There is nothing better with crispy, salty potato chips than cold and creamy French Onion Dip! Skip the soup mix and make your own delicious dip! One dip of the chip and you’ll fall in love!
Potato chips and French Onion dip at times have been my Friday night date. I should be embarrassed to admit that but I’m not. I’m sorry but I love those salty, crispy chips and that creamy oniony dip. Sure my thighs love it even more but some things well, are worth it. Now, this doesn’t mean it’s a frequent thing in my house. God no! If that were the case I wouldn’t fit in the house. Everything in moderation. But I’ll be honest, when it comes to this dip, I have to use all of my willpower.
Now I love certain pre-made French onion dip but I honestly prefer homemade more. It’s creamier. I don’t want to dip into it and have the dip just glob on the chip. No, I want it to dunk into something creamy, rich and oniony.
Growing up Mom would make her own French Onion dip. Her first recipe was sour cream, mayo, freshly chopped onions, and some spices. I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATED it. I mean who puts fresh raw onions in a dip? GAG. Sorry, Mama, I love you and everything but that was nasty. Well, then the whole dried French onion soup packets came out. Mom I swear had cases of that stuff. It went in EVERYTHING.
Mom put that stuff in meatloaf, burgers, on steaks, in potato salad, in meatballs and even chili. Then the word was ‘use soup mix to make French onion dip’. So she jumped on that bandwagon. I hated that even more. The stuff was ‘hard’ and had a weird taste. My siblings loved it but not this girl. It just didn’t taste like the store-bought stuff.
It wasn’t until I bought my first house did I attempt to make this myself sans the soup mix. I was single, didn’t have a date and was feeling blah. The first batch got pitched as it tasted like salty sour cream. I made batch after batch to no avail; all sucky. It wasn’t until a few years later that I was at some seasoning party and they were demoing their powdered dips. The one they made was a dill dip that had cream cheese in it, with the mayo and sour cream.
It was really good and had the consistency I was looking for. It was silky, creamy and didn’t turn watery after a day in the fridge!
The next day I made my recipe again but added cream cheese to it. It was a perfect consistency and had a great onion taste but it was missing something. It was missing depth to it; a richness. I had grabbed a package of the dried soup mix and read the ingredients and saw ‘beef bouillon granules’. Wait, what??? Beef???
That explains it! The beef undertone was the ingredient that was giving the dip that rounded richness. Now I’ll be honest, I hate the beef bouillon granules as I find them SUPER salty. I keep a small jar of Non-MSG Beef Base in my fridge. It’s super concentrated and rich; a little goes a long way. Once I added just a trace amount to my dip I was set! I had finally created a dip that I found worthy to graced with a chip!
You see true French Onion dip is made with super caramelized onions and beef stock. It’s absolutely phenomenal but it’s also laborious. I got no time for laborious things right now.
Now for those of you that are vegetarian, you can totally omit the beef base. The dip is great without it as it has a nice light, fresh flavor. If you wanted, you could garnish it with some green onions.
Also, when making this dip it’s best to make it a few hours ahead of time or ever the day before as you need to allow time for the dried onions to soften.
Lastly, if you wanted to make a true French Onion dip, you could totally omit the dried onions and caramelize the crap out of some chopped onions and add those to the recipe instead. But remember, they need to be super caramelized. Once you caramelize them, mince up and add to the recipe.
PrintHomemade French Onion Dip
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- Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sour Cream, full fat
- 8 ounces Cream Cheese, softened and full fat
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1 tablespoon dried, minced onions
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon beef base (non-msg) – I use Better than Bouillon Beef Base
- 1 green onion, minced *optional
Instructions
- In a bowl add the sour cream, cream cheese and mayo; mix well until smooth and creamy.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or transfer to a lidded bowl) and refrigerate overnight (or at least 4 hours).
- Serve with chips or other dippable items.
- Store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Looking for another Fantabulous Oniony Dip? You MUST check out my Caramelized Sweet Onion Dip! It’s To Die For!
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