Beer Battered Onion Rings
Making your own Beer Battered Onion Rings truly couldn't be easier. Here I'll show you some tips and tricks to getting teeth-shatteringly crispy Onion Rings!
Servings: 6
Cost: £1 / $1
Equipment
- Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
- 1 large Bowl (for batter)
- Whisk
- 2 Wire Racks
- 1 Large Pot/Deep Pan (for frying)
- Kitchen Tongs
- Paper Towels
Ingredients
- 1 Extra Large Onion (see notes)
- 1 cup / 240ml COLD Beer (see notes)
- 1 cup / 150g Plain Flour
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt, plus extra to serve
- 1/4 tsp White Pepper
- Oil, for deep frying (see notes)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, paprika, salt and white pepper.
- Cut the tip (not the root) off of the onion with a sharp knife. Peel off the brown skin, then carefully make 1/2" slices along the onion. Pop out the rings, discarding any extremely small ones or any that broke.
- Coat the onion slices in the flour a handful at a time, then place on a wire rack with paper towels underneath (to catch excess flour). At this point you can heat a couple of inches of oil in a suitably sized pot/pan to 190C/375F.
- Pour the cold beer into the leftover flour and gently whisk to combine. Don't beat the hell out of it, or you will burst all of the bubbles. Whisk until just combined. A few lumps in the mixture are fine. The consistency should be ever-so-slightly thicker than heavy/double cream. You can adjust slightly with beer/flour if needed.
- Grab a handful of the onion rings and submerge them into the batter. One by one, pluck 4-5 of them out and carefully add to the hot oil, separating any that instantly stick. Allow to fry for 2-3mins, flipping once, or until golden and visibly crisp. Remove and place on your first wire rack with paper towels underneath. Repeat with remaining onion rings. Try to work quickly (but also safely) so the batter stays as cold as possible.
- Sprinkle/ toss the onion rings with salt then serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
a) Type of Onion - If you live in the UK, get yourselves down to Morrisons and buy a 'Cannonball Onion'. These are huge and work perfectly work this recipe. Failing that, just get the largest, most spherical onion you can find. In all instances make sure it's a sweet/white onion.
b) Beer - It's imperative that the beer is unopened and straight from the fridge. This will ensure the batter is nice and airy. I often use Fosters or Heineken. For a beer substitute you could also use a neutral flavoured sparkling soda.
c) Oil - Use a neutral flavoured oil with a high smoking point such as vegetable or sunflower oil.
d) Tips for deep frying - I recommend testing with one onion ring first. If it cooks in under 1 minute, reduce the heat of the oil. The onion will still be hard. If it takes 4mins plus then crank up the heat. The batter will absorb too much oil and be soggy. In both instances don't overcrowd the pot/pan or they will stick and not cook properly.
e) Serving - I recommend serving after 2 batches. If you wait to get through the whole batch, the original ones are going to be cold and soggy. Have a helper running them from the kitchen! Also, a dip works great with these. Here I've used Sriracha Lime Mayo.
f) Calories - Assuming all of the batter is used (slight overestimate) and 1/2 tsp oil is absorbed per onion ring. Based on 30 rings shared between 6 people. Calories for 5 onion rings.
Nutrition
Calories: 264kcal | Carbohydrates: 27.68g | Protein: 3.66g | Fat: 13.87g | Saturated Fat: 1.443g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.046g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9.634g | Trans Fat: 3.647g | Sodium: 238mg | Potassium: 150mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2.91g | Vitamin A: 500IU | Vitamin C: 8.3mg | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 1.4mg