This version has a very simple, very light tempura style batter. It's about the simplest batter possible, and I can guarantee that if you cook at all, you've already got everything you need in the cupboard.
UPDATE: I've also done beer batter onion rings. That one's a slightly tastier version, but a bit harder to do.
Ingredients
1 large onion per 2 servings
1 cup flour
1 large egg
1 cup ice water
salt
pepper
Directions
While preparing the onions and batter, set your cooking fat on medium heat to warm up. I prefer beef tallow, but would use lard or olive pomace oil in a pinch. Vegetable oil -- corn, soybean, etc. -- has too low a smokepoint and turns rancid too easily. Plus it's not reusable.
While that's heating up, peel the onion (or onions) and slice into wide rings.
The best onions to use are very large diameter and wider than they are tall. This gives you more large rings than small ones.
When you get to the end with the root, stick a paring knife in at an angle toward the center ...
... and spin it around until you get the whole root out.
Pop out the center pieces of each slice that are either not round, or too small to make good onion rings.
Some onions hold on really strong between the layers. If you have one of these, you need to break the layers loose before trying to separate the rings or they'll all break. Place the ring between your palms, squeeze in enough to make it a little bit oval, and roll it back and forth a few times.
Once it's loosened up, pop the rings apart, starting from the inside.
Once it's all separated, one onion makes a surprisingly large pile of rings. I completely underestimated the size of the bowl I'd need to hold it all.
Now mix up the batter -- that's the flour, egg and water -- according to the directions in the flounder tempura posting, and salt and pepper. Set your onions and batter up next to the hot fat.
Using metal or high-temperature plastic tongs, dip the rings one at a time into the batter. Make sure each ring is covered all the way around. This batter is very thin, so let the batter drip off for a second before putting it in the fat. 
Don't crowd the pan. Work in batches or they'll all stick together.
TIP: Use two sets of tongs for this, one to dip the rings and put them in the fat, and the other to turn them over and take them out. You'll keep the batter cleaner and you won't get raw batter back onto cooked rings.
Flip the rings over once when they start to show a golden color just above the level of the fat. The second side will be done a little quicker. Don't set a timer and walk away, this is not an exact process. You need to check frequently so you don't burn them.
Serve with the spicy dipping sauce and the buttermilk ranch dressing.
And that's it.
40 comments:
Hi Drew,
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Sending kind regards,
Tracey Smith
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I love onion rings! Thanks for the great guide.
YUM! Your onion rings look delicious!
Thanks!
Pat
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I love onion rings! Will have to give this a try sometime. But I have to control how many I eat. We did onion rings a few months ago, and I think I ate about a whole onion's worth. My nursing baby hated me for days!
Those look scrumptious and they even look "Light" on the picture -great job, thanks! Onion rings bring me back...ate them ALL the time at a Big Boy restaurant when I was a teen.
Stephanie: I showed amazing self control. I only ate half and put the rest in the fridge for the next day.
Then I had them while I was watching TV that night. :-/
jj: You're right about them being relatively light. There's a much higher onion-to-batter ratio, which is why I go with sweet onions. You're definitely tasting the onion, not the batter.
You have a beautiful site and these onion rings look wonderful. Thanks for all the fine photos and easy directions.
Thanks also for leaving a comment on my site with your URL so I could find your blog.
The batter will stick a lot better if you first dust the onions in flour first.
RatFink, I'll have to give that a try next time. Should be easy to just toss a handful of flour into the bowl and toss before I start dipping them.
Thank you so much. I really needed a good recipe and instructions for onion rings. I LOVE onion rings, but they are rarely available on restaurant menus when I go out.
Foodaholic, you returned the favor with that lotus blossom cookie recipe. I'll have to look for one of those molds next time I'm able to get downtown.
If you put a light coating of flour on your onions before you batter them it helps the batter stick to them better.
I used to be in the onion ring industry.
There's an onion ring industry? Wow, I never would have thought of that. I'll bet they have a great annual convention.
Finally, I can make my own onion rings. When I was living in South America, there's was a point when I craved them so bad I almost flew back to the states. Fortunately the TGIF's killed the graving for the short term. Now I can just make'em me'self! Thanks!
Andrew, that totally surprises me. There's something that they don't fry in South America? Amazing.
PHOTOSHOPPED ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Ummm ... what's photoshopped?
Would Canola Oil be alright for the Onion Rings? And Do you know of a way to make the batter a little bit thicker? The best onion rings I've had are almost equal in taste of the batter and onions, the onions being slightly more stronger flavoured.
Love the recipe.
Twilight
Twilight, a couple people suggested coating the onions with flour before dipping in the batter. That would cause more batter to stick. I'm experimenting with other batters, but haven't found a thicker one that I like yet.
As for canola oil, it has nearly as high a smoke point as beef tallow, but make sure you're not using hydrogenated. See here for much more than you ever wanted to know about cooking with oils and fats.
Thanks for the info Drew, its very much appreciated.
Good luck with the experimenting, hope you post the batter you like.
Twilight
awesome recipe, just found it through StumbleUpon, subscribed to your rss, keep the recpipes coming!
Love it. I can never get them looking this good, but these look good enough to eat :)
Peanut and saffron oil have a very high smoke point; I'm sure they would be acceptable to use as well.
And the key to un-greasy food from deep fat frying is to use lots of oil and high heat; the less heat the food takes away from the hot oil, the faster it will cook and the less greasy your food will be. To keep the heat of your oil constant through cooking, use as much as you reasonably can.
Doh. I meant safflower oil, not saffron. If such a thing could ever exist, it would probably be way to expensive to even look at.
Thanks for the tip about using plenty of oil, that's absolutely right. And yes, saffron oil would be ridiculously expensive. Of course now I'm really curious to see if it could be made.
Pretty awesome recipe, thanks Drew! Is there a way these could be baked instead of fried just to be a little healthier? I ask before trying it because I've tried some bad ideas in the past; eggplant does NOT make good french fries...
Thanks!
I can't WAIT to make these for my boyfriend and myself! I love onions, but onion rings are the only way he'll eat them. These look fantastic.
Etna, I don't know that baking would work with this recipe. The batter is really thin, and I suspect it would all run off before it cooked. Several people suggested dredging the onions in flower before dipping in the batter, and that might help.
I'm working on a recipe for a thicker batter. Next time I try it I'll bake a few, see how it comes out.
Twopeas, let me know how it comes out.
These onion rings look so delicious! Thanks for the instructions, I'll be sure to try it sometime soon.
Stumbled Upon you and so glad I did--- YUM!!!!
I've never been much for cooking fried foods because they always seemed so... complicated. (Although I've loved eating them.) I need to find a good source of lard, as all I can find is hydrogenated.
Cheers,
KristenM
Kristin, around here I've had better luck finding beef tallow than lard. It's better for frying, so that's been good for the onion rings. If I ever find good lard I'm going to save it for pie crusts and a couple of bread recipes I want to try.
I just made these for lunch, they are brilliant! I've never successfully done it before in spite of trying but they were so delicious and crispy. Thanks!
p.s. worked fine with sunflower oil. I just turned the hob up and down throughout so it didnt overheat
Lulu, that's great! I'll trade ten comments saying something looked good for one saying they actually made it. Even if it doesn't come out right on the first try. But yours did, so ... bonus.
PS: When did the stovetop become a "hob"? I saw that on all the appliance sites when I went researching something last week, but I'd never heard it before that.
what do u use the ice water for?
Thanks for the recipe, we are living in a 3rd world country as missionaries and miss food from home! Passing by a little stand of onions I replied to my husband, "we could try making onion rings!" we had no recipe, but found yours and its great!!
Anon, maybe you can start a new trend. Introduce the locals to onion rings and within a year you'll be able to find them at roadside food stands.
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