What Are Boiling onions and How Can I Use Them?
If boiling onions have turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use them with confidence and how to choose them, cook them, store them, what to substitute, and 2 recipes to try them in.
Key Points
- Boiling onions are small whole onions, the same as pearl and button onions sorted slightly larger.
- Cooked whole, they hold their shape and turn sweet in stews and butter glazes.
- Blanch about 30 seconds and shock in ice water so the skins slip right off.
- Full guide to cooking, peeling, and buying lives on the pearl onions page.
What are boiling onions?
Boiling onions are small whole onions, usually about an inch across, sold for cooking whole rather than chopping. They are a size grade of the same little onions sold as pearl and button onions, just sorted slightly larger.
Their job is texture and looks. Cooked whole, they soften into sweet, tender bites that hold their round shape in a stew or a butter glaze, where a chopped onion would simply melt away.
The one chore is peeling. Drop them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, shock them in ice water, then trim the root and the skins squeeze right off.
Everything about cooking and peeling and buying these little onions lives on one page. See pearl onions for the full guide, or the onions hub for the wider family.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 煮洋葱
- British (UK) term
- Boiling onions
- en français
- oignons bouillante
- en español
- cebollas hirviendo
Recipes using boiling onions
There are 2 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Grilled Vegetable Kabos
Grilled vegetable kabobs with yellow squash, boiling onions, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms basted in Italian dressing with basil and parsley. Low-calorie and served over brown rice.
Brisket Dinner
Slow cooker beef brisket dinner braises with thyme, bay leaf, onions, and carrots until fork-tender. A classic set-it-and-forget-it crock pot Sunday supper.
