Dutch Oven French Onion Soup with Smoked Beef

Do you like French Onion Soup?  The delicious onion flavor, the Swiss cheese, the French bread!  Mmmm!  So I decided to try an outdoors version with a few different twists and the result was delicious.

Since I was doing this mostly in a Dutch oven, I got some coals going first.

The next thing to do was making a foil packet of wood chips to put on the grill.  It's pretty easy--put a handful of wood chips in the center of a piece of foil, seal it all up and poke some holes in it.  Put it on a hot grill over the flames and let the chips start to smolder.

Once I had smoke I put some sirloin steaks on the grill to cook and get some flavor from the smoke.  I love the little extra flavor it gives.  Note: Don't do what I did and forget about them.  They weren't ruined, but thye were a lot more done that I would have liked.  Oh, well.

Steaks on the Grill

While the steaks are grilling, and with my coals ready, I got my Dutch oven heating up.  When it was warm, I added, slowly, two cans of French onion concentrated soup and 4 cups of water.  I let that start to simmer.

French Onion Soup cooking in Dutch Oven

When the steaks were done, I took them off the grill and cut into chunks.  In my case, this also meant cutting away some of the overdone (or I could say burnt) parts.  Then into the soup in the Dutch oven they went.

Now it was time for something else to make this have extra outdoor flavor: grilled onions!  I sliced a onion into 1/2 - 3/4 inch slices.  To keep them from falling apart on the grill, I inserted three toothpicks in each onion slice, from outside in.  These helped keep the onion slices together.

Grilling Onions

I buttered the slices, then put on the grill to cook.  Checking them better than I checked my steaks, I turned over when the bottom had some nice grill marks, then removed when done.  They don't have to be cooked all the way, since they'll be put into the French onion broth and can finish there.

Grilled onions

Into the French onion soup the onions went to finish cooking

Onions Added

I waited until the soup was at a slow boil, then removed a few of the coals.  I let the soup simmer for about 15 minutes, then started on the last item: Toasted French Bread topped with melted Swiss cheese!

I buttered two pieces of French bread, generously.  Buttering the French BreadOn to the grill and then turned the grill way down.  If you don't do that, I guarantee that you'll have burnt bread.  And you won't want that.

Toasting the French Bread

 

Once one side was toasted (check often), I flipped them over and topped with some Swiss cheese slices to melt while the other side got toasted .

Swiss Cheese Slices on French Bread

If they don't quite melt all the way, no worries.  Just turn off the grill burner underneath the bread.  Leave the other burners going and let the cheese finish melting.  Looks fabulous!

Toasted French Bread with Swiss Cheese

When everything was done, I dished some soup with grilled onions and smoked beef into a bowl, and put a piece of the toasted French bread with melted Swiss cheese on top and tasted.  Delicous!

Delicious Dutch Oven French Onion Soup

 

Dutch Oven French Onion Soup with Smoked Beef
Recipe Type: Soup
Cuisine: Dutch Oven
Author: Scott Carey
A delicious French onion soup with smoked beef, grilled onions, and French bread toasted on the grill with melted swiss cheese. Does it get any better?
Ingredients
  • 1 lb steak
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 10 1/2 oz cans of condensed French onion soup
  • 4 cups water
  • 4 slices of French bread
  • butter or margarine
  • Swiss cheese sliced (as much as you want!)
Instructions
  1. Turn on the grill and get coals heating for the Dutch oven.
  2. Create a foil smoking packet by putting a handful of chips in the middle of a piece of foil, folding the edges together and poking holes in the foil. Put on the grill over the flame to allow chips to smolder and smoke.
  3. After the smoke starts to form, put the steaks on the grill and cook.
  4. While steaks are cooking, put coals underneath the Dutch oven and add the 2 cans of French onion soup and water to the Dutch oven. Put lid on, with coals on lid and allow to start heating up.
  5. When steaks are done, remove and cut into cubes. Add to soup in Dutch oven.
  6. Slice onion into slices--don't separate the rings. Push three toothpicks into the side of each slice, equidistant apart. Leave a small part of the end sticking out.
  7. Brush both sides of the onions slices with butter and put on grill.
  8. When one side of the onions has nice grill marks, flip over and grill the other side.
  9. When both sides are done, remove and allow to briefly cool.
  10. Remove the toothpicks and add the slices to the French onion soup. Use a spoon to separate into slices.
  11. Bring soup to a boil and then remove some coals to allow to simmer. It should simmer for about 15 minutes.
  12. Generously butter each side of each slice of French bread.
  13. Turn grill down and put bread on grill to toast. Check frequently and flip over when first side is toasted.
  14. Add Swiss cheese slices to the toasted side while the other side toasts.
  15. If the cheese is not melted when the second side is toasted, turn off the burner underneath the bread, but keep other burners going.
  16. Once cheese is melted and soup has simmered, ladle soup into a bowl and top with a piece of Swiss cheese covered French bread. Serve!
Scott

2 comments

  1. Your blog is impressive, thanks to the quality of your recipes & other content. We would be glad if you would participate on Contestchef so that your quality recipes can contest with other such bloggers/ recipe creators and win accolades from various players in the global food industry.

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    1. Nandy, I’ll check out it, thanks!

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