Deep Fried Onion Rings – the Diet Can Wait

There’s nothing like a clothing shopping trip to make you realize that those 5 pounds you want to drop, NEEDS to be dropped.  That’s what happened yesterday.  My oldest and I spent the day shopping and this big hinder of mine that follows me around, kept reminding me that I need to drop 5 pounds to fit into the clothes or 10 pounds for them to fit nicely.

UGH!

So what kind of a recipe am I sharing with you today?  No – no health food.  Although onions are a vegetable and vegetables are good for you.  But probably not the best if prepared like this.

Good ole’ deep fried onion rings. 

We had a plethora of onions planted in our garden last summer and they are the perfect size to make onion rings with.  My family barely lets me get them out of the fryer and cooled a bit before they are devouring them. 

First thing you need to do is heat up some oil in a fryer or pan to 375 degrees.  I like using a fryer best because a pan is harder to control the temperature on.  (In my opinion.)   I use vegetable oil but peanut oil can be used as well and won’t “smoke” as much as the vegetable oil.

I start with the McCormick Beer Batter Mix and add some beer of choice to it.  We had Bud Light in the house but you can use any type of beer or you can use water as well if you prefer a non-alcoholic batter.  Mix up the batter until it’s about the consistency of pancake batter.  You will probably have some beer left, so enjoy it!

Cut your onions into about ½” strips.  Two large onions will use up the batter of one box of mix.

Place the onion strips one at a time into the batter and cover completely.  Let the excess batter drip off, then place into the hot oil.  Repeat this process until your fryer is full.  Let the onions fry for about 3 minutes on one side then flip.  Depending on the temperature of your oil, it will take 5 – 8 minutes to do one batch of rings.

When they are done, take the onion rings out of the oil and place on a paper towel to catch any excess oil.  If you want to make a bunch up before some little (or big) fingers start grabbing them, place the onion rings in a warm oven until ready to serve. 

These are not hard to make but they do take time so it’s not the quickest “fast food’ you’ll make. 

Enjoy, because the diet can start tomorrow!