This sour cream and onion dip is an onion lovers dream. A delicious creamy dip made with a sour cream base, sautéd onion, dried spices, fresh chives, and a little worcestershire. It’s the perfect dip for game day, serving a crowd, or just digging in solo with some ruffled chips.
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Ingredients
Homemade onion dip just takes a couple simple ingredients to make and is so worth the little extra effort beyond using the store-bought spice packets to have a delicious appetizer. Below are the main ingredients:
- Onion: a big yellow onion diced relatively small. It’ll get sauté in butter to caramelize it ever so slightly. This recipe calls for fresh onions as opposed to dried onion flakes that you'll find in the onion dip mix or soup mix.
- Dried spices: a combination of onion powder, garlic powder, dried parsley, and salt really brings all the classic onion dip flavors to this dip.
- Fresh chives: to keep layering on the onion flavor but in a more mild way. They also bring a little freshness.
- Sour cream: the creamy base of this dip – for this recipe we use only sour cream, no mayo. Full-fat sour cream is best.
- Worcestershire: I don’t know how to describe this flavor to a tee but it brings a little depth of salty-umami deliciousness. More info on it can be found here!
Ingredient substitutions
- Onion: You could use a red onion if it’s all you have, but yellow is ideal.
- Fresh chives: You could also use fresh green onions (the whites to medium-green parts) also known as scallions.
- Sour cream: 50/50 sour cream and plain whole milk greek yogurt, or 50/50 sour cream and mayo could both work. However, to make it a true tangy dip (the classic onion dip flavor) 100% sour cream is definitely ideal. I wouldn't recommend cream cheese, it's a bit too thick for this dip.
- Worcestershire: A few dashes of soy sauce would achieve the same thing.
Step by step instructions
Below are steps to make this easy onion dip recipe – full recipe is at the end of the post!
Overview: Sauté the onion in a little butter, then add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix together. Let it sit for 15 minutes if you have the time to spare.
1. Sauté the onion. Melt a little butter over medium heat in a medium skillet. Sauté the onion with a sprinkle of salt until lightly golden. Let it cool slightly
2. Combine all ingredients. In a large bowl, mix together the 16 oz sour cream, sautéd onion, 2 teaspoons onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon worcestershire, and ⅓ cup fresh chives. If you can resist, let it sit for at least 15 before digging in so all the flavors meld together.
Tips and tricks
I am an onion girly through and through, so this dip is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Check out the tips below to help make sure you nail it.
- The best chip for onion dip is a sturdy one! My favorite potato chips to use are classic ridges (crinkle chips) or kettle chips. We’re not trying to be healthy here 🙂
- But if you ARE trying to be on the healthier side with the dipping option, some fresh-cut veggies (bell peppers, carrots, celery), pita chips, or pretzels would also be great.
- Let the dip sit for at least 15 minutes to come to room temperature before you start dipping! I know it’s hard to wait, but it really helps the flavors infuse into the sour cream and make a delicious flavorful dip. If you can, let it sit overnight, it's even better the next day once the flavors really meld together.
- Go one step further and make fully caramelized onions if you want to make it caramelized onion dip – it’ll be a little sweeter vs. more tangy.
- Sour cream tends to separate a little when it sits, so just stir it back together if this happens.
- The dip will be a little firmer fresh out of the fridge, if you want it to soften up and be a little creamier let it sit at room temp for 15 minutes.
Storage
Simply store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
FAQs
French onion dip is made with french onion soup mix (classic Lipton mix), whereas this onion dip is made with actual onions.
Sure! Just use dairy free sour cream – I think Kite Hill makes a pretty good one.
I love to serve sour cream on top of chili, on quesadillas/tacos/fajitas, make a sauce by mixing it with avocado and cilantro, serve a dollop on a baked potato, or even marinate some chicken with it.
Yes! Up to a few days in advance. The flavors will become even more delicious the longer it sits. Leave it out at room temp for a little before serving to get the chill off.
Sour cream itself can be frozen, but I wouldn't recommend freezing the dip once it's already made. Once the other ingredients are mixed in the texture would be less than ideal after defrosting.
More delicious dip recipes
📖 Recipe
Sour Cream and Onion Dip
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 16 oz full fat sour cream
- 2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon worcestershire
- ⅓ cup chives diced + additional for serving
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a medium skillet. Sauté the onion with a sprinkle of salt until lightly golden. Let it cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, mix together the 16 oz sour cream, sautéd onion, 2 teaspoons onion powder, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon worcestershire, and ⅓ cup fresh chives. If you can resist, let it sit for at least 15 before digging in so all the flavors meld together.
lisa says
Delicious!!!