Onion oil is the bomb. If you haven't made your own flavored cooking oils yet, you're missing out. It adds the perfect amount of onion flavor to just about any dish and is so easy to make. Plus you get the benefits of cooking with oil.
Onion oil is one of my favorite flavored oils. It's super versatile and it's easy to make. I tend to make a lot of it and use all of it over a months time. This month is Onion oil month and next month I'll make another kind, either Scallion oil (it is different than onion oil) or maybe try doing a new oil.

This is a great way to add extra flavor and dimension to a dish. I was inspired to make this years ago when I read Mastering the Art of Chinese cooking. Inside the cookbook they have several recipes for flavored oils (garlic, scallion, onion, and pepper). I tried the Onion, Scallion, and Garlic oils and fell in love with using flavored oils.
Why you'll love this recipe
- Adds a fantastic wealth of flavor
- Insanely simple to make
- Way cheaper to make this than pay for it
- Versatile and can be used on virtually anything
Ingredients Needed
You only need two simple, natural ingredients to make this oil.
- Medium Yellow Onions
- Oil- You can use Peanut oil, Olive oil, or Avocado oil
How Do You Make Onion Oil
- Thinly Slice the medium yellow onions.
- Add the oil and sliced onions to a large pot or Wok
- Turn the stove burner to medium heat and allow the onions to cook at a simmer, stirring occasionally. Fry them until they are golden and crispy- this will take about an hour.
- Strain out the onion pieces (you can keep them and use them as you wish). Allow the onion oil to cool completely before transferring to bottles.
- I keep one bottle on the counter for everyday use (keeps for a week or two) and I put the other(s) in the fridge (they will keep for a month).

Storage
You can store your onion oil on the counter in the bottle and use it for everyday use. It will keep for about a week or two.
If you wish to keep this homemade oil for a longer period of time, you can store it a glass bottle and in the refrigerator. It should keep for about a month or so if stored properly this way.
Additionally, you can freeze homemade onion oil to use for later. When we have extra that we know we won't use in time, I like to freeze it.
I suggest using an ice cube tray and freezing oil in the tray so you have plenty of small cubes of onion oil to use for different things.
Frozen onion oil cubs should be transferred to a freezer safe container or a freezer safe bag and then placed in the freezer for up to 3 to 6 months.
Remove the oil cubs and thaw them out in the fridge overnight before using.
Alternatively, you can freeze this oil in a glass jar in the freezer. Be sure to leave enough headroom for expansion as it freezes and thaws.
Tips and Variations
- The oil is great, and the benefits of onion oil are just incredible, but the crispy bits of onion you get after making it is another fantastic part of the process. We like to save them and use them in other ingredients, or just munch on them throughout the day.
- I prefer to use a wok to make this, but you can use a skillet.
- For best results, when picking what to store your homemade oil in, I suggest storing it in glass bottles.
- We used yellow onions for this recipe, but you can use red onions to make red onion oil if you don't have yellow onions.
- You can combine onion oil with coconut oil as well.
- You can use onion oil in place of other oils in cooking recipes.
- Onion oil will have a pungent smell, but you'll get used to it overtime.
What recipes can you use onion oil on?
I think flavored oils are underused, especially for a home cook. Take the time to make it and fall in love with the flavor you get. It's great for flavoring scrambled eggs, cooked meats, salad dressings, and drizzled on top of ramen.
We also like to drizzle some onion oil on these recipes:
What else can onion oil be used for?
Onion oil and onion juice is great for hair health. There are many onion oil benefits. Onion oil is rich in many vitamins and minerals like sulfur and potassium.
You can apply onion oil to your hair just as you would any other of your essential oils. It is helpful to your hair by helping strengthen the split ends of your hair, and in return helping to prevent breakage.
Onion oil is also helpful in maintaining the proper pH of your scalp and hair roots. This helps boost the growth of new hair follicles, in return also helping boost hair growth overall.
If you have thinning of hair, have hair breakage or are just looking for better results for more healthy hair growth, you're going to want to add some onion oil to your hair and scalp. This can provide extra sulfur that can also promote collagen production. More collagen helps the body make more healthy skin cells and improve hair growth overall.
The sulfur from onions may also help promote the production of collagen. Collagen in turn helps the production of healthy skin cells and hair growth and can help boost hair regrowth.
Making homemade onion oil is just what you need to make if you have hair problems, it is like a natural conditioner and will give your hair a healthy shine! You may be able. toditch some of your other hair care products when you see all of the benefits of onion hair oil. However, if you have oily hair, you may not want to use this.
Can onion oil regrow hair?
It is believed to be that daily, consistent and proper use of homemade onion oil can be very beneficial for your hair. It is thought that if you massage oils in your scalp that it will promote hair regrowth and protect against hair thinning, as well as help provide a natural shine and smoothening effect.
The oils and onion juice provide essential nutrients to your skin and hair follicles.
Other oils that are good for growth of healthy hair and the promotion of stronger hair:
- Castor oil that is rich in Vitamin E
- Argan oil
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Tea tree oil
- Rosemary oil
- Almond oil
While these are great for hair health, we only suggest eating the olive, almond, and coconut oil.
So as you can see, there are so many benefits of using onion oil. Not just onion hair oil benefits, but delicious recipe that you can use it in.
PrintOnion Oil
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 3 Medium Yellow Onions
- 4 cups Oil- Peanut, Olive, or Avocado
Instructions
- Thinly Slice the onions.
- Add the oil and sliced onions to a large pot or Wok ( I like using my wok for this).
- Turn the burner to medium and allow the onions to cook at a simmer, stirring occasionally. Fry till golden and crispy- this will take about an hour.
- Strain out the onion pieces (you can keep them and use them as you wish). Allow oil to cool completely before transferring to bottles.
- I keep one bottle on the counter for everyday use (keeps for a week or two) and I put the other(s) in the fridge (they will keep for a month).
Notes
You can find glass oil bottles here.
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