BBQ Honey Bourbon Caramelized Onions
BBQ Honey Bourbon Caramelized Onions are so easy, but don’t let that fool you, the flavors are off the chart! This recipe is one that you are going to love to make. These caramelized onions go so great with so many different dishes.
The mild caramelized flavor melds well with virtually anything you are serving. They enhance the flavors of pork, chicken, oh don’t forget to add them to your pizza or your favorite burger!
They also go well as an accompaniment to many vegetable dishes. We often add them on top of some brie, gruyere, or a mild goat cheese. Serve that up with some tasty crackers, what an outstanding appetizer!
Secret Ingredients!
The addition of the honey and bourbon, well that simply amps up the flavor to the next level! The honey adds just a hint of sweetness. It also helps the onions caramelize because of its sugar content.
The alcohol in the bourbon totally burns off. You are left with a hint of flavor that really augments the essence of the caramelized onions. Trust me, this is one you are going to want to make over and over.
I used a sweet onion like a Vidalia, and as it was rather large, bigger than a softball actually, I made up 2 foil packs. After cutting the onion in half I thinly sliced it so as to create long strips or half rings.
HOW TO CARAMELIZE ONIONS?
In the first foil package I placed half the onion slices, butter, salt, and of course honey and bourbon. In the second foil package using the other half of the sliced onion, I made it up exactly the same except I added olive oil instead of butter.
I was interested to see which package would caramelize better, the one with the butter or the one with the olive oil. It was kind of my little science experiment!
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CArAmELIZE ONIONS?
I heated up my grill, placed them on indirect heat, closed the lid and waited. The temperature of grill hovered around 400 – 425 degrees F. It takes a little while; expect to wait an hour and a half to two hours to achieve the desired results. But it is definitely worth the wait.
OK so now for the results of my little experiment. Which foil packet turned out better? I designed my little experiment making sure that there was only one variable, olive oil or butter.
Thinking back to my middle school science classes I remembered that once you have your experiment designed you have to come up with a hypothesis. What the expected outcome of the experiment is going to be. So I evaluated the test parameters and created my hypothesis.
To my very great surprise I was wrong! I really thought that the buttered foil package would caramelize better than the olive oil package. Actually, they both turned out fantastic! Both packets turned out to have that wonderful golden-brown color I was looking for!
We tasted them side by side and couldn’t tell the difference saying oh I like these better, wait these are better and back and forth. Conclusion, they turned out exactly the same both just as good as the other.
Golden Brown
The butter packet was, as I expected, creamy and beautifully caramelized. The olive oil packet was also cooked to perfection. The onions were perfectly caramelized. Both packets had just a hint of sweetness from the honey. They both also had a wonderful albeit very subtle hint of flavor from the bourbon.
Honestly, if you didn’t tell someone that there was bourbon in the packets they would never know. It just provides a hint of flavor that most people wouldn’t be able to put their finger on. I urge you to try it; you’re going to love it!
BBQ Honey Bourbon Caramelized Onions
Ingredients
- 1 Medium size sweet onion
- 2 Tbsp. of butter or olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 1 Tbsp. good bourbon whiskey
- ½ tsp. kosher salt or to taste
Instructions
- Heat your grill to 400 degrees F.
- Slice the onion in half, with the cut side down thinly slice, repeat with the other half of the onion.
- Lay out a piece of tin foil roughly 24 inches in length and added the onion slices in the middle.
- Bend up each of the long sides about 2 inches so that the liquid will not run off the onions.
- Add the butter or olive oil, honey, bourbon and kosher salt.
- Fold the sides down on top of the onions. Fold each end over to create a pouch. Try not to crowd the onions. Make sure they are not piled tightly together in the middle; they will not caramelize if you do.
- Place on your grill and cook using indirect heat for 1 ½ to 2 hours. I would suggest checking on them after an hour to make sure they are not burning.
These look divine! Another science experiment to try – Scotch (so many to choose!) vs rye vs bourbon.