Homemade Onion Rings (Extra Crispy)
Easy homemade onion rings recipe for the classic sports bar snack and side. The fried onion rings turn out delightfully crispy and seasoned. Our zesty onion ring sauce makes the perfect dip.
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Servings: 4
Equipment
- 1 tempura frying pot OR
- 1 Dutch oven or other deep and heavy bottomed pot
Ingredients
Onion Rings
- 2 large Vidalia sweet onions or similar*
- 4 tablespoon all-purpose or cake flour, to dust over raw onion rings
- 1 cup all-purpose or cake flour**
- ½ cup rice flour
- ½ tablespoon paprika, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
- 1 cup beer such as a golden lager*** or plain soda water must be very cold
- cooking oil for frying, as needed
Onion Ring Sauce
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon pickle juice, or to taste
Instructions
Homemade Onion Rings
- Peel the onions and leave them whole. Slice them in rounds, between ¼ and ½ inch thick, then separate the rings from each other. Place them in a bowl, dust them with the ¼ cup of AP or cake flour and toss to coat well.
- In another bowl mix together the 1 cup of AP or cake flour, the ½ cup of rice flour, the paprika, kosher salt and black pepper.
- Add enough cooking oil to your frying vessel of choice to create 3 inches of depth. Heat cooking oil to 350 °F (177 °C) to 375 °F (191 °C)
- When the oil reaches temperature, add the 1 cup of cold beer to the flour mixture and gently work it in, being careful not to overmix. Some flour lumps are OK.
- Dip each flour coated onion ring into the batter and gently drop it in the hot oil. Do not overcrowd the pot - 5-6 onions rings maxium.
- Fry to golden brown and flip each onion ring once for more even exposure to the oil. This takes about 2-3 minutes, depending on the size and the actual oil temperature.
- Gently lift the fried onion rings from the oil and allow them to drain from excess oil over a wire fitted baking sheet or paper towel lined plate. Serve hot.
Onion Ring Sauce for Dipping
- Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix them well. Taste and adjust any ingredient as you deem necessary.
Video
Notes
*Sweet onions work better because they are not very pungent. If you end up using yellow onions, soak the rings in ice water for about 10-15 minutes to tame the pungency, then thoroughly dry them before coating them wuth flour.
**Cake flour has less gluten forming proteins and works better. If you do not have it, all-purpose flour will still work in combination with rice flour. If you do not have rice flour, you can use 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour with ¼ cup of corn starch to obtain crispy results. The combination for extra crispy coating we recommend is ¾ cup to ¾ rice flour. Adding more rice flour than 1:1 results in diminishing returns.
***A German style lager with malty, bready, biscuity notes will work best. It is both highly effervescent and not as bitter (styles like helles, dunkel, bock or Czech pilsner). From the mass produced options Modelo or Dos Equis will work really well.
If you are making the dipping sauce, prepare it before you start making the onion rings so you can serve them right away.
Make sure the temperature of the oil stays above 350 °F.
