French Onion Stuffed Shells - Kudos Kitchen by Renee (2024)

Everything you love about French onion soup is in these Crave-Worthy French Onion Stuffed Shells. But now it's in a brand new (yet still incredibly delicious, and cheesy) unexpected form.

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How this recipe came to be:

Since my recipe for French Onion Pork Chops is still one of themost popular posts on my blog,I keep trying to reinvent different ways to bring therich, slightly sweet and savory flavors of deeply caramelized onions smothered in melted cheese to the dinner table in unusual ways.Enter, Crave-Worthy French Onion Stuffed Shells.

Imagine if you will, deeply caramelized onions (cooked in a slow cooker) with red wine, butter, beef broth and thyme until they're sweet and pungent. The onions are stuffed into large, perfectly cooked pasta shells until they're practically overflowing.

The stuffed shells are then layered on top of toasted, garlicky French bread, topped with an abundant mixture of grated Swiss, and Gruyere cheeses, and popped into the oven, so the cheese melts into a blanket of golden, gooey, goodness.

Be still my French onion loving heart!

As I mentioned earlier, I'm all about the brilliance of French onion deliciousness and have posted many different versions of the caramelized onion and cheese-themed based preparations in the past. Not the least of which are the following recipes for:

French Onion Pork Chops (that I spoke ofearlier):

French Onion Pizza:

And, because everyone loves chicken, Cheesy French Onion Chicken:

As with all of these recipes I've shared the items that remain constant in my creations for French onion fare are the same ones that make French onion soup so iconic and beloved. The base of a substantial, crusty bread, the abundance of intensely flavorful, and perfectly caramelized onions, and of course, the best part of all (in my book) the topping of creamy, melted cheeses.

As you can see, Crave-Worthy French Onion Stuffed Shells ticks all those boxes, and adds pasta to boot! Yeah, baby!

Along with the printer friendly version of this recipe for Crave-Worthy French Onion Stuffed Shells (which follows shortly), I'm happyto also share with youmy step-by-step photo tutorial in case you're a visual learner like I am.

Ready to get cooking? Good! Let's begin!

The easy instructions for making slow cooker caramelized onions:

• Add butter and olive oil to a 7-quart slow cooker.
• Slice 5 large sweet onions and add them to the cooker along with salt and pepper.

• To the onions, add beef broth, red wine, and fresh thyme sprigs.

• Cover and cook on high for 8hours, stirring occasionally.
• Allow the onions to cool and then place them in containers and refrigerate until ready to stuff the shells.

How to make French Onion Stuffed Shells:

• Add French bread into the bottom of a large casserole dish.
• Drizzle the bread with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder, and fresh thyme leaves.
• Meanwhile, cook large pasta shells according to package directions.

• Drain the pasta shells and use a large spoon to generously fill the shells with the cooled, caramelized onions.
• Place the filled shells in a single layer on top of the prepared French bread.

• Grate Swiss and Gruyere cheeses and liberally cover the stuffed shells with the grated cheese.
• Top with additional fresh thyme leaves.
• Bake uncovered in a preheated 425-degree oven until the cheese is melted and golden and the shells are heated through approximately 30-35 minutes.

When you make this recipe (and I hope that you will), I'd appreciate it if you'd take the time to come back and give it a star rating along with a comment on why you rated as you did. Google appreciates ratings on recipes and, in turn, will show my recipes to more people. Thank you!!

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Dinner's ready. Let's eat!

I sincerely hope you've enjoyed today's caramelized onion stuffed shells recipe as much as I've enjoyed bringing it to you!

Until we eat again, I hope you have a delicious day!

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