Caramelized Onion & Bacon Dip with Homemade Kettle Chips
My mouth is watering just thinking about this dip…
Onion dip is one of those foods that has a place on every snack/appetizer table, no matter how fancy. I personally don’t care if I’m at a black tie wedding; if there is onion dip and chips on the table, you can bet your ass I’m grabbing a big ol’ dollop of that and a handful of chips. NO. SHAME.
Growing up, we always had onion dip at every occasion - summer BBQs, Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving… it was almost ubiquitous. Granted (and I’m guessing this might have been the case for a lot of folks), onion dip was a packet of Lipton beef onion soup and a container of sour cream. But it was still so good.
If you loved that dip as much as I did, you’re really going to love this scratch version and homemade chips. I promise you it’s worth the effort. Plus, because it’s made with fresh onions and not dried ones, you don’t have to wait until the onions get “soft” to dig in. I’ve taken the classic recipe and made some tweaks, and, of course, everything is better with bacon. I highly recommend taking a small bowl for yourself first, because this is going to FLY off the snack table.
Caramelized Onion and Bacon Dip
Ingredients:
2 pieces of bacon
3 medium onions
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp horseradish
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 1/2 cups sour cream
2 tbsp chives, dried or fresh
S&P to taste
Instructions:
1) In a non-stick pan, cook bacon and set aside. Do not drain fat.
2) Roughly chop onions and add to the same pan; add additional fat if necessary. I recommend butter in this case. Add a pinch of salt.
3) Cook onions on low for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the onions don’t stick to the bottom of the pan or burn. You can continue to cook the onions up to 45 minutes if you really want them brown and sticky.
4) Remove onions from heat and set about 1/3 of them aside. Add remaining onions to Vitamix along with bacon, garlic powder, onion powder, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and sour cream. Blend until smooth.
5) Move dip to a mixing bowl and gently fold in remaining onions and chives. Adjust seasonings and S&P to your liking, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
Homemade Air Fryer Kettle Chips*
Ingredients:
2 russet potatoes, mandolined or sliced very thin by hand
2 TBSP oil
2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
Instructions:
1) Carefully use a mandolin to thinly slice the potatoes length-wise, or cut by hand as thinly as possible.
2) Gently toss/fold them in the oil and Old Bay (be very careful - they will break easily because they are thin!)
2) In one layer at a time, place your chips in the air fryer.
3) Cook at 275 for 15 minutes, turning halfway through.
4) Rinse and repeat until you’ve gotten through all chips. Serve sprinkled with additional sea salt alongside dip. Mangia!
*If you don’t have an air fryer, these can be done in the oven, although they will not come out as crispy. I haven’t tested them in the oven, but I would guess around 275 for 30 minutes should do it, flipping halfway through. Because the chips are so thin, you don’t want the oven on too high.
