Beer Battered Onion Rings
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Beer Battered Onion Rings. Forget the fast food and the fair – enjoy quick, easy, crunchy, and slightly sweet beer battered onion rings on your burger or the side!
Beer Battered Onion Rings are the perfect complement to any burger, game day BBQ, or just settling that craving for your favorite fair food. It only takes two onions to serve a crowd, but be warned, they’ll be hungry for more!
Beer Battered Onion Rings
What is the best beer for beer batter?
Whether you’re making beer-battered onion rings, chicken, fish, or other recipes, having the right beer makes all the difference. In theory, you can use any beer that tastes good to you, much like cooking with wine. A typical ‘good’ beer for beer batter has a lot of carbonation and a hint of flavor. Stouts, IPAs, Lagers, and Brown Ale are among the top contenders for creating a beer batter with loads of puff and great flavor.
Learn more about the science of using beer in batter here.
Do beer battered onion rings have alcohol?
No, alcohol burns off in a matter of seconds at 172F making these deep-fried onion rings alcohol-free.
Ingredients for beer batter
What I’ll call ‘traditional’ beer batter, like the one used for this recipe, you’ll need:
- Onions – I used Vidalia due to their size and sweetness.
- Beer – An English Brown Ale is perfect with its nutty flavor and carbonation.
- Flour – All-Purpose, but you could use gluten-free.
- Seasonings – salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika.
You can change up the seasonings for a slightly different taste, but this batter gives you a good baseline to start playing with.
How to make beer battered onion rings
- Preheat peanut oil in a 5 or 6-quart
dutch oven over the stovetop, using an infrared thermometer to 425F. - While the oil heats, slice your onions into 1/4-1/2 inch slices.
- In a large bowl make your batter.
- Work in batches to dredge your onion rings in the batter and reserved flour, and then fry until golden brown.
- Remove using a spider strainer to a paper towel-lined plate. Sprinkle with additional salt if desired. Serve with dipping sauce.
Chef’s Tip
Check your oil temperature before dropping each batch for frying. Oil temperature changes quickly and drastically during the frying process.
How to make beer battered onion rings without beer
Obviously, we love using beer in this recipe for the flavor and carbonation. However, if you don’t have beer or just don’t want to use it, you can use milk or soda. Soda has the carbonation we’re looking for (think Sprite, Ginger Ale, or Coke), and milk is traditionally used in a batter.
What to serve with onion rings
I’m not sure there is a dish you can’t serve onion rings with, but here are some of our favorites!
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat a
Dutch oven with peanut oil on the stovetop over medium heat until oil reaches 425F. - In a bowl, combine flour and spices, and whisk thoroughly. Add the beer to the dry ingredients to make a batter.
- Slice the onions into 1/4-inch rings. Dredge a few in the batter into a bowl with the reserved flour. You can also put the reserved flour in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and shake the onion rings. Just be aware that you might not even have coverage of batter on your onion doing it this way. But the process will go quicker, and they will still taste amazing.
- Fry the onion rings for 3-5 minutes. Remove and place on a plate with a paper towel to drain excess grease. Check the oil temperature before starting each new batch. When completed, enjoy it with your favorite sauce.
Here are a few more recipes you’ll enjoy.
- Oven Fried Onion Rings
- HEALTHY GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
- BEEF STEW WITH BEER
- SMOKED BEER CAN CHICKEN
- Easy Honey Beer Chicken Kabobs: A Flavorful Grilled Delight!
Beer Battered Onion Rings
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 medium Vidalia onions cut into thin rings
- 64 ounces peanut oil
- 2 & ½ cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup reserved
- 24 ounces Newcastle Brown Ale 2 bottles
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- ½ Tablespoon black pepper
- ½ Tablespoon onion powder
- ½ Tablespoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
Instructions
- Heat a dutch oven with peanut oil on the stovetop over medium heat, until oil reaches 425F.
- In a bowl combine flour and spices, whisk thoroughly. Add the beer to the dry ingredients to make a batter.
- Slice the onions into 1/4 inch rings. Dredge a few at a time in the batter and then into a bowl with the reserved flour.*
- Fry the onion rings for 3-5 minutes. Remove and place on a plate with a paper towel to drain excess grease. Check the oil temperature before starting each new batch. When completed, enjoy with your favorite sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
What’s not to love about this recipe? I couldn’t find Vidalia onions so I used yellow and they were still wonderful!