Crispy Baked Onion Rings

Healthy, crispy baked onion rings that are so addictively good and super easy to make!

With all of the experimenting that I have been doing with crispy baked vegetable fries lately, such as the eggplant parmesan fries and the portobello mushroom fries , I cannot believe that I did not think of using one of the most obvious vegetables, onions! I mean onion rings are so addictively good and they are the one upgrade that I pretty much always take if it is available when ordering out. My initial thought was to take the same recipe that I had been using for the other vegetables, where I dredge them in flour, dip them in egg and then coat them in panko bread crumbs, and although it worked and they tasted great, it was not all that easy to coat both the insides and outsides of the onion rings with just two eggs! 

I am all about easy recipes and the first recipe was just not easy enough so I put my thinking cap on and eventually I found myself thinking about fish and chips where the fish is dipped not in egg but in a batter and I had my solution! Using the batter it was super easy to coat the onions rings, the bread crumbs stayed on and the baked onions rings tasted fantastic! Now I can enjoy onion rings whenever I want at home!

I served the onion rings with both ketchup and chipotle mayonnaise for dipping.

Given that the batter is just a mixture of flour, a liquid and an egg, the next time I make these I am going to use beer for the liquid and they will be beer battered crispy baked onion rings!

Healthy, crispy baked onion rings that are so addictively good and super easy to make!

ingredients

2 large onions, sliced thickly

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup buttermilk, milk or beer

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon creole seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

directions

Place half of the flour in a wide shallow bowl, mix the remaining flour with the buttermilk and egg and place it in a wide, shallow bowl and mix the panko breadcrumbs, creole seasoning, salt and pepper and place them in a third wide, shallow bowl.

Dredge the onion slices in the flour, dip them in a mixture batter and dredge them in the breadcrumbs.

Place the onion slices on a wire rack on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated 425F/220C oven until golden brown, about 12-16 minutes.