Caramelized Sweet Vidalia Onions On The Smoker

By smoking and caramelizing Vidalia onions, you’re transforming a humble vegetable into a mouthwatering dish that will elevate any recipe! From burgers to pizza, casseroles to dips, smoked caramelized onions add a savory culinary delight to any dish!

For those that are new here, a little back story on Lori as a child. I was the PICKIEST eater EVER. I ate 3 vegetables – corn, potatoes, and canned peas (stop making that face too..). If my food had chunks I would not eat. And if it had an onion I would lose it.

I swear, the majority of my childhood was spent eating PB&J or mashed potatoes. I can still hear my parents begging me to “try it, you might like it!“ as I sat there with my squinched-up face. It’s a wonder I didn’t develop permanent wrinkles there!

Yes, Mom, I Made An Onion Recipe On Purpose!

So when I make a recipe like this on purpose I can’t help but chuckle and get a little smile on my face. I can only imagine the look of shock my parents have on their faces looking down at me from heaven. Yes, I really make onion recipes like this on purpose.

I LOVE caramelized onions. However y’all – smoking them to that caramelized state… NEXT LEVEL!

Grab Your Ingredients

This recipe really has only a few ingredients. Just know that the quality of the ingredients matter.

• Vidalia Onions
• Butter, unsalted
• Chupacabra Chop Haus Seasoning
• Corto Olive Oil

Preheat The Yoder Smokers YS640 Smoker

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Yoder Smokers YS640? Seriously I use this thing at least 2-3 times a week.

1. Preheat the smoker to 250F.
2. For the hopper, I went with a mix of Competition and fruit pellets for the smoke.
3. The damper was about 2/3rds the way pushed in.

Assemble The Onions

1. Slice the onions by removing the top and bottom ends, then slice in half. Peel off the skin.
2. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out a small divot in the center of each onion half.
3. Place the onions into a heat-safe dish, scoop side up. Drizzle some olive oil over each onion. Sprinkle the onion with the Chupacabra Chop Haus seasoning, add a pat of butter atop each onion, and sprinkle over a little more of the seasoning.
4. Place in the smoker, (I went with the lower rack as I was making another recipe on the top rack).

5. Smoke for about 2-2.5 onions. This will depend greatly on the size of the onion. The onion should be pierced really easily with a sharp knife.
6. Remove from the smoker, remove the outer “skin” on each onion as that will dry out and get leathery/tough
7. Now, use the smoked onions in your favorite recipe, or yes, serve as a side dish.

Smoked To Perfection

Seriously, don’t those look absolutely incredible?! I honestly was shocked by the coloring on these but y’all that flavor was so amazing!

Chef’s Tip About Removing “Smoke” Discoloration

So if you’re like me, you care about the dishes you use and want to make sure you take care of them. The first time I used one of my good dishes in the smoker, I took it out and it had this smoke coloration on it that soap and water didn’t take off.

Thankfully my cleaning pantry is stocked and y’all I have the BEST thing to use to remove the discoloration! Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are a godsend!!! All I had to do was wet them and for real, every dish I used it on, the smoke color came off immediately. So that white dish you see in the images, the dish was super gray and smoke-colored when I took it out of the smoker.

A quick clean with soap and water to clean it and then a wipe with the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and it looked brand new again!

Ways To Use Smoked Caramelized Vidalia Onions

There are so many ways to use this!

• Side Dish – yes, serve this on the side with a veggie meal or with a steak!
• Topping – add to a burger, pizza, grilled chicken, or pork chops
• Filling – add to a meatloaf or meatball recipe
• Dip – Onion dip

Recipe Substitutions and Additions

So you have 2 options here in my opinion you can swap out:

• Onions – So read that article. I would not recommend red onions as they will burn instead of caramelize. Shallots are AMAZING!!!
• Seasoning – this is where you can really shake things up. I would say think about how you want to use the onions and then adapt your seasonings to the onions.

Grill Instructions

You can make this dish on a grill (gas or charcoal) but you have to set it up for an indirect method. Just keep the temperature at 250F on the direct heat side.

Again, the time it will take to render down and caramelize will vary on how big the onions are.

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