Caramelized Onions - Crock*Pot Cafe 3

We ADORE caramelized onions in our household.  But it takes a bit of work and a LOT of time to make them the traditional way.  So when I came across a way to make them in the Crock*Pot I pinned the method right away.  You can find the site I originally found this method at HERE. This week I decided to make it my mission to make them because I haven't done a Crock*Pot recipe in awhile, and onions were on sale.  I got 4lbs of sweet onions (about 10 medium onions) for $1.98.  So this was easy, cheap, and we have a mess of caramelized onions to use on steak sandwiches, in french onion soup, or to make a tart with.  Yum!

***Note - I use a mandolin to slice my onions.  This is the easiest and fastest way to do this job.  

***Secondary Note - The fumes that come off this many onions when prepping can be brutal.  I was crying like no ones business, but that's to be expected.  However, we have a brand new kitten and I had no idea the fumes would affect him, but they did.  The poor little guy was crying and we had to move him outside for a while.  So I recommend that if you have pets and/or kids, you prep your onions in a well ventilated area, with doors and/or windows open.  Or have them stay in another room while prepping. 

Crock*Pot Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs sweet onions (or any variety you like), sliced thin
• 2 tbs butter and/or olive oil
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 tbs sugar
• Cooking spray

Directions:

Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray.  Place in sliced onions.  Drizzle with butter (or olive oil).  Sprinkle on salt.  Turn slow cooker to the low setting.  After 4 hours, stir in sugar.  After 8 hours, stir again.  Onions will be perfectly sweet, soft, and caramelized at 12 hours.  ***This seems like a lot of time But if you do the first 4 hours before you go to bed and then let them cook the remaining 8 while you're sleeping, it's pretty efficient.