4 Levels of Onion Rings: Amateur to Food Scientist

[upbeat percussive music]

Hi, I'm Stephen and I'm a level one chef.

Hi, I'm Beth and I'm a level two chef.

Hi, I'm Frank, I'm a chef

from the Institute of Culinary Education

and I've been a chef for 24 years.

[upbeat percussive music]

What makes my onion rings special

is that they're extra crunchy

and this recipe has been passed down from generations

on the internet.

[laughing]

I think what makes the recipe special

is I soak it in buttermilk.

I like to believe that it makes the onion rings

more tender and then we put it into a nice tempura batter.

Look, I'm not gonna go crazy cheffy on it.

What I'm gonna do is try

and make a really good quality onion ring

that just happens to be gluten free as well.

[dramatic thumping music]

I think the name in itself tells you

where you need to start.

You need to start with first pickin' the right onion.

Definitely buy sweet onions.

I just chose a white onion.

It is just a regular yellow onion

that's been genetically modified

to weigh a hundred pounds.

First thing we have to do is peel the onion

and slice it into rings.

I like this onion because white onions

tend to be very uniform.

The layers are a little bit thinner on the inside

so you're not getting like a big honkin' chunk of onion,

you get a nice kinda thin layer.

You wanna have 'em--

Half-inch slices.

A quarter-inch apart.

You want them thick,

so this onion, probably in thirds.

I like to use a thick slice

because it gives more surface area for a batter to stick.

You leave the skin on, just so you can keep

the nature of the onion intact for as long as possible.

This allows the onion to kind of

come to terms with his fate.

So what I'm gonna do with these,

I'm gonna put 'em in a pan, right?

I have a little bit of vegetable oil.

I'm not just gonna have a raw onion flavor,

I'm gonna have an onion flavor with more depth to it, okay?

Season both sides.

And I'm not too worried about about

takin' them apart in rings just yet.

[grunting] It's very satisfying.

This is probably enough for one portion,

one onion for one portion.

And we're gonna put 'em in the pan.

And I'm not gonna cook these for a long time.

So just a little light browning.

Nothing too crazy.

If they're cooked all the way through,

it's gonna be difficult to handle them.

I want them to still hold their shape, okay?

So there we are.

I'm gonna put these in the fridge

until they're chilled completely through.

Once you have your sliced onion rings,

you're gonna wanna give them their buttermilk bath.

Buttermilk is going to just

introduce a little bit of a tang.

Put it right in your refrigerator 30 minutes

so it's nice and chilled.

So now we're gonna mix our three dry ingredients.

So first, we wanna grab our flour.

Add the salt, baking powder, mix it up.

30 minutes later, here we are.

Nice and cold, drip off the excess.

Throw them in, coat them.

Just plain flour.

At this point, you don't need any seasoning.

All the flour's gonna do is be something

that the tempura batter can hold onto.

And I'm really trying to have one wet hand

and one dry hand.

So I let my onions chill for about a half hour.

I wanna chill these because a cold product

will hold onto the batter a little more.

I'm just gonna dab up that excess oil

because the oil will stop the batter from sticking.

But I'm just gonna break these into rings.

So, if they're still fairly firm,

but a little bit pliable now, which is good,

and much what I'm looking for.

And there's my rings.

Next, we coat the onion rings with a batter.

So, to make the tempura batter really, really easy,

start with flour.

It's not traditional tempura,

but it has a nice tempura kind of feel to it.

It's light, it's crispy.

In this bowl, I have some rice flour.

Now we're gonna add the milk to the mixture, like so.

You're gonna add some cornmeal.

Cornmeal has just a little different taste,

a little texture in your mouth.

Throw in some salt. Throw in some salt.

Some baking powder,

baking powder will help with the rise.

Some paprika.

Just wanna whisk that together

to make sure everything is combined.

Into my rice flour, my corn starch goes in.

And then we're gonna crack our egg.

Please don't put no shells in your onion ring.

You want it to be crunchy, but not that way.

It can be a little lumpy,

you want it to be like pancake batter.

And then I'm gonna add some beer.

Add beer.

And what I'm looking for

is a very thick cream consistency.

I go with all the beer.

The beer brings a little bit of yeastiness

and toastiness to the batter.

And then I introduce some seltzer

and start mixing to see how much I need.

Seltzer brings lightness.

See all the bubbles?

And most traditional tempuras are done

with seltzer as something neutral.

But whenever I think of onion rings,

I think of beer batter, okay?

This is a little too thick.

Little more water.

You can always add.

So now that it's nice and smooth,

it's a nice heavy cream consistency,

I'm gonna add my xanthan gum.

What xanthan gum does is that

it'll help the batter stick to the onion a little better.

It'll also help the batter repel oil,

so the onion ring won't be quite as oily.

And you want it to be smooth, no chunks.

Onion ring batter is much like

what you want in a relationship,

just very consistent, very fluid, and easy to get through.

Time for frying!

That means we're gonna eat soon.

I really like this setup.

My onion rings, my tempura batter, my oil,

a rack with a sheet tray so that it can drain.

If you put it on paper towels,

it gets kinda soggy, kinda mushy.

I don't, I like it to be crisp all the way around.

We will put our onions into the batter.

Oh no, I should have done it individually!

Oh geez, this is a mess.

All right, we're gonna put 'em back on our tray

so that any excess gets off of the onion ring.

I'm just a lowly onion ring maker.

The last and final step would be to bread the onion rings.

So we're gonna take these battered onions.

So we're gonna coat these twice in the bread.

And that's all we're gonna do, we're take our rings,

and what I try and do is keep one hand dry--

Wet hand and dry hand. And one hand wet.

So let's use this hand as my dry hand.

Now I see why you use one hand

'cause then you get the clumpy fingers.

Make sure we get corn starch on, tap it off,

you don't want lumps of corn starch.

I'll take my onion rings,

make sure they're coated really well.

Once I drop this in--

[sizzling]

Love that sizzle. It's sizzling.

Now we're gonna cook these onion rings

for about two to three minutes or until golden brown.

Well, they're not gonna be golden brown

'cause I'm using rice flour and corn starch.

For the most part, I'm not really worried

that they're brown, I'm really worried that they're crisp.

These are getting golden, so we're gonna take these out.

Oh, that's a good one.

And while they drain,

I'll hit 'em with just a little bit of salt.

Salt. Salt.

Let it rain the salt.

And we're gonna let them cool.

We're gonna have patience

and not put newly fried onion rings in your mouth.

I would never do that twice.

So before we get to the onion rings, let's talk sauces.

You can't have perfect onion rings

without the perfect sauce.

They have to be dipped in something.

First, we gotta start with our honey mustard.

Very important staple in your onion ring process.

Honey mustard adds the zest that some onion rings lack.

Not mine, but some.

And then we move to infamous honey barbecue sauce.

As a vegetarian, I like to dabble in things

that remind me of eating meat.

Honey barbecue sauce because it reminds me

that I used to eat ribs.

And I miss ribs from time to time.

That's very personal.

So, now we go to the ranch.

Everyone loves ranch dressing.

I make mine just a little different.

I like to make mine with fresh ingredients.

It's a lot better than you would get out of the packet.

And then ketchup, [smacks]

there's a reason they give you ketchup

with every onion ring.

'Cause it tastes good.

Ketchup's okay, but this is heaven.

We're gonna start with certainly some mayonnaise.

And I'm gonna grate the onion.

You can use as much or as little as you like.

So, I'm gonna start with scallions,

just gonna chop them real fine.

I'm gonna cut it down the middle, chop.

I'm gonna use a clove of garlic,

give it a smash,

and what's great about this recipe

is you can adjust it to your taste.

That's the neat thing about a recipe,

it's just a jumping off point.

All that oniony goodness.

Salt, pepper, sweet relish, adobo sauce, and ketchup.

Now all we need is those beautifully

golden brown onion rings.

And then we're gonna add some fresh herbs.

You need to have dill and you need to have thyme.

And then a little bit of parsley,

parsley'll add some freshness to it.

Some nice Dijon mustard, so a lot of dressings start

and end with mayonnaise, but I also like to add

a little bit of sour cream, and not a little bit,

it's usually half and half sour cream.

A nice, hefty dose of cracked black pepper.

And a fair amount of salt.

A little bit of rice wine vinegar in here,

it's gonna cut that fattiness.

Give it a good stir.

Make sure everything's incorporated,

and then I let this sit.

The longer it sits, usually the better the flavor,

but you wanna let it sit for at least 40, 35 to 40 minutes.

And that's the ranch dipping sauce for my onion rings.

Now all we have to do is plate these onion rings

and the sauce, so that everybody can have a taste.

I'm not gonna make it too cheffy or fancy,

I'm just gonna put it on a plate with some of the sauce.

I just want it to look abonanza.

You want it to look big.

So you can almost make like a mountain.

And these are my special triple-dipped onion rings.

[thunk]

Here are my onion rings.

[thunk]

And these are my by accident gluten free onion rings.

[thunk]

[light anticipatory music]

Dip it in.

Listen for the crunch.

Bottoms up.

[crunching]

And just like I thought, harmonious.

Awesome onion rings.

Oh, that's really good. Mm.

This is absolutely delicious.

The onion rings,

I don't think could've been made any better by me.

You should make my onion ring recipe

just because it's not as hard as you think it is.

The only thing I would do differently

is I would have my sons in the kitchen with me

so that we could be making this, assembly line style,

moving quickly from station to station.

That would be heaven.

[thunk]

Onion rings are a favorite side

and often the perfect complement to burgers and hot dogs.

They are also a wonderfully salty appetizer

to get you primed for a good meal.

Let's see how our three chefs took on this fried favorite.

[rumbling drums]

While choice of onion is based on personal preference,

it's necessary that all the onions used

within each recipe are cut to the same width

to ensure consistencies in frying.

Stephen used a yellow onion with a quarter-inch cut,

while Beth and Frank went with white onions,

using a half-inch cut and one-inch cut respectively.

It can just be any sweet onion.

Yellow onions are full flavored

and bred specifically to demonstrate sweetness

and turn a rich, dark brown when caramelized.

Spanish onion's just a close cousin of white onion.

White onions have a golden color when cooked,

and a particularly sweet flavor once sauteed.

People are divided on whether to soak their onions

in water, vinegar, or buttermilk,

which is what Beth chose to do.

This is used to marinate the onion,

giving some more flavor to them,

and can also drive off overly pungent sulfuric onion notes.

Frank decided to brown his onions quickly

to extract some of the sugars,

which make the onion sweeter,

as well as removing some of the excess water

from the onions themselves.

When there is too much water,

it takes more energy and will cause the oil to drop

to a temperature where your breading can become soggy

or even stick to the other onion rings.

Mushy, soggy onion rings, definitely not a fan.

Frank also pre-dusts his onions with salt and pepper,

then chills them in the refrigerator,

which sets the batter for an even frying later on.

And ensures that all the rings

are at the same temperature for even cooking.

[rumbling drums]

Stephen only uses flour, which can develop gluten,

and over-mixing can lead to a potential issue

of over-blending the batter, causing a dense, chewy coating.

I'm just trying my best at this point.

Beth adds cornmeal in addition to flour,

which will make the onion ring more fritter-like,

but will also help disrupt the gluten formation.

Beth also decided to add flavor to her onions

by soaking them in buttermilk

prior to adding the onions into the batter.

Frank is using a blend of rice flour and corn starch,

which tends to be much crunchier than wheat flour.

By omitting wheat flour,

there is no longer a potential for gluten formation.

Frank also used xanthan gum, which is a natural gum

and contributes to a good viscosity in the batter.

And it's just there to make a little stickier.

He still wants to avoid over-mixing

to prevent losing the carbonation from the seltzer or beer.

In onion rings, it's all about the batter consistency.

If your batter is too thick or too thin,

you can have issues such as hollowing, tailing, or nerding.

Hollowing is when the batter gets too thick,

it can cause uneven frying and lumping.

What happens is water migrates out

and breaks the cell wall of the batter from the onion,

which comes from water loss.

This causes the onion to detach

from the rest of the batter post-fry.

Which you can tell by the whole onion

being pulled out of the batter ring when you bite into it.

One thing that I can't stand about onion rings

is when you bite into it, the onion pulls out.

It drives me crazy.

Mine will not do this.

Too thick of a batter can also cause tailing,

which is when points of the batter stick out like a tail

and you don't have a perfect circle in your onion ring.

When the batter is too thick,

droplets of batter itself will get into the fry oil

and create little balls that float.

Those little balls are referred to as nerds,

and if too much nerding occurs,

the oil will become more challenging to keep clean

and have a good fry.

It's not really as hard as it sounds.

[rumbling drums]

The right oil temperature is critical in frying,

and it is important to balance the time

and temperature in the fryer to ensure

we have a crispy, golden brown exterior

while maintaining a perfectly done interior.

It's better to use a neutral oil such as canola,

soybean, peanut, or vegetable oils,

which naturally have a higher smoke point.

You'll get golden brown onion rings every single time.

[Jessica] You wouldn't wanna use a premium oil

such a olive oil, as it has a very low smoke point,

and when heating, due to the low smoke point,

you will develop off flavors in your onion rings.

Those bubbles you see after foods

being dropped into the fryer is moisture evaporating

from the food from the heat.

The water in the product is boiling out

and it's not getting soggy.

Instead of the oil being used to increase the temperature

of the food itself, that energy is being displaced

to cause the water to vaporize.

[rumbling drums]

Stephen chose not to make his own sauce,

which limits the opportunity

to have completely complementary dipper and sauce.

Sorry.

He did, however, offer a variety of sauces,

allowing for no shortage of flavor combinations.

Sauce options are completely subject

to personal preference,

but when possible, a homemade sauce allows

for perfect flavors to blend together.

Both Beth and Frank decided to make their own sauces

which complement each of their dishes exceptionally well.

Beth also decided to add an adobo sauce

from canned Chipotle peppers,

which are smoked jalapeno peppers.

This along with relish introduced a tang,

which tends to cut the sweetness of the fried onion ring.

All of it is delicious, I promise you.

Frank also introduced tang

into his homemade ranch dressing,

but with Dijon mustard instead of relish.

Building complementary layers of flavor

in multiple parts of your recipes

helps drives home a big impact.

Golden brown onion rings with an adobo sauce.

Delicious.

Beth's special sauce uses store-bought mayo

and ketchup as the base, which are both fairly acidic.

But she also uses relish to give

her sauce even more of a kick.

By allowing his homemade sauce to sit for 30 minutes,

Frank is allowing the essential oils from the fresh herbs

to solubilize in the liquids.

And the flavors have time to fuse together

and create a homogeneous mixture.

All three of our chefs created delicious onion rings

using rather distinct methods,

which each coming away truly happy with their results.

Best onion ring ever.

You can always mix and match from each recipe

to create your perfect onion ring snack.

[energetic upbeat music]