Recipe - Oven Baked Onion Rings w/Spicy Dipping Sauce

Oven Baked Onion Rings and Dipping Sauce

So, it's a Friday night and I felt like having something a little bad.  I wanted something that tasted good, but not something I normally have.  For some reason onion rings sounded perfect and I found this great oven-baked recipe.  You never know what you're going to get, when trying something new out, but this turned out amazing!!!  The onions turn out crispy, not soggy and the coating is spectacular!  Definitely will make these again, but just can't do it too often.  It's nice for a special treat.


Recipe - Oven Baked Onion Rings w/Spicy Dipping Sauce

Courtesy of Annie's Eats

Oven-Fried Onion Rings

Ingredients:
½ cup all-purpose flour, divided
1 large egg, at room temperature
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
30 saltine crackers
4 cups kettle-cooked potato chips
2 large yellow onions, sliced into 24 rings (½-inch thick rounds)
6 tbsp. vegetable oil

Directions: 
Adjust oven racks to lower- and upper-middle positions.  Preheat the oven to 450˚ F.  Place ¼ cup of the flour in a shallow baking dish.  Beat the egg and buttermilk together in a bowl.  Whisk the remaining flour, cayenne, salt and pepper into the buttermilk mixture.  Combine the saltines and potato chips together in a food processor and pulse until finely ground.  Place half of the crumb mixture in a second shallow baking dish; reserve the other half.

Working one at a time, dredge each onion ring in flour, shaking off the excess.  Dip the onion rings in the buttermilk mixture, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl, and then dredging in the crumb coating, turning to coat evenly.  When the crumb mixture is low, add the reserved crumb mixture to the dish for dredging the remaining onion rings.  Transfer the coated rings to a large plate or platter.

Pour 3 tablespoons of the oil onto each of 2 rimmed baking sheets.  Place the baking sheets in the oven and heat just until smoking, about 8 minutes.  Tilt the heated sheets to coat evenly with the oil.  Lay the onion rings out in a single layer on the oiled baking sheets.  Bake, flipping the onion rings and rotating the pans halfway through baking, until golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes total.  Transfer to a paper towel-lined rack briefly before serving.

For the dipping sauce, I wanted the taste of the Blooming Onion Dipping Sauce at Outback, I just didn't want the calories.  Plus, I hate mayo, so here's what I came up with:

       Spicy Dipping Sauce


1/4 Cup Reduced Fat Mayonnaise*
1/4 Cup Reduced Fat Sour Cream  (or for even less calories, you can use fat-free Greek Yogurt)
1 tablespoon Ketchup
2 tablespoons cream-style horseradish sauce
1/3 teaspoon Paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried Oregano
1 pinch ground black pepper
1/3 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (or more to taste)


In a medium size bowl, combine mayo, sour cream (or yogurt) ketchup, horseradish, paprika, salt, oregano, black pepper and cayenne together.  Mix well.  Cover sauce and refrigerate until needed.
* = You can use all mayo and omit the sour cream or greek yogurt if you'd like.  Since I don't like the taste of mayo, I made it this way to dilute some of that taste.  It's all a matter of preference.  Enjoy!!