Crunchy Fried Onion Rings

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: one hour, ten minutes


Ingredients:

one cup buttermilk
one teaspoon hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
one teaspoon sugar
one cup unbleached all-purpose flour
two teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
one teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
two gigantic sweet onions, such as Vidalia or VeriSweet (about 1-3/4 pounds)
three cups peanut oil

Preparation:

Change an oven rack to the middle position, set a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet, place the baking sheet in the oven and heat the oven to 250 degrees F.

With a fork, merge the buttermilk, hot pepper sauce, and sugar in a medium bowl until the sugar dissolves. Using a tidy fork, merge the flour, baking powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper in a shallow baking dish.

Peel and cut the sweet onions in to 1/4-inch-thick slices. Separate the onion slices in to rings. Dip the rings in the buttermilk and shake off the excess liquid. Dredge the rings in the flour mixture, shake off the excess, and gently place the rings on a second wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Repeat until all the rings are coated. Overlap the rings if necessary.

Add the onions to form a single layer on the oil's surface and cook until golden brown, no over three minutes. (Oil temperature ought to not dip below 375 degrees.) Using tongs, transfer the onions to the paper towel-lined plate. Let stand two minutes to drain, then carefully transfer to the rack in the warm oven.

Line a gigantic plate with a double layer of paper towels. Meanwhile, heat the oil to 400 degrees over medium-high heat in a gigantic, 8-quart, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven with a diameter of about 12 inches.

Replace the paper towels on the plate. Return the oil to 400 degrees and fry the remaining onions, transferring them to the paper towel-lined plate to drain, then to the wire rack in the oven for each batch. Serve onion rings hot from the oven.

Yield: four servings