[upbeat percussive music]
- 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.
[upbeat percussive music]
- What makes my onion rings special
is that they're extra crunchy
and this recipe has been
passed down from generations
on the internet.
[laughing]
- I think what makes the recipe 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 "cheffy" 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.
[dramatic thumping music]
I think the name in itself tells you
where you need to start.
You need to start with first
pickin' the right onion.
- Definitely buy sweet onions.
- I just chose a white onion.
- It is just a regular yellow onion
that's been genetically modified
to weigh a hundred pounds.
- First thing we have
to do is peel the onion
and slice it into rings.
- I like this onion because white onions
tend 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 kinda thin layer.
- You wanna have 'em--
- Half-inch slices.
- A quarter-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 'em 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?
Season both sides.
And I'm not too worried about about
takin' them apart in rings just yet.
- [grunting] It's very satisfying.
- This is probably enough for one portion,
one onion for one portion.
- And we're gonna put 'em in the pan.
And I'm not gonna cook
these for a long time.
So just a little light browning.
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 wanna give
them their buttermilk bath.
Buttermilk is going to just
introduce a little bit of a tang.
Put it right in your
refrigerator 30 minutes
so it's nice and chilled.
- So now we're gonna mix
our three dry ingredients.
So first, we wanna grab our flour.
Add the salt, baking powder, mix it up.
- 30 minutes later, here we are.
Nice and cold, drip off the excess.
- Throw them in, coat them.
- Just plain flour.
At this point, you don't
need any seasoning.
All the flour's gonna do is be something
that the tempura batter can hold onto.
And I'm really trying to have one wet hand
and one dry hand.
- So I let my onions chill
for about a half hour.
I wanna chill these because a cold product
will hold onto the batter a little more.
I'm just gonna dab up that excess oil
because the oil will stop
the batter from sticking.
But 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 much 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,
a little texture in your mouth.
Throw in some salt.
- Throw in some salt.
- Some baking powder,
baking powder will help with the rise.
Some paprika.
Just wanna whisk that together
to make sure everything is combined.
- Into my rice flour,
my corn starch goes in.
- And then we're gonna crack our egg.
Please don't put no
shells in 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.
- Add beer.
- And what I'm looking for
is a very thick cream consistency.
- I go with all the beer.
- The beer brings a
little bit of yeastiness
and toastiness to the batter.
- And then I introduce some seltzer
and start mixing to see how much I need.
Seltzer brings lightness.
See all the bubbles?
- And most traditional tempuras are done
with seltzer as something neutral.
But whenever I think of onion 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.
What 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 quite as oily.
- 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 kinda soggy, kinda mushy.
I don't, I like it to be
crisp all the way around.
- We will put our onions into the batter.
Oh no, I should have done it individually!
Oh geez, this is a mess.
All right, we're gonna
put 'em 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 all we're gonna
do, we're take our rings,
and what I try and do
is keep one hand dry--
- Wet hand and dry hand.
- And one hand wet.
So let's use this hand as my dry hand.
- Now I see why you use one hand
'cause then you get the clumpy fingers.
- Make sure we get corn
starch on, tap it off,
you don't want lumps of corn starch.
I'll take my onion rings,
make sure they're coated really well.
Once I drop this in--
[sizzling]
- Love that sizzle.
- It's sizzling.
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
'cause I'm using rice
flour and corn starch.
For the most part, I'm not really worried
that they're brown, I'm really
worried that they're crisp.
- These are getting golden,
so we're gonna take these out.
Oh, that's a good one.
- And while they drain,
I'll hit 'em with just
a little bit of salt.
- Salt.
- Salt.
- Let it rain the 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 gotta start
with our honey mustard.
Very important staple in
your onion ring process.
Honey mustard adds the zest
that some onion rings lack.
Not mine, but some.
And then we move to infamous
honey barbecue sauce.
As a vegetarian, I like
to dabble in things
that remind me of eating 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 you
would get out of the packet.
- And then ketchup, [smacks]
there's a reason they give you ketchup
with every onion ring.
'Cause it tastes good.
- Ketchup's okay, but this is heaven.
We're gonna start with
certainly some mayonnaise.
And I'm gonna grate the onion.
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.
I'm 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, and ketchup.
Now all we need is those beautifully
golden brown onion rings.
- And then we're gonna
add some fresh herbs.
You need to have dill and
you need to have thyme.
And then a little bit of parsley,
parsley'll add some freshness to it.
Some nice Dijon mustard,
so a lot of dressings start
and end with mayonnaise,
but I also like to add
a little bit of sour cream,
and not a little bit,
it's usually half and half sour cream.
A nice, hefty dose of
cracked black pepper.
And a 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's incorporated,
and then I let this sit.
The longer it sits, usually
the better the flavor,
but you wanna let it sit for
at least 40, 35 to 40 minutes.
And that's the ranch dipping
sauce for my onion rings.
- 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 too cheffy or fancy,
I'm just gonna put it on a
plate with some of the sauce.
- I just want it to look abonanza.
You want it to look big.
- So you can almost make like a mountain.
And these are my special
triple-dipped onion rings.
[thunk]
- Here are my onion rings.
[thunk]
- And these are my by accident
gluten free onion rings.
[thunk]
[light anticipatory music]
Dip it in.
- Listen for the crunch.
- Bottoms up.
[crunching]
- And just like I thought, harmonious.
- Awesome onion rings.
- Oh, that's really good.
- Mm.
This is absolutely delicious.
- The onion rings,
I don't think could've
been made any better by me.
- You should make my onion ring 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.
[thunk]
- 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 favorite.
[rumbling drums]
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 in frying.
Stephen used a 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.
- Spanish onion's just a
close cousin of 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 notes.
Frank decided to brown his 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 is 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 the same temperature
for even cooking.
[rumbling drums]
Stephen 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
the gluten formation.
Beth also decided to
add flavor 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 corn starch,
which tends to be much
crunchier than wheat flour.
By omitting wheat flour,
there is no longer a potential
for gluten formation.
Frank also used xanthan
gum, which is a natural gum
and contributes to a good
viscosity in the batter.
- And it's just there to
make a little stickier.
- He still wants to avoid over-mixing
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
hollowing, tailing, or nerding.
Hollowing is when the
batter gets too thick,
it can cause uneven frying and lumping.
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.
- Too thick of a batter
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 batter 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 will become more
challenging to keep clean
and have a good fry.
- It's not really as hard as it sounds.
[rumbling drums]
- The right oil temperature
is critical in 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 a
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.
- [Jessica] You wouldn't
wanna use a premium oil
such a 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.
[rumbling drums]
Stephen chose not to make his own sauce,
which limits the opportunity
to have completely
complementary 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 drives home a big impact.
- Golden brown onion
rings with an adobo sauce.
Delicious.
- Beth's special sauce
uses store-bought mayo
and ketchup as the 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 solubilize 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 snack.
[energetic upbeat music]
