for the sous vide bath. Once the onions are sealed, spread them out in a 1″ thick layer in the bag so they cook evenly. Sous vide onions in beer at a temperature of 185 degrees for two hours.

Step 4. Finally, transfer the onion mixture to a pan on medium heat to cook out any remaining liquid. When you’re finished, serve your sous vide onions in beer hot or chilled on your favorite dish.

What to put pair with your sous vide onions in beer

• Add sous vide onions to pasta dishes
• Homemade pizza
• Make in batches and freeze in muffin tins to use later
• Serve them on crostini with brie (oh god, yes!!)
• Add them to hoagies or sous vide turkey breast sandwiches

FAQs

What size onions should I use?

I used sliced yellow onions for this recipe — I don’t recommend using this recipe to cook a sous vide whole onion. I’ll post a recipe for that soon! That being said, if you’re adapting this recipe for sous vide pearl onions, slice them in half or leave them whole if they’re very small.

Does the entire bag need to be submerged in water to sous vide correctly?

It can be tricky to sous vide liquid in bags, depending on your vacuum sealer. It can help to let the bag hang over the side of the counter, to let gravity pull the liquid down while the top gets a clean seal. Consult your vacuum sealer if you encounter trouble getting a seal.

What if I don’t want to use beer?

While I absolutely recommend using your favorite beer for the extra flavor, you can certainly switch it out for chicken or vegetable broth.

Find new ways to enjoy your favorite food with sous vide cooking. Get inspired with my new book – The Home Chef’s Sous Vide Cookbook.

Recipe Notes & Tasty Tips

• Pre-sliced sous vide onions are delicious on sous vide pulled pork tacos and sous vide sausage sandwiches.
• You can sub vegetable or chicken broth for the beer if desired.
• Once the sous vide onions are done cooking in the sous vide water bath, they might need a few minutes on the stove to reduce (soak up) any extra liquid (beer).
• My other favorite way to make caramelized onions only takes 15 minutes. Check out this (non sous vide) red wine caramelized onions recipe for details.

The Perfect Sous Vide Setup

Everyday I’m asked, “what do you need to sous vide food?”. Here’s my answer.

1. A sous vide machine.
   Option 1: “stick” models like the Joule, Anova, or Instant Pot Slim.
   Option 2: “multipot” models like the SousPreme or InstantPot Duo Evo Plus.
2. Sous vide container.
   If using a sous vide “stick” model, you need something to hold the water the food cooks in, like a bucket or stockpot.
3. Bags to cook sous vide food.
   Keep it simple and sous vide in ziplock gallon bags, or get fancy like me with a vacuum sealer setup.
4. Nice-to-have accessories for sous vide cooking.
   – Sous vide weights to hold down food that floats.
   – Mini mason jars for desserts and sous vide egg bites.
   – Cast iron skillet to sear sous vide steaks to finish them.
5. My sous vide cookbook with 100+ recipes.

Try a new sous vide recipe…

• Sous vide salmon
• Sous vide frozen steak
• See how long to sous vide chicken
• Learn how to sous vide frozen chicken breast
• Sous vide chicken wings
• Sous vide chicken breast tenders
• Sous vide pork chops

Are you a foodie, too?

Everyone knows meat is *delicious* cooked sous vide, but sous vide vegetables are delicious and fun to experiment with as well. Don’t forget to sign up for email updates to get the latest on my sous vide recipes. Your “I swear I don’t have onion breath” sous vide enthusiast friend, Jenna

Find me on Instagram to let me know what you think about this recipe @sipbitego. And if you love the idea of eating restaurant-style food at home – subscribe to the Sip Bite Go channel.