Intro
… and a killer pickled garlic scape tartar sauce – if I do say so myself.
I’m not one to shy away from fried foods. What I do tend to avoid are large stinky messes.
Fried foods are notorious for producing an enormous mess. The bubbly caldron of hot oil leaves a lingering smell which takes months and multiple bottles of Febreze to remove. Not to mention the layer of grease that coats every counter, cabinet and counter-dwelling kitchen machinery. Those who know me well know that cleanliness is not something I excel in so again – if I can I will avoid the opportunity to spend hours on my knees scrubbing and poslishing feeling as if I am Cinderella being tortured by my evil step-mother and sisters.
But when I became the proud owner of three Walla Walla onions so fresh the dirt was still attached – my first thought was onion rings.
In order to avoid the mess I set out to make oven-fried onion rings. Just so you know this wasn’t a health choice for me. It was all in the name of ease and less mess. And I must say I succeeded beyond my expetations because not only were these simple, quick and clean to throw together but they came out as crispy and flavorful as their deep-fried brothers.
If you, like me, love the grease but hate the mess then let us celebrate in the name of laziness for a recipe that takes more time to clean the grease off our fingers than off our counters.
Oven-Fried Onion Rings
2 medium onions (sweet or yellow) cut into 1/2 – inch rings
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
1 egg
1/4 cup + 1 tbl. flour
1 1/2 cups finely crushed potato chips (I highly recommend Kettle chips if you can find them)
3 tbl. vegetable oil
Pre-heat your oven to 450*
Combine 1/4 cup flour, salt, pepper and cayenne in a bowl large enough to dip the onions into.
In another similar size bowl combine the buttermilk, egg and 1/4 cup + 1 tbl. flour. Whisk until a smooth batter is formed. This should be the consistency of a slightly loose pancake batter. If it’s too runny add 1 tbl. more flour.
Have all your ingredients nearby to minimize the mess. First your seasoned flour, then the batter and finally a bowl containing your finely crushed chips.
Dip an onion ring into the seasoned flour. This will help the batter to adhere which helps the chips to adhere. They all work together – deliciously.
After the seasoned flour, dip the onion into the buttermilk batter. Let the excess batter dribble off before you coat the wet ring with the crushed chips. You will need to use your hands a bit to make sure the chips adhere.
Repeat this process with all the onion rings.
Cover a baking sheet with a piece of parchment. Drizzle with 3 tbl. vegetable oil then pop it into the hot oven for 8 minutes – or until the oil just starts to smoke. Carefully remove the baking sheet from the oven and rotate to evenly coat with oil.
Quickly place your onion rings on the baking sheet then return to the oven. Bake for 8 minutes then flip each ring over before baking for another 8 minutes. Sprinkle with salt while they’re still hot.
Serve with …
Remember those pickled scapes – and you thought to yourself – what would I ever do with pickled garlic scapes?! Now you know.
Pickled Garlic Scape Tartar Sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tbl. pickled garlic scapes, finely chopped (or any other pickled item you have on hand)
1/2 tsp. basil, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. fennel leaves, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. pickle juice – whatever pickle you use – add a tiny splash of it’s pickling juice
Combine all the ingredients. Taste and season with salt and pepper if it needs it. If you want a touch of heat this can handle the addition of a little, finely minced raw garlic.
*note* If you have problems getting the chips to stay on – and as you can see in some of my photos I did, but they still were delicious – you can add in some crushed Saltine crackers. This helps with the adhesion. You can add as much as half the quantity of chips. So it would be 50% potato chips and 50% Saltine crackers. I do however prefer the taste of using all potato chips.
I cannot get over how, well, beautiful these are. Seriously, cast them in gold and I’d wear them as bracelets.
I adore onion rings, and it is so hard to get a decent one sometimes. Now all I need to do is pickle me some scapes.
Potato chips! The secret weapon necessary to turn an oven-baked-that-is-normally-fried treat into the you’ll-never-guess-this-wasn’t-fried category. Brilliant.
I love Kettle chips, too. Even the “baked” ones.
You have to be kidding me! These are the most incredible looking onion rings I have ever seen.
Oh my dear goodness….I am hungry for these right now…right – now!
Love onion rings but hate the greasy mess also. Now, for the garlic scapes, unless I move to your area or come visit, there is next to zero chance to find them in my area. Shame…Sigh…I’ll just keep on looking at yours!!
Tartelette – PLEASE come visit!
I’ll have to try these onion rings. They look super delicious and I like to keep the kitchen clean while doing anything, so they will definitely make that trip into the oven!
Thanks for the great recipe! 😀
Oh, before I forget, I made your chicken salad recipe (the one you shared on Twitter with me) and it was awesome! So, now I have two chicken salad recipes that I’ll only eat. 😀
Love the idea of baking the onion rings rather than frying them and these look delicious! I have bookmarked the page so I can make them soon!
Oh wow! These are fantastic! I am so with you on the mess of frying…the main reason I hardly ever do it (not for health reasons either, hehe). I am saving this recipe right now! Now if only I can find garlic scapes…
Found your blog through Tartlette and I’m so glad I did 🙂 Beautiful photos, wonderful food…I’ll be back!
I really shouldn’t have read this article before lunch! sigh…
I’ve never tried oven-baked onion rings…but yours look fantastic!!! I’ve got to get my hands on some that pickled garlic scape tartar sauce, sounds delicious!
These look super yummy!
Who doesn’t love the evil beauty of using deep fried salty ingredients in their deep fried salty foods? BTW, do you hire yourself out a pro photographer?
Selmelier – I know I love my food double fried! And I am for hire. 🙂
…These look absolutely incredible and I am so on board with the “less mess is more” theory! Thank you for the recipe and I will def’ be trying these! :o)
…Blessings…
Gracious me these look lip-smackingly tasty! And not greasy! I have always loved the idea of onion rings but then everytime I’ve had one it’s been too greasy and sickly sweet. Looking forward to trying to make these. kettle chips idea is genius! thanks 🙂
Oh my what a fabulous creation!!! First I love that they are baked ,but the potato chip crust…yummy!!!
Your site is absolutely one of the very best food blogs I’ve come across. Your photography is superb! What camera / lens do you use?
anything to avoid cleanup, these sound so fabulous. Your pictures turn onion rings into precious lil gems!
Oh…my…GOD these look soooo amazing! Wow! (insert drool here)
I’m totally sold on these and will make them as soon as possible! Wow, so amazing and even kind of healthy. Thank you thank you.
I’ve been very happy with my baked onion rings, but these look and sound better. I’ve used standard 3 part breading with the exterior being panko with a little oo drizzled in. I like the batter and coating concept, and of course the potato chips have some fat which helps. I think I might try mixing chips and panko for the crust. If you’ve tried this yourself, how did it come out?
Hallelujah! I just can’t bear to fry – for mess, stink, and fattening reasons. But I love onion rings. I’m glad to know that these turned out so well and I will definitely make them next chance I get.
I’m a new reader after meeting you at Andaluca–I can tell from this recipe that I’m going to like it here! All you need now is a 10-inch tall wooden (Onion) Ring Toss looking things at TGIF’s (or wherever I saw that in college)!
Yummy!!! I just pulled up 3 walla wallas from the garden and am making these delicacies ASAP!!!
Mmm sweet, crispy walla walla onion rings. Back in my home town there is a fast food restaurant that gets them at this time every year and I just love them. Since I moved away I haven’t had the opportunity to get them that often, but your post inspired me to make them on my own. I also love the idea of the garlic scape tarter. YUM!
These look so good. I have never tried using potato chips. Sounds like a brilliant idea for extra crispy rings. Happy to have stopped by. 🙂
I am a new reader (found you thanks to Chef Gwen’s twitter about your onion rings) and a) I’m sold on these recipes–they sound divine and b) your blog is just beautiful. Can’t wait to poke around and see what else there is to find!
Oh these sound so great! I’ve been wanting to do homemade onion rings for quite awhile now. The dipping sauce sounds fabulous.
These look beautiful, easy to make and much healthier than anything deep fried. I have a suggestion, however. Please include a ‘print this recipe’ link with your recipes. When there is no such link I have to copy, paste, copy, paste, and do a judicious amount of cutting. While these onion rings are truly gorgeous, I’d rather not print up 3 entire pages just to have the recipe in front of me.
Of course, there may be a ‘print this’ on the page and I can’t see it. If there is, well then, never mind … (but where is it?)
I tried these today. They turned out good, but I had trouble trying to get the potato chips to stick. I ended up adding some seasoned bread crumbs to the potato chip mixture and this helped to fully coat the onions. They tasted crispy and yummy.
Sherry – Thanks for your report on how they turned out. I’m glad you liked them. As you can see in some of my photos the chips didn’t stick everywhere on mine either. You are so smart to add seasoned bread crumbs! The other thing that I read is adding crushed Saltene crackers to the mix.
These look amazing! Your photography is gorgeous!
These look delicious, gr8 pics too.
So my housemate and I made these. It was quite easy though need a bit mroe practice. It’s really nice the way the onion rings look like gold rings when they’re baked. The only fiddly bit was coating the onion rings in kettle chips. I would definitely recommend using two bowls of broken down crisps-one where the batter is going to inevitably combine with the crisps to give a sticky mess and the second to actually get crips on the onions lol Very tasy though! Thanks again for the recipe!!!
Looks delicisious. I have got to try this. I don’t deep fat fry any more. So this looks easier and cleaner. Thx
I am making these now. I ended up using a plate for the chips and that worked better for me. My batter was so thick I added a some milk to think it out and that helped. As you mention in the recipe it is important to get the excess batter drip off, otherwise the chips get soggy and won’t stick. I had to use way more chips than called for due to that problem. Thinning the batter helped. They will done done in 3 minutes!
OMG love it! I came back just so I can list down the ingredients for my grocery tip tomorrow.
These look incredible! Okay…I better get off of your blog now. It’s just too enticing!
Look awesome, got to make them soon. Just one thing: I think you left out the unit of measurement for the mayo in the tartar sauce recipe. It says 1/4 mayonnaise.
oooh la la. i’ve landed in heaven.
Thank you all for such lovely comments. They make my days so much brighter! Really. Thank you.
I tried these onion rings because the pictures looked so good, but they did not work. The potato chips did not stay on the onions-not even a little bit. I added some breadcrumbs after the suggestion was made on this post but the result was not very tasty. They ended up dry and mealy. Any other ideas? I’d really like to make these work because like you, I can’t stand the stinky mess of frying foods. Thanks!
Hi! I made these onion rings last August and they were very delicious! I had to pile the rings high on a cookie sheet to feed my eight member family. Everyone loved them but I did find it to be difficult to coat the onion ring with the potato chips after the first 6 or so. The potato chips began to get very heavy and gloppy from the batter so they didn’t adhere. I had to use bread crumbs to finish up the rest. I think next time I do this I will lay out a layer of potato chips on a cookie sheet and lay down a layer of battered onion rings, then coat. I was originally dropping the onion rings into a bowl with chips one at a time. If I do it all at once I think gloppy chips will be avoided. Thanks very much for the recipe! I love the fact that these can be baked, so much easier and cleaner than frying them in oil!
Oh wow, these look perfect.
I too avoid deep-frying because of the mess and not because of the health concerns. These look delicious and simple. I will make these next time I do burgers!
*bookmarked*
Those look too good to eat. I would have to pet them first.
I was so excited to try these yet so disapointed with the outcome. Just like the previous comments, the potato chips clinged to two of the onion rings and that was it. You have such a beautiful blog and wonderful recipes. I’m sad this one didn’t work for me.
Meredith – I’m so sorry it didn’t work. I understand that frustration and hate to think I was the cause of it. I know there were others who had issues so I am going to retest the recipe and update it. I hope you got my email. Sorry again to you and to others who have struggled with this.
Hey all! I updated the recipe and added a few more helpful notes. I re-tested the recipe and they turned out beautifully. I think the trick is to really finely smash the chips and chips/cracker crumbs and also to have a nice thick batter so the crumbs really have something to cling to. So sorry for those of you who have issues with this one. I hope you try it again and get to experience how delicious these can be.
This time we ate ours with a dip of mayonnaise, relish, and ketchup. Yum.
Looks totally perfect !!
Any ideas what can I replace the milk with ? I gotta make it non-dairy due to my kid’s allergy ….
we grew up on ‘potato chip chicken’…chicken legs prepared exactly as the onion rings. thanks for the crossover.
Both these onion rings AND the tartar sauce sound incredible!!! I don’t usually mind the mess of frying things too much, but oven-fried does sound substantially easier. And an easier (and healthier) road to an onion ring is always a good thing. 🙂
All I can say is yum.
Made these today and they were great. Better than fishcamp onion rings or steak house onion flowers 🙂
Hi,
I made these tonight. Same issue after the first couple with the chips not sticking. My solution was to have the food processor out and when the chips got gloppy, I threw them into the food processor with fresh chips and a little flour and pulsed them until fine again. Did that a couple of times through making. Another trick to this was to throw in a bit of baking powder into the batter so that it gets thick and puffs a little. It makes the batter sticky but not heavy. (I did double dip some of the onion rings: flour, batter, chips, batter, chips. OMG. They came out redonkulously yummy.
These look delicious and your photos are beautiful too! I’m so glad I stumbled upon you! 🙂
I quite like looking through an article that will make men and women
think. Also, many thanks for permitting me to comment!
im from walla walla. glad you got to experience the amazing walla walla sweets. so good you can eat then plain
Wow, Wow, wow! These look amazing. I want to make them as soon as I get a chance!! Thanks for the recipe.
Brian @ Denver Mortgage Company
These went perfect with the steak I did today – plus I don’t have to stink out the whole downstairs with the deep fryer so even better! Thanks!
Drool………..I made them for supper and ate them all myself. oh yeah.
I am wondering if there is a way to minimize getting the crumbs too wet so that they don’t stick to the rings anymore. I had a considerable amount of wasted crumbs. Yes, I shook off the excess batter. Well worth the cost though!
Wow…They are looks so amazing! These look delicious and your photos are beautiful too! I’m so glad u. Thanks for sharing us.