Grilled onions for burgers like in-n-out

The legendary burger, the In-N-Out Double Double – Animal Style, with a homemade fry sauce, caramelized onions and mustard grilled patty.

When it comes to Copycat Recipes, capturing the flavors you love doesn’t get more authentic than this. If you can’t make it to your beloved regional fast food places, try making your favorites at home like Tommy’s Chili, Pioneer Fried Chicken, and of course Animal Style Fries to go with this amazing Double Double.

With a homemade fry sauce, caramelized onions and mustard grilled patty, the In-N-Out Double Double – Animal Style is the perfect GOOD fast food burger as decoded by Kenji from Serious Eats.

If you do live near an In-N-Out, you know they are all as sweet as the shakes they sell. The lines move quick, the food is fresh, and they give your little ones stickers and hats. So why  go through the effort of making this copycat recipe? It can be a really fun project to make a favorite restaurant meal at home. It’s almost like decoding a hidden secret and unlocking a magic code. Plus, we are obviously suckers for a good copycat recipe around here. Also,  Kenji from Serious Eats made it so you know it must be good! (like the Halal Chicken & Rice).

Kenji is a mad scientist genius and author of The Food Lab which is a best seller on Amazon. Have you ever checked out his recipes? He is amazing and if you try his recipes, you will not be let down. He is a total rockstar. Just like this recipe.

Kenji took a ton of time and effort in decoding the components of this In-N-Out Double Double – Animal Style and with only a couple of small swaps, this recipe follows it to the letter (ie, cooking the onions in butter instead of oil). If you take care to follow the instructions you will sit down to a meal that will make you feel like you brought In-N-Out Double Double into your kitchen. Don’t be discouraged by the steps involved. They are all easy. Lengthy, but easy. And really precise, just like Kenji.

Create a free account to Save Recipes

Email addressSign Up Now

How to Make In N Out Double Double Animal Style

1. Form meat into four 2 ounce patties, thin and slightly larger than the size of your bun. They are meant to be ¼ inch thick. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onions and ½ teaspoon kosher salt to skillet. Reduce heat to medium low, and cook, tossing and stirring occasionally until onions are well browned, about 15 minutes.
2. Once onions begin to sizzle heavily and appear dry, add 1 tablespoon water to skillet and stir. Continue cooking until water evaporates and onions start sizzling again. Repeat process, adding 1 tablespoon of water with each iteration until onions are meltingly soft and dark brown, about 3 times total. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside while leaving any residual butter in the pan.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To make the burger and animal fry topping: Add mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, sugar, and vinegar to a small bowl and stir to combine. Place closed buns in preheated oven for 2 minutes until slightly darker and just the slightest bit crispy. Using the butter left behind by the onions, press the buns into the pan and toast for a few seconds until crispy.
   
   At some point, I’ll get around to writing a longer treatise on the wonders –  consisting, in roughly equal proportion, of cardiac perfidy and gustatory revelation – of In-N-Out’s “Animal Style” offerings. But not today. Today – and, if you saw my recent column on Savory Onion Jam, I guess you’d say all week – I have eyes only for condiments, and few condiments inspire like In-N-Out’s insanely caramelized onions.
   But to relegate Animal status to that of the generically caramelized onion would be to call a dinosaur a lizard or your spouse a good friend, because Animal Style onions are to your garden-variety caramelized onion what the Autobahn is to a carpool lane: Made from the same stuff, designed for the same purpose, but pushed to the very logical extreme of its functional existence. Animal Style onions aren’t just caramelized, they’re stewed into oblivion, until they are no longer even recognizable as onions per se, but rather as some freakish fantasy version of French onion soup that could suspend a spoon vertically by virtue of its sheer density. (Mandatory hat-tip to Kenji over at The Burger Lab, who first got me thinking about blurring the line between onions and soup in this post.)
   I actually have no insight, literally none whatsoever, into how In-N-Out makes theirs, and to be perfectly
   
   honest, I’m not sure I should care; what matters is that I’ve constructed an exceptional reproduction – dare I say, a better version than the mold form whence it was borne – in my own kitchen, and out of really good, local ingredients. The stuff would probably keep for months in the fridge, but I go through it far too quickly for that: Slathered on cheeseburgers (see picture inset), as a condiment for a juicy steak, in omelets… Really, this stuff just rocks, and I’d put it virtually anywhere that a sweet, onion-y flavor is welcome without thinking too hard about it.
   Caramelized Onion Jam, “Animal Style”
   1. Finely chop 2-3lbs of sweet onions (I’ve been using local Cipollini’s since late summer from Love Farms, Bernier Farms, and Foggy River Farms, and they are exceptional, but they seem to be out of season now; a decent Walla Walla, Maui, or Vidalia will work just fine, and – given the abuse they’re going to get – the generic yellow supermarket “Spanish” onion would probably be almost indistinguishable.)
   2. Slowly caramelize the onions in peanut or canola oil in a large pan over medium-low heat, along with a healthy sprinkling of sugar and salt. As they start to dry out, deglaze with a half cup or so of good-quality balsamic vinegar, and let them cook all the way out again. Go on like this for up to an hour, until the onions start to darken and are very fragrant and soft all the way through.
   3. Cover the onions in stock (I used chicken, but you could make it even richer with dark beef or veal stock; or you could use veggie stock and have an acceptable and vegetarian-friendly version – why you’d do such a thing, well, that’s for you to decide) and slowly braise them for another 1-2 hours, until all the liquid has been cooked away and you’re left with a very thick stew.

   Subscribe to Our Newsletters!

   Sign Up

   • Cork + Fork Be the first to know where to eat and drink!
   • Sonoma At Home Get a peek inside stunning Sonoma homes plus interior design inspiration
   • Destination Sonoma Places to go when you are in Sonoma
   • Play Petaluma Weekly entertainment news and events
   • This Week in Sonoma Weekly updates on what to see, eat, drink and do in Sonoma County

   What kind of onions does In

   In-n-out's Response Amanda from In-n-out's customer service team got back to me and said they use Yellow Spanish Sweet Onions.

   How does In

   Slowly caramelize the onions in peanut or canola oil in a large pan over medium-low heat, along with a healthy sprinkling of sugar and salt. As they start to dry out, deglaze with a half cup or so of good-quality balsamic vinegar, and let them cook all the way out again.

   Does In

   In-N-Out Grilled Onions (Whole) The burgers come normally with a whole slice of raw onion. And most people know that you can get your onions grilled, and they come grilled to perfection and chopped up into little bits. But did you know that you can get a whole slice of grilled onion on your In-N-Out burger?

   What are the best grilling onions?

   When it comes to grilling, red onions are our first choice. Cut into wedges, they char nicely on the grill, and their interior texture goes jammy, instead of mushy, like white and yellow onions tend to do.