Onion rings

When we go out to dinner, or a fast food place, I never ordered the onion rings.  When my friends or family ordered the onion rings I had no desire to try one.  Sometimes they were just breading.  You'd bite into one, and this eel-like onion would slip out.  So gross.  Or, they were just a pile of oily breading, and weird looking onions.  I thought blooming onions would be better, but NOPE.  Ever notice that the center of a blooming onion isn't cooked??  Ew, who wants to eat a raw onion in some half-ass batter.  Not me.  But, when my mom is on a quest to find the perfect onion ring, she doesn't give up.  She has come up with the best onion ring recipe that puts all other onion ring recipes to shame.  These onion rings are tasty, light, salty, savory, and just delightful.  A word to the wise, they don't keep.  You cannot fry them ahead.  They are cook and serve side dish.  They are worth it.

*TIP FOR CHOPPING ONIONS.  They only works if you have a gas stove.  Light the burner closest to where you are going to cut the onions.  Do not put a pan on the burner, just let the flame go, and slice the onions.  Not sure why this works, maybe the flames make the onion juice evaporate.  But, I haven't had a problem slicing onions since I learned this trick.

Onion Rings

2-3 large brown onions, peeled and sliced into 1/4-1/2 inch thick rings. (*see tip above for slicing onions)
2 cups buttermilk
4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cups flour
vegetable oil for frying

Put buttermilk, 2 teaspoons of salt and pepper into a ziplock bag, whisk to combine.  Carefully separate sliced onions into rings and place all of the onion rings into ziplock bag with buttermilk.  Seal bag and shake to ensure all onion rings are covered in buttermilk.  Let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes, or up to 1 hour.

In another zip-lock bag add 2 cups flour and remaining 2 teaspoons of salt.  Whisk to combine and set aside.  Get a rimmed baking sheet, and place a wire rack on top of it.  This is going to be used to to hold the onion rings until they're ready to fry.  Drain onions from the buttermilk.  Add onion rings to flour mixture a handful at a time.  Shake bag to get onion rings coated with flour.  Place coated onion rings onto prepared baking sheet, and let sit for at least 15 minutes, or up to 1 hour.  

Put enough vegetable oil into a large 10-11 inch wide saucepan to measure approximately 2 inches in depth.  Heat oil to 350 degrees.  And, place a rimmed cookie tray into the oven, and preheat the oven to 200-250 degrees.  When the oil is hot, add a handful of prepared onion rings to the hot oil.  Do not overcrowd the pan, otherwise the onions will not cook evenly, and the oil temp will reduce too much, and your onions will turn into a soggy mess.  You can use a candy thermometer to test the oil temp, or you can test it the old fashioned way.  Set the burner onto medium high heat, let the oil heat for about 10 minutes.  Drop one onion ring into the hot oil.  If the oil starts to make gentle foamy bubbles around the onion ring, then the oil is ready.  If the oil makes no bubbles at all, then its not ready.  If the oil makes searing sounds, emits smoke, or if the onion turns immediately brown then it's too hot.  If the oil is too hot, carefully remove pan from heat for a minute, reduce the heat, and then reheat the oil and re-test.  Keeping the oil at the proper temperature can be tricky.  When you add onion rings, the oil temp will drop because the onions are cooler than the oil.  So make sure the oil is at the right temperature the whole time.  It's not the end of the world if the onion rings aren't perfect.  It's just something to keep in mind. Put the cooked onion rings onto baking sheet and keep warm in oven.

After all onion rings are cooked, remove from oven and sprinkle with salt.  Serve immediately!

Print this Article