Secret Recipe Club: Oven-Fried Onion Rings

It's Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day. I love this day. It is one of my favorite days of the month. I am so glad that I found this group to join. Not only does it challenge me to try new recipes, thus getting me out of my rut, but I discover new and fun blogs to read.

Life has gotten a little busy for me as I've started working 4 hours a day 4 days a week (I haven't worked...other than being a fulltime mom, homeschool mom and homemaker..for 17 years) and it's a bit of an adjustment period. So much so that I wondered if I should drop SRC, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I really enjoy it and just didn't want to give it up. 

This month I was assigned the blog The Spiffy Cookie. At the time Erin wrote her About Me page, she was working on completing her PhD in MicroBiology...not only is she a Spiffy Cookie, but one SMART cookie too! I think that if I met her in person I would be her friend. She seems like a gal after my own heart. Though I've probably got a good 15 years on her. 

I had several recipes marked to try....I did try her Peanut Butter S'more bars, but, yah, don't know what I did, but they failed...not in taste, they were yummy but I didn't have the right size pan, so I tried adjusting the recipe a bit and ended up with too much crust, too little filling and my chocolate didn't melt right. I will try these again because I love all the ingredients. I also marked her Chick'amole salad sandwich because, uh, chicken salad meets guacamole....YUM! Then there was the Creamy Ricotta Spinach & Shells, which star all my favorite ingredients! But then, oh my land, there were English Muffins, something else I'd been wanting to try. These are all still saved on my Secret Recipe Secret board to try sometime down the road. 

I ultimately settled on her Oven-Fried Onion Rings because, well, I've always wanted to try making onion rings. I wasn't disappointed. They were not that hard, and tasted really great especially with the zippy dip to go with them. My only error was that I think I coated them too much because the breading almost over-powered the onion, but I wanted to make sure the breading stuck. She originally got the recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. On to the recipe.

ONION RINGS

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour, divided

1 egg, room temperature

1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

30 saltine crackers

4 cups kettle-cooked potato chips

2 large yellow onions, cut into 24 rings (1/2 inch thick and at least 2 inches in diameter)

6 Tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions and heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place 1/4 cup flour in shallow baking dish. Beat egg and buttermilk together in bowl. Whisk remaining 1/4 cup flour, cayenne, salt and pepper into buttermilk mixture.
3. Pulse saltines and potato chips together in food processor until finely ground; 8 to 10 pulses. Place crumb mixture in second shallow baking dish.
4. Working one at a time, dredge each onion ring in flour, shaking off excess. Dip rings in buttermilk mixture, allowing excess to drip back into bowl, then drop into crumb coating, turning rings to coat evenly. Transfer coated rings to large plate or tray.
5. Pour 3 tablespoons oil onto each of two rimmed baking sheets. Place baking sheets in oven and heat until just smoking, about 8 minutes.
6. Carefully tilt heated sheets to coat evenly with oil, then arrange onion rings on sheets. Baking, flipping onion rings and switching and rotating position of baking sheets halfway through baking, until golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes. Briefly drain onion rings on paper towel-lined plate. Serve immediately.

DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tsp ketchup

2 Tbsp horseradish

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp dried oregano

Dash ground black pepper

Dash cayenne pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate.

With Joy UNquenchable,