French Onion Poutine
French Onion Poutine makes a spectacular appetizer for your next get together! Poutine, a French-Canadian dish, is a hearty recipe made with crispy French fries, brown gravy and cheese curds. This twist on the classic incorporates caramelized onions, beef, thyme and gruyere to add French Onion flavors! Made with frozen fries and a homemade beef gravy, this starter is ready and on the table in under two hours and makes for a delicious gathering!
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Last April, I attended a blogging conference in Charleston, South Carolina. After my friends and I dropped our bags at the hotel, we wandered around the cute streets to stumble upon a little place called The Darling.
It wasn’t open yet—we had to wait for a few more minutes until the doors opened—but when they did, we planted ourselves at the raw bar, ordered some drinks and food.
After an extended debate of what I wanted to nibble on, I decided upon the Clam Chowder Over Fries.
When our dishes arrived, the waiter drizzled the chowder over crisp, salty fries, and I dove right in, commenting multiple times about OMG, HOW GOOD THESE THINGS ARE.
I even shared with my friends because hey, I can be nice sometimes. 😉
For the last year, I’ve been daydreaming about how amazingly delicious and satisfying those fries were and how I could recreate them at home.
I should go ahead and point out that this French Onion Poutine is not a Clam Chowder Over Fries flavor situation, but it hits on the same comfort food notes.
French Onion flavors are ones that I keep coming back to because they’re so homey and comforting, and they lend themselves to so many dishes. (Heck, I’ve made French Onion Bruschetta, French Onion Risotto and Cheesy French Onion Pull-Apart Bread, to name a few.)
And French Onion paired with FRIES? Well, you’ll be shocked to know that this appetizer, which would make for a perfect gameday snack, is positively delightful.
French Onion Poutine Tips + Tricks
- Why does this appetizer take TWO HOURS to make? The portion of this recipe that takes the longest is caramelizing the onions. I cook mine low and slow over medium-low heat, and it took almost 1.5 hours to get them to a happy place. If you cook them faster, keep your eyes on them to ensure they don’t burn. This step can be done in advance, then the onions refrigerated until it’s time to make the gravy. (See more about this in the recipe notes below.)
- The texture of your gravy looks gross. How do I make the gravy smooth? If you want an extra smooth gravy, do the following: Once the gravy is nice and thick, transfer to a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth. You might have to add more beef stock if it gets to be too thick, so have an extra ¼-1/2 cup on hand just in case.
- Why did you dice the onions instead of slicing them? For French Onion Soup, we’d normally half our onions, and then use a mandoline slicer to make very thin slices. However, I didn’t want for the onions to become bulky and make this poutine hard to eat, so a dice was in order.
Essential French Onion Poutine Tools
- A sheet pan.
- A nonstick skillet.
- A box grater.
Other French Onion Recipes We Adore
I have a feeling this French Onion Poutine is going to make an appearance at an upcoming football party… and we might have to make another batch for a Winter Games viewing party, too.
It’s truly that good. (Heck, one of our vegetarian friends, who does not bend the rules, L-O-V-E-D this poutine, even though she knew exactly what went into it! If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.)
Want more recipes featuring fries?
Try my Beef Poutine Fries and Gravy, which is a more classic rendition of this recioe.
Whip up some Carne Asada Fries, a San Diego classic. And these Loaded Fries sound utterly decadent with all the cheese, bacon and jalapenos.
Want to make these fries? Scroll on down to learn how to make ’em.
French Onion Poutine
Ingredients
- 1 lb. shoestring fries frozen
- 4 oz. Gruyere cheese shredded
French Onion Gravy
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large onion chopped (about 2 ½ cups)
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ cups beef stock
- ½ tablespoon fresh thyme
- Additional salt and pepper for seasoning
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Instructions
Make the Gravy
- In a large skillet or Dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat.
- Add the onions and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper, then lower the heat to medium-low.
- Continue cooking while stirring occasionally until the onions are a deep golden brown color, about 45-60-75 minutes.
- When the onions are caramelized, raise the heat to medium and sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly until the flour begins to turn a golden color, about 2-3 minutes.
- Slowly pour in the beef stock, stirring constantly as the gravy thickens, about 3-4 minutes.
- Season with fresh thyme, and then taste. If necessary, season with additional salt and pepper.
- Once seasoned, remove from the heat.
Make the Fries + Poutine
- While the onions are caramelizing, prepare and cook the fries.
- Follow the instructions on the packaging of the frozen fries. (Mine said the following: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Arrange the frozen fries in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake 25-28 minutes, or until crispy and golden brown. Rotate halfway through the cooking time.)
- When the fries are crispy and golden brown, remove from the oven, and set aside.
- Turn the oven up to the BROIL setting.
- Once the French Onion Gravy is ready, drizzle that over the fries, then sprinkle with Gruyere cheese.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven, and broil for 2-6 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly, brown and gooey.
- Remove from the oven, and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
About the Author:
Erin Parker is a Southern gal living in Texas with her husband and two daughters. She started The Speckled Palate to share what she was cooking as a newlywed… and over the years, it’s evolved to capture her love for hosting. Specifically, the EASIEST, lowest key entertaining because everyone deserves to see their people and connect over good food. Learn more about her…
Oh. My. Goodness. These look mouthwatering delicious!
They are truly mouthwatering! We gobbled them up in no time!
Seriously…. This looks DELICIOUS!!!! I think I would totally break my diet for this!!!!!
You are not the first person to say that. 😉 These are seriously delicious, and I hope when you’ve got a cheat day, you can give them a try!
My husband was a missionary for our church in Quebec, Canada, where poutine is the national dish! I’ve only had it a couple of times, and I don’t think it was authentic. Yours looks positively amazing!
Oh, that’s so cool, Melissa! I’m assuming your husband ate a LOT of poutine while he was up in Quebec? I don’t know if I’ve ever had authentic poutine, either, but the renditions I’ve had have always been tasty. Sometime, I’m gonna have to go visit Quebec and check it out.
I have never tried poutine! This looks amazing, my mouth is watering looking at the pictures!
If you’re a fan of fries and gravy, you’re gonna love poutine! You definitely need to give it a try sometime!
Wow!! Looks incredible! I am 100% making these for my super bowl party! I do want to clarify, there aren’t actual cheese curds in this dish, right? I just get so confused as to what cheese curds exactly are, and where to buy them. (Ultimate unending question mark above my cartoon head.) Excited to try them on Sunday!!
Thanks so much, Melissa! These are just insanely delicious, and we loved ’em.
No, there are no cheese curds in the dish. Just shredded gruyere cheese. 🙂 Should be pretty easy to find at your local grocery! I hope you and yours enjoy these, and when you give them a try, will you let me know how they turned out? Thanks, lady!
Ah-ha!! Thanks, will do!!
You’re welcome! ENJOY!
Is there any way to cut the sodium count way down in this recipe?
Tried the French Onion Poutine for our Super Bowl Party, and everyone who tried it said it was “Amazing!” Thanks for creating such deliciousness! I took a picture, but don’t know how to upload it. Yum!!!
YAY! So, so, so happy to hear this was “amazing” for the Super Bowl party, Melissa! Thanks for reporting back! Thrilled that this made an appearance and an impact on your party. 😀
Is there any way to cut the sodium count way down in this recipe?
The nutrition plugin I use is meant to be a guide, but it might not be 100% accurate. Unfortunately, there are a lot of factors that go into calculating nutrition, and while this plugin is an awesome starting place, it doesn’t account for varying calorie/sodium/protein/sugar counts of different brands. I highly recommend looking at the brand of ingredients you plan to purchase and putting them into a nutrition counter so you have a more accurate idea. 🙂
That said, you can definitely use a low-sodium (or even no sodium) beef broth or swap that with a lower sodium chicken broth. Look for a lower sodium gruyere and fries, too. If nothing else, you can make the serving sizes smaller.
I hope that helps!
Dangggg this is the best idea for poutine I’ve seen since I first tried poutine!! YUM!
Dangggg this is the best idea for poutine I’ve seen since I first tried poutine!! YUM!
Thanks so much! I hope you and yours enjoy this! It’s a little different than the classic, but these flavors are just so dang yummy. 😀
My husband was a missionary for our church in Quebec, Canada, where poutine is the national dish! I’ve only had it a couple of times, and I don’t think it was authentic. Yours looks positively amazing!
Seriously…. This looks DELICIOUS!!!! I think I would totally break my diet for this!!!!!