Vidalia onions are only available in Minnesota for a short period each spring. These onions are super sweet and just cry out to be made into onion rings. We don’t deep fry much but we make an exception each spring when we see the vidalias.
The recipe came from 30 Minutes a Day with Rachel Ray which she calls Spicy O Nuts. The onions are coated in a spicy beer batter made with a complete pancake mix. The breading puffs up a little bit and gets nice and golden and crunchy. We like to use either an amber ale or an Irish red for our beer –it gives a little more flavor than your typical American lager. And of course if vidalias aren’t in season, any large sweet onion will do.
Here’s what you need:
Start by mixing up the dry ingredients for your batter. Mix some cayenne, sweet paprika and chili powder into the pancake mix in a large bowl.
Now add the beer to the batter and whisk together. You want a pretty thick batter, but don’t be afraid to add another splash of beer (if you haven’t finished the bottle yourself) if it gets too thick.
Slice the onion into nice thick rings –about ¾ inches thick. Separate into individual rings.
Preheat your oil to about 350 degrees. I usually test the oil with one of my small rings – they should fall to the bottom and then float to the top almost immediately.
Dip the rings in the batter and shake off the excess. It will be thick enough to coat the rings like you see here.
Drop the ring in the oil – and notice how it will float up to the top? You can already see the batter starting to puff up.
The rings are going to fry for about 4 minutes. Flip them over about halfway through and they should be nice and golden. I’ve flipped all but a couple of the rings in the picture.
Drain the rings. If you don’t have a pot with a strainer – just use a slotted utensil to pull them out and allow as much excess oil to drip off as you can.
Place the rings on several layers of paper towel to drain while the next batch cooks.
Once the rings have drained, move them to a wire rack set on a baking sheet. Allow the onions to hang out in a warm oven until the rest of your dinner is ready. They’ll stay nice and crunchy this way. Because of the amount of work that goes into the onions we usually let them sit in the oven while we grill up our burgers or whatever else we’re serving with the rings. If you can time things right, great.
Serve up the rings and try to remember to share.
- Peanut oil for frying
- 1 large Vidalia (or other sweet) onion
- 2 c complete (just add water) pancake mix
- 1 t sweet paprika
- 1 t chili powder
- ½ t ground cayenne powder
- 1 c beer, we like an Amber Ale or Irish Red
- Heat the oil to 350 degrees. Heat oven to warm.
- Mix together the pancake mix and the spices. Whisk in the beer. The batter should be thick.
- Slice the onions into ¾ inch thick rings and separate the rings.
- Dip the rings in the batter and shake off the excess. Place into the oil. Work quickly and fill up the pan for each batch. Cook the rings for about 4 minutes, flipping once half way through so they can brown evenly on both sides.
- Remove the rings with a slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain. Transfer the rings to a wire rack on a cookie sheet and transfer to the onion to keep warm between batches.
[…] those tomorrow) and wanted something to add crunch. Since we were going to have oil going for my Spiced Onion Rings anyway, he thought we should dredge some jalapeno slices in flour and fry them. I kicked the […]