These crispy Onion Rings are delicious as an appetizer or in Burgers. They’re made restaurant-style, which means they’re crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and seasoned to perfection. Watch the video tutorial and learn how to make the best onion rings.
If you love easy appetizer recipes like Crispy Baked Potato Wedges or Fried Zucchini, this homemade Onion Ring recipe is sure to become a new favorite.
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The Best Onion Ring Recipe
These are a big hit with my family. My son usually won’t eat onions, but he devours onion rings without any protest.
The secret to these is double-dipping. This creates a beautifully crispy crust. Once cooked, the onions inside are tender and sweet. That strong raw onion flavor fades to the background, replaced with the crispy outer coating and seasoning. Here’s why you will love this recipe:
- Simple – Yes, making homemade onion rings is easier than you think.
- Restaurant-Style Results – These turn out irresistibly crispy every time.
- Kids Can Help – While using a fork or tongs will help with the dredging process, you can also enlist your kids and have them coat the onion rings for you.
- Versatile – Onion rings work as an appetizer, side dish, or even as a garnish.
Onion Rings Video Tutorial
Watch Natasha make these easy onion rings, then grab the ingredients below and give them a try for yourself.
Ingredients
Scroll down to the print-friendly recipe card for quantities and instructions.
- Sweet or yellow onion – The larger the onion, the better when it comes to onion rings
- Milk – use any kind of milk (1%, 2% or whole milk)
- White vinegar – creates homemade buttermilk when added to milk
- Sour cream – helps thicken the liquid so it clings to the onion rings
- All-purpose flour – creates a light batter similar to a restaurant-style tempura batter
- Salt – we use fine sea salt for most of our cooking
- Black pepper – freshly ground black pepper will give the best flavor
- Garlic powder – adds so much flavor to the batter
- Oil for frying – use grapeseed oil, peanut oil, canola, or oil with a high smoke point
How to Make Onion Rings
Now that you’ve gathered your ingredients, it’s time to start cooking:
- Heat the Oil – Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat with about an inch of oil
- Make the Liquid Mixture – In a medium bowl, whisk the milk with the vinegar and let it sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in the sour cream.
- Make the Dry Mixture – In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.
- Dredge the Onions – Slice and separate the onion rings and dip each ring in the sour cream mixture, followed by the flour (using a fork will keep your hands clean). Repeat by dipping the rings a second time in the milk mixture and flour. Transfer to a plate and repeat with remaining onion rings.
- Cook the Onion Rings – Once the oil is hot enough for the onion rings to sizzle (375˚F on a thermometer), add them in a single layer (3-4 at a time) and fry for 3 to 4 minutes, flipping halfway, or until the outside is crispy and light golden brown. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate.
Pro Tip: The frying steps move fast, so have all of your onion rings breaded and ready to fry before you start adding them to the hot oil.
Pro Tip: Whenever you’re deep-frying, you can expect the oil temperature to fluctuate. It will drop when you add the food to the oil, then slowly increase as the food cooks. Don’t overcrowd the pot or the temperature will drop too quickly. We use a clip-on thermometer to monitor the temperature and adjust the temperature as needed.
Onion Rings Dipping Sauce
My husband used to work in Chilis restaurant where they served an ‘awesome blossom sauce’ and this is our version which is a delicious onion ring dipping sauce. It’s also really easy and you just stir the ingredients together.
- Mayonnaise and Sour cream – creates a creamy base
- Ketchup – adds a sweet and tangy flavor
- Worcestershire sauce – adds wonderful umami flavor
- Creamy horseradish – or substitute hot sauce to taste
- Paprika and salt – you can add these to taste
Common Questions
Onion rings are a crispy appetizer or side dish made by slicing onions into rings, dredging them with some kind of coating (batter or breadcrumbs), and cooking. When you are working with a batter, it’s best to fry onion rings instead of baking or air frying.
Yes, if you’re on a gluten-free diet, you can make gluten-free onion rings by swapping the all-purpose flour for your favorite all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
If you have a deep fryer at home, definitely use it. I love that our Deep Fryer monitors and adjusts the oil temperature automatically.
Yes, but keep in mind that it will take longer to fry double the batches.
Look for onions that are large and firm, with no soft spots. While yellow onions work just fine, a sweet onion like Vidalia or Walla-Walla is especially delicious. Be sure to slice them into generous 1/2-inch thick rings.
How to Serve Onion Rings
We love serving these onion rings freshly cooked with a dipping sauce, but they are so versatile and not just an appetizer.
- Appetizer – It’s fun to stack these in a tower and serve alongside a dipping sauce like awesome Blossom Dipping Sauce (in recipe notes below), ketchup, barbecue sauce, any of our burger sauces, garlic aioli, or avocado ranch.
- Side Dish – alongside burgers or hotdogs instead of french fries.
- Topping – for burgers and other sandwiches, or go all out for Thanksgiving and layer them onto your Green Bean Casserole instead of using canned onions.
Make-Ahead
Onion rings are definitely one of those foods that are best eaten fresh, while still warm and crispy. If you do have leftovers, here are some tips:
- To Refrigerate: Store onion rings in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Freezing: Freeze in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months.
- To Reheat: To restore some of their original crispiness, onion rings should be reheated in a 350ºF oven or in an air fryer.
If you love making restaurant-style appetizers at home like Coconut Shrimp and Easy Popcorn Chicken, these crisp onion rings are a must-try recipe. Because they’re double-battered, they get extra crispy and stand up well to all of your favorite dipping sauces. Best of all, they’re easy to make with simple everyday ingredients.
More Appetizer Recipes
If you love these onion rings, then you won’t want to miss these appetizer recipes:
- Crispy Buffalo Wings
- Pico De Gallo
- Air Fryer Chicken Wings
- Cheeseburger Sliders
- Sausage Queso Dip (with Real Cheese!)
Crispy Onion Rings Recipe with Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
Onion Rings Ingredients:
- 1 large sweet or yellow onion, thickly sliced into 1/2-inch thick rings
- 1 cup milk
- 1 Tbsp white vinegar
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- Oil for frying, I used canola oil – use something with a high smoke point
Instructions
How to Make the best onion rings:
- Heat a dutch oven over medium heat with 1" of oil (or enough to cover the onion rings). You can use a deep fryer if you have one.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup milk with 1 Tbsp vinegar and let sit 5 minutes. Whisk in 1/2 cup sour cream.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together: 1 cup flour, 1/2 Tbsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, and 1 tsp garlic powder.
- Separate the onion rings and dip each ring in the milk mixture, then dredge with flour. (I used a fork to transfer from the wet bowl to the dry bowl so my hands didn't get as gunky). Repeat by dipping in milk mixture a second time and dredging again in flour. Place the finished onion rings on a plate until ready to fry.
- Once the oil is at 375˚F on a thermometer, or hot enough for the onion rings to sizzle, place 3-4 double battered onion rings in a single layer in the hot oil and cook for about 3 minutes, flipping halfway and fry until exterior is crisp and light golden brown. Let onion rings cool on paper towels so soak up any excess oil.
Notes
- 1/2 cup real mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp creamy horseradish, or hot sauce
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
This is a great recipe! The first batch cooked is just as crispy as the last batch. So much better than frozen, which usually always end up soggy if fried. This will be my go to for onion rings from now on.
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Debby!
This approach to onion rings does not work well. This was a waste of my time, a batter approach makes a much better ring. I was very disappointed with the time I wasted trying this recipe
Hi Craig, I’m sorry these didn’t meet the mark for you. It’s a little more effort but results in a lovely crusted onion ring.
Feeding frenzy over rings at Thanksgiving feast. While waiting for my deep fat fried Turkey to rest, I made these.
I had precut the rings (2 large onions) and made the batter, flour and dipping sauce the night before.
They were the best I’ve ever had, but…could only do about 1/2 of one onion due to flour mixture goes h… in a handbasket fast. Suggestion…at least double the batter recipe and absolutely quadruple the flour recipe. KEEP THE FLOUR MIXTURE IN A BAGGY! You then can add to your flour dipping bowl as needed when it goes south in the dipping process. The comment regarding having a wire cooling rack to place the cooked rings was spot on. Finally, the rings float in a deep fat fryer so no need to flip and can easily SEE the ones that are cooked and ready to pull out.
I made these for the first time the other night, and I can’t believe how incredibly easy and delicious they were! I didn’t have sour cream, so used plain yoghurt instead for the buttermilk mixture and it was still so good. Thank you Natasha!
Thank you for sharing, Jazz. Good to hear that you enjoyed this recipe using yoghurt too!
These turned out great! I added some texan spice in with the flour. Hubby and I ate them all! Thanks!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Renee!
These were excellent! The family loved them. One piece of advice if you can manage it I would bread all of the onion rings first or at least a lot of them. It gets a little hectic with the double dipping and everything. When it got to the end and the flour mixture was goopy I just combined it with some of the milk mixture and made it into more of a tempera batter and finished that way.
Thanks for your feedback and tip, Amanda. We appreciate it!
This is a sub par recipe that requires a lot of messy steps. After double dipping about 4 of the rings the flour starts to turn to mush therefor producing a tough fried coating. Hardly worth the effort…I’ll just stick to my tempura batter.
I made these last night. I omitted the garlic and used a bit of Frank’s red hot sauce to the buttermilk and sour cream.. They were fabulous, crispy just the way I like them. will try this method when I make fried green tomatoes again.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Kay!
Outstanding recipe! The best onion rings I have ever had. I did add more seasoning to the dry flour mixture, but I have a salty palate.
Thank you for sharing this recipe!
What a lovely review! Thanks so much, Jess for sharing that with us.
I made these the other night without the sour cream because I didn’t fell like running to store. They were very good and had a lot of flavor Natasha, but next time I’ll have the sour cream. Thanks for sharing. I’ll make them again!
Thank you for your feedback, Linda! I hope you try them with sour cream soon!
actually the best onion rings we’ve ever had!! so yummy and easy to make!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Sarah!
We made these last night and they were great!
Two suggestions – rather than placing them on a paper towel or plate after frying, put them on a wire rack with foil underneath. Also, salt them immediately after frying.
Other than that, they were great and this will be our go to when making onion rings. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks for your comments and suggestion, Patrick. We appreciate it!
Made these tonight for a college student gathering at our house. All young adults gave them two thumbs up. Nice and crispy!
That’s wonderful! So glad they were enjoyed.
Hubby loves onion rings so I am making your recipe tonight to go with deep fried halibut…yum Will comment with our thoughts but so far we’ve enjoyed all of your recipes, thank you.
Saw “sharky” at 4:41-4:42 😉
Thanks for sharing, Judy. I hope you’ll love them too!
I just made these , O had some doubt because of the sour cream , but OMG these were awesome.
Thank you for sharing the recipe
So glad to hear that, Marilyn! Thank you for trying my recipe!
I made these the other day, and I followed the recipe exactly. They were fantastic! Thank you. I’d love to translate these into an oven-fried version too -so we can eat a healthier version sometimes too.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Jill!
I found this process messy, difficult and un-rewarding. The onion rings had very little flavor and my kitchen was a mess from the double-dipping. I would definitely not make this recipe again.
Hi Kae, I’m sorry to hear that. The onion rings normally should have plenty of flavor – did you make sure to season your flour dredging mixture? Also make sure to use 1/2 Tablespoon of salt (i.e 1 1/2 tsp)
Funny how I write a comment about how salty this is and it doesn’t get posted. Why do you hide a negative comment?
Hi Chris, this is the first comment that I’ve seen registered from you. Maybe you navigated away from the browser tab before it registered? That could happen. I haven’t heard the feedback about these being too salty – did you possibly add a full Tbsp of salt? 1 1/2 tsp or 1/2 Tbsp for that amount of flour and onion rings shouldn’t be overly salty.
These were very good. I had much more liquid than I needed . Yes I double dipped them. Some people probably did not follow the recipe . Thus the compaints of lack of taste or mess.
I have most of your receipts and they all have been a hit…thank you so much for all you do..I am going to do the onion rings my son loves them will surprise him … thank you again a loyal fan or by the way I saw shark when you were doing the surf and shrimp recipe 😋
Hi Edna! Thank you so much for the love and support. I really appreciate that. I hope these onion rings are a hit!
I was hungry for some yummy onion rings and knew these would be fabulous! My husband and I ate almost the whole batch with some yummy BLT sandwiches for dinner. The O-Rings were crispy, seasoned just right, and DELICIOUS! This is going to be my “go to” recipe for good onion rings.
Hi Marsha! That’s amazing. I’m so glad they were a hit. Thank you for the feedback. This is a great recipe to keep on hand for a quick go-to.
I LOVE All Of your recipes I have made in the past… and I have made quite a few! I am excited to make these. I just have a question about the sauce.. what is “creamy” horseradish? Just wondering if my prepared horseradish I have in yhe refrigerator is what I use? I make your creamy horseradish sauce when ever I get the chance I absolutely LOVE it. So I wanted to make this just want to make it correctly. Thank you in advance!
Hi kelly! I’m so happy to hear you’re loving my recipes! Yes, you can use Horseradish Sauce Recipe which is creamy or purchase a creamy horseradish sauce. I hope this helps!