Cooking For Engineers

[Guest]

These took a bit more work than I hoped but for not fried they are pretty darn good. Would have been better if I had remembered to add salt to the past mixture! I just added it later though. I had to make due without the chips as I don't keep them on hand. I crush up some home made classic chex mix though and it added a bit more crunch and flavor. I will definitely make these again and play with my seasonings.

Thanks!

[Faux-Fryer]

This recipe is phenomenal. I am a big fan of "oven-fried" foods, so I am forever trying out new recipes. I made a few modifications to this, but it turned out great -- in particular, I didn't have chips, so I just used some seasoned bread crumbs and cornmeal to make up the difference in the crumb coating. Also, I didn't have buttermilk, so I used skim milk with enough vinegar to sour it...a great substitute for buttermilk in any recipe. And finally, I used only nonstick spray, spritzed directly onto the pan, then on top of the rings, then on top of the rings again after I flipped them. One other trick: I employed my secret weapon, a nonstick silicone pan liner (the only brand name I've found is Silpat). Sadly, no leftovers! :o)

[CraigL]

We've used typical yellow onions or Spanish onions for most cooking, but recently changed over to red onions. They're much more flavorful, they're large and they provide a more robust onion flavor across the board. In onion rings of any kind, or even onion "petals," they hold together well and you can easily take two rings together and coat, then fry. Having switched, we don't expect ever to go back.

(a bit later...)

We finally tested these, and they're not as good as oil-fried. Several reasons: First, the oven temp and time are 16 minutes, which means the onion bakes inside the breading. As such, the onion gradually dissolves, leaving far too much breading-to-onion ratio.

Secondly, because of oven frying the steam from the onion escapes through the breading, taking with it the flavor of the onion. Additionally, the buttermilk has a fairly evident flavor, which interferes with the more delicate onion flavor.

A thinner batter would help, and we use one made with club soda, cornstarch and instant mashed potatoes. About 2 inches of oil in a pan heated over medium high flame on the stove gives a nice frying heat, close enough for rock-n-roll to 375-degrees (F).

Coat with flour, dredge in batter, coat with Panko or the above breading. When it hits the hot oil, the outer coating seals immediately, trapping steam and flavor. Cooking time is only around 3 minutes, therefore the onion is closer to raw and retains some crunch.

All in all, the breading in this recipe is terrific! But the final product was too "bready" and much too alike to supermarket frozen rings, which aren't very good in our estimation. Here's a link to the deep-fried recipe we're using:
Crispy Panko Onion Rings

[Joe]

Funny how this exact recipe was shown on Americas Test Kitchen.

[Michael Chu]

[leandrokoiti]

simply amazing! I see people comparing those to their fried counterpart, there's no comparison, these are baked, the other is fried so you just can't compare, they are two different things, if you don't want onions coated in oil this recipe will must be your way to go

[ceeli]

dayum... just cut your rings, drop them in buttermilk, then into a zip-lock filled with WHITE LILY PLAIN FLOUR, shake, then fry in hot peanut oil. these are like you plucked the wings off the onion ring fairy, tender and mouth watering. 'course, i pretty much fry everything like this. works great with zucchini, green tomatoes, eggplant, pork chops, chicken, whatever.

[Tom]

Methinks you missed the point of this recipe... it's supposed to be for people who want good onion rings WITHOUT frying. Obviously, anything deep fried will taste good, but what if you don't want to deal with all that frying oil?

[apgreff]

Wow, that have to be tasty ^^

[John]

How about ritz crackers and saltines ?

[Hello from the future]

This website literally has not been used since 2006 brrr