Beer Battered Onion Rings

Heather Lionelle

• Prep: 15 minutes
• Cook: 1 hour, 15 minutes
• Yield: 12 Servings

I recently came across a good deal on Walla Walla onions and couldn’t resist purchasing a bag. Once I got home I had to do something with them. We happen to have a fair amount of beer in our fridge that people bring and leave. Since we don’t drink beer it sits there, and often becomes “skunked.” That is to say it spoils. A friend of mine who is a chef always says that skunked beer makes the best beer batter, so I decided to play with beer battered onion rings.

If you can’t eat all of these in one sitting, cook part of them a little bit less than done and then freeze them. Later you can put them in the oven still frozen and bake until they are golden and warm. This way you have a treat for later with hardly any work!

Ingredients

• 3 sweet onions (Walla Walla or Vidalia are popular choices)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup beer (any type, including old, “skunked” beer may be used)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour of your choice (you may use an all-purpose gluten free mix)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tsp sea salt
• fat for frying

Directions

1. Place 1-2 inches of fat in an electric fryer or a medium pan and heat to 375 degrees F.
2. Cut the tops and bottoms off of the onions. Remove the skins, you may wish to save them for making broth at a later date.
3. Slice the onions parallel to the bottom in 1/2 inch slices to make rings.
4. Carefully separate the rings.
5. In a shallow dish, like a pie plate, mix together the remaining ingredients (eggs, beer, milk, flour, baking soda, and sea salt). The batter will be quite thick and a little bit lumpy.
6. When the fat is up to temperature dip rings in the batter and place in the pan to fry. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes until golden, flip and repeat on the second side. Depending on the size of your pan you can cook 4-6 rings at a time.
7. Repeat step six until all of the rings have been battered and fried.
8. Enjoy!