Clever Kitchen Tip: How to Dice an Onion

When cooking, one of the most important things to remember to ensure even cooking is consistency.  You want all pieces, of whatever you're cooking, to cook evenly.  Being sure that all pieces of your food are the same size will help you achieve this.  Here are easy step-by-step instructions on how to dice or chop an onion in a way that will result in consistent sizing - and makes it really easy!  This method can be applied to all sorts of items you are chopping!

• Step 1:

Cut the ends off of your onion.

• Step 2:

Slice the onion in half, from end to end.  Peel the outer layer or two off of each half.

• Step 3:

Lay your onion, cut side down, on the cutting board and cut thin slices into your onion, stopping just short of the narrow end.  You want to cut as close to the end as possible while still keeping the end in tact.  You can vary the distance between your slices based on how large or small you want your onion pieces to be.  For a "dice", make them small; for a "chop", make them larger.

• Step 4: 

Going in a perpendicular direction to your first slices, now cut the remainder of your onion from side to side.  Stopping when you reach the end of your initial slices - you can either throw this last strip of onion away or cut it into smaller pieces.

• Step 5: 

Give your onion a final rough chop, being sure there are no large pieces sneaking through.  And you're done!

Chopping onions has never been so easy!