Baked Onion Rings

I have nothing against food that are fried in a vat of hot oil, I’m just against the vat of hot oil. If anyone were to accidentally burn any part of themself with that boiling inferno, it would be me because I am that clumsy. One time, I was doling out bowls of steaming hot soup so I had the ladle in my right hand and a bowl in my left. I got distracted mid-pour for like, 3 seconds and ended up with a scalded left hand. So yeah, grace is not my middle name. When I saw this recipe a while back, I immediately bookmarked it because hells yeah oven baked stuff! Plus, it’s from Martha freaking Stewart and her word is truth.

Not a fan of deep/shallow/any other form of frying? Try these baked onion rings!

 

Before I continue, I would like to present you with the onion I used for this recipe. I believe that this onion’s great-great-great-grandfather might have inspired The Giant Turnip (which was a book my mom used to read to me many, many times when I was a wee lass!).

 

 

Baked Onion Rings *from MarthaStewart.com*
1½ cups cornflakes
½ cup plain dried breadcrumbs (I used panko)
1 large egg
½ cup low-fat buttermilk (I made my own)
¼ cup AP flour
⅛ tsp cayenne pepper (I used paprika, and definitely more than ⅛ tsp!)
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 medium sweet onion, like Vidalia, quartered crosswise & broken into rings (discard small center rings)
2 tbsp olive oil (I used canola oil)

 

 

- Preheat oven to 450°f/230°c. In a food processor or blender, pulse cornflakes and breadcrumbs until fine crumbs form, then transfer to a medium bowl. In another medium bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, flour, and cayenne and season with salt and pepper.
- Dip onion rings in egg mixture (letting excess drip off) and dredge in cornflake mixture; place on a large plate. Pour oil onto a rimmed baking sheet. Place in oven and heat 2 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and tilt to coat evenly with oil. Arrange onion rings on sheet. Bake, turning once, until onion rings are golden brown, about 16 minutes. Season with salt.

 

Guys, I’ve finally found the perfect “accessory” to my high-speed hamburger.

I was pleasantly surprised at how crispy these were, I had no idea that this level of crunch could be achieved with cooking onion rings in the oven! Because of how little oil was used, they don’t taste as heavy as a regular fried onion ring. My only gripe had nothing to do with the recipe itself, just that I would definitely cut the rings thicker than I did.

 

After preparing the batter and crumb coating, it did seem like there wouldn’t be enough for the rings but there’s actually more than enough to go around, even with my voluptuous onion. I only baked ⅓ of the onion rings because well, that was all that could fit on my baking sheet. The rest are currently sitting pretty in my freezer in a neat little ziploc bag.

Their fate willmight change in the next hour.