4 Levels of Onion Rings: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

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 what makes my onion ring special is that the extra crunchy and this recipe has been passed down from generations on the internet I think what makes the recipes 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 chef e 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 I think the name in itself tells you where you need to start you need to start with first picking the right onion definitely buy sweet onions I just chose a white onion is this a regular yellow onion that's been genetically modified to a 100 pounds first thing we have to do is peel the onion and slice it into rings I like this onion because why don't you send 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 kind of thin layer you want to have them half-inch slices 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 them 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 seasoned both sides I'm not too worried about taking them apart in rings just yet it's very satisfying this is probably enough for one portion one for one portion we're gonna put him in the pan and I'm not gonna cook these for a long time so just a little light brownie 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 want to give them their buttermilk bath buttermilk is going to just introduce a little bit of a tang put it right in your refrigerator for 30 minutes so it's nice and chilled so now we're gonna mix our three dry ingredients so first we want to grab our flour I have two salt baking powder mix it up thirty minutes later here we are nice and cold drip off the excess dough time and cook them just plain flour at this point you don't need any seasoning all the flours gonna do is be something that the tempore of batter can hold on to and I'm really trying to have one wet hands and one dry hands so I let my onions chill for about a half-hour I want to chill these because a cold product will hold on to the batter a little more I'm just gonna dab up that excess oil because the oil will stop the batter from sticking 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 watch 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 little texture in your mouth no salt some baking powder baking powder will help with the rise some paprika just want to whisk that together to make sure everything is combined into my rice flour my corn starch goes in now we're gonna crack our egg please don't put no shells and 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 what I'm looking for is a very thick cream consistency I go with all the beer the beer brings a little bit of yeast enos and toasting this to the batter and then I introduce some Delta and start mixing to see how much I need celsa brings lightness see all the bubbles and most traditional tempura's are done with seltzer or something neutral but whenever I think of on your 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 but 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 at quite as well 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 kind of soggy kind of mushy I don't I like it to be crisp all the way around we will put our onions into the batter individually oh Jesus is a mess okay we're gonna put them 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 what we're gonna do we're gonna take our our rings what I try and do is keep one hand dry and wet so let's use this hand as my dry hand now I see why you use one hand cuz then you get the clumpy fingers make sure we get cornstarch on tap it off you don't want lumps of cornstarch I'll take my onion rings make sure they're coated really well once I drop this in but that's ism 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 because I'm using rice flour and cornstarch for the most part I'm not really worried that they're bra I'm really worried that they're crisp these are getting golden we're gonna take these out oh that's a good look and while they drain I'll hit them with just a little bit of song let it ring 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 got to start with our honey mustard very important staple and your onion ring process honey mustard adds the zest that some onion rings black not mine but some and then we move to the infamous honey barbecue sauce as a vegetarian I like to dabble and things that remind me of eaten 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 what you would get out of the pack and then catch up there's a reason they give you catch up whatever you onion ring cuz it tastes good ketchup so okay but this is heaven we're gonna start with certainly some mayonnaise and I'm gonna grate the onions 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 you're 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 take it now all we need is those beautifully golden brown onion rings and then we're gonna have some fresh herbs you need to have dill and you need to have time and then a little bit of parsley parsley add some freshness to it some nice Dijon mustard so a lot of dressing start and end with mayonnaise but I also like to add a little bit of sour cream but not a little bit it's usually half and half a nice hefty dose of cracked black pepper and 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 is incorporated and then I let this sit the longer it sits usually the better the flavor but you want to let it sit for these 40 35 to 40 minutes and that's the ranch dipping sauce from alyona 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 to chef E or fancy I'm just gonna put on a play with some of this awesome I just wanted to look a Boden's you want it to look big so you can almost make like a mountain and these are my special triple dipped onion rings here are my onion rings and these are my by accident gluten free onion rings tip it in listen for the crunch bottoms up and just like that thought Harmonia awesome this is absolutely delicious the onion ring I don't think could have been made any better by me you should make my ignorant 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 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 a favorite 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 and frying even use the 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 Madison is just a close cousin of the 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 note Frank decided to brown his the 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's 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 this temperature for even cooking Steven 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 it to the gluten formation Beth also decided to add flavour 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 cornstarch which tends to be much crunchier than wheat flour by omitting wheat flour there's no longer potential for gluten formation Frank also use xanthan gum which is a natural gum and contributes to a good viscosity in the batter and it's just there to make it a little stickier he still wants to avoid overmixing 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 Halloween tailing or nerding hollowing is when the batter gets too thick it can cause uneven frying and lumpy 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 to think of a better 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 better 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 would become more challenging to keep clean and have a good fry it's not really as hot as it sounds the right oil temperature is critical on 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 in 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 you wouldn't want to use a premium oil such as 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 Steven chose not to make his own sauce which limits the opportunity to have completely complimentary 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 drive home a big impact golden brown onion rings with an adobo sauce delicious Beth's special sauce uses store-bought mayo and ketchup as a 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 solubilized 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 step

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 8,762,996

Rating: 4.8887477 out of 5

Keywords: 4 levels epicurious, onion rings, recipe, 4 levels, junk food, make onion rings, homemade onion rings, fresh onion rings, deep fry onion rings, 4 levels of onion rings, onion rings epicurious, how to make onion rings, homemade onion rings recipe, onion ring, fried onion, expert onion rings, onion rings faq, onion rings tips, cook onion rings, onion ring recipe, making onion rings, cooking onion rings, gourmet onion rings, real onion rings, crispy onion rings, epicurious

Id: s6y7zf9Lx-w

Length: 16min 1sec (961 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2020