How To Slice An Onion Like A Pro

One of the most frequent things you're going to cut in the kitchen is an onion, so it's important to know the right way to slice one up. Fortunately, dicing an onion like a professional chef is fairly easy, and only gets easier with practice. Best of all? This method helps prevent you from crying while cutting up onions.

1. Slice the onion from stem to stem. Your knife should go right through the middle of the part with the roots.

2. Peel back the outer layer or two towards the root end, but leave them attached. It becomes a convenient handle later on in the process.

3. Make your first cut. Turn your knife sideways, and place it about 1/8th of an inch up from the bottom of the onion. (With practice, you can make these cuts even smaller). Then, slice horizontally towards the root end. Place your fingertips on the very top of the onion, so that if your knife slips, you won't cut yourself. Don't cut all the way to the end; leave about 1/4 of an inch.

Move the knife up 1/8 of an inch higher than the first cut, and slice horizontally again. Repeat this until you've reached the top of the onion.

4. Slice the onion vertically. Starting on one side of the onion, place the tip of the knife about 1/4 of an inch from the stem end (where you stopped slicing horizontally) and cut through to the bottom. Then, move the knife over about 1/8th of an inch, and repeat. Keep doing this until you've gone from one end of the onion to the other.

You're almost done! Just one more cut to go.

5. Turn the knife 90 degrees, and slice down through the top of the onion perpendicular to your last cuts. Start at the open end, and work your way back to the stem, making cuts every 1/8th of an inch.

When you're done, you should have a pile of 1/8-inch pieces of onions, with the leftover stem at the other. With practice, you can make your cuts even smaller.