Onion rings are an underrated side dish. Usually, for an extra charge, you can replace the fries on your plate with these deep-fried veggie rings at a restaurant, but for some reason, most people don’t — and they’re missing out on one of the crispiest, most savory snacks of all time. If you’ve ever made onion rings at home, you know that it all it takes is perfectly sliced onions, a little batter, and some oil. But the flavor comes from seasoning the ingredients well. And for the best-tasting onion rings, reach for onion powder.
It sounds unnecessary to flavor onion rings with more onion, but the truth is that onion powder adds a stronger, more concentrated onion taste that ensures the central flavor of the dish isn’t overrun by the crispy, seasoned batter. Plus, onion powder isn’t always made from the onions itself; it can also be made from onion peels, which are a part of the vegetable you wouldn’t normally incorporate into onion rings. Suddenly, you have double the onion flavor with hardly any effort.
Add onion powder to your onion rings
You can — and should — season the batter itself with onion powder, but it’s better to also add the powder to the flour or cornstarch mixture that you’ll use to coat the onions before they go into the batter. This way, the seasoning shows up in two different places. The amount you add is up to you, but onion powder has a strong flavor, so you shouldn’t need more than a teaspoon for every two onions you plan to slice and fry.
Other seasonings can be used in tandem with onion powder to create a deeper flavor profile. Garlic powder is a common one, but you can also balance the savory with any kind of sugar, such as granulated or powdered, for a hint of sweet. Season the batter and flour mixture with salt, too, and add a little spice with anything from paprika to dried cayenne pepper.
