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Step 1
Wash your hands and cutting board thoroughly to get rid of unwanted germs. Place the onion on the cutting board and hold securely in place with your less dominant (non-writing) hand; keeping your fingers off to one side of the onion.
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Step 2
Grasp a sharp chef's knife firmly and slice the edge off the onion, on the opposite side as your hand. Take care to avoid your fingers.
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Step 3
Put down the knife, and hold the onion cut side up in your secondary hand. Use the thumbnail of your primary hand to pull a flap of the brown, fragile skin away from the onion. Grab this skin and pull away. Pull the skin off in sheets, and discard in the trash. (Note: You can use the knife instead to pull away onion layers, but the thumbnail method is a safer, more efficient option).
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Step 4
Proceed peeling away onion layers. As you proceed to the center of the onion, they will go from dark, papery sheaves to lighter colored, more flexible pieces. Continue in this fashion until you reach a somewhat sticky film on the light colored onion. This is the last layer that you need to remove. You can rub at the edges or get under this layer with the edge of your knife in order to get a hand hold. Peel this final layer away from the onion and your onion is ready for use.
