Five Goooolden (Onion) Rings!

I wanted to make a 12 Days of Christmas Muffin Tin Meal this week (well, last week, really, but I didn't get around to it.) We got snowed in a little at some point, and didn't make a grocery run, so my resources were somewhat limited. I was stumped for the "Five Golden Rings." I could have done cheddar cheese rings with my graduated circle cutters, but that seemed boring. I was resigned to using Ritz crackers until I thought of onion rings.
I found a doable-looking recipe online, and had all the ingredients on-hand (barely. The onion was starting to turn black on the outside, but the innards were good.)

Fiiiiiive Oooooonion Riiiiings!

Ingredients:
1 large onion, sliced into 1/4" thick rings [I used a yellow onion]
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c milk (or as needed)
3/4 c dry bread crumbs [This may have been a typo. I needed 3 to 4 cups!]
seasoned salt (to taste)
1 quart oil for frying, or as needed

Directions:
Step 1: Heat oil in deep fryer to 365 F. I used canola oil. Peanut oil might taste good too.
My fryer heated up the oil loooong before I was ready to fry... I still hadn't battered them all yet, and they still needed to drip. So you may not need to start the oil right at the beginning.

Step 2: Separate the onion slices into rings and set aside.

Step 3: In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and 1 tsp salt. 

I used iodized salt. I usually use iodized for cooking in recipes, and Kosher to sprinkle on top, since I don't like the iodized flavor, but it gets lost/masked when cooked with other food. (Iodine is needed in small amounts, so you want to be sure to still include iodized salt in your food.)

Step 4: Dip the onion slices into the flour mixture until they are all coated. Set aside.

For some reason, the flour mixture didn't stick well on my onion rings. There were lots of shiny patches, despite my attempts to rub flour on. I placed them on the foil-coated cooking sheet I'd be using later under the wire rack. It's not like the foil needed to be clean later! I also used a dirty cookie sheet, to save from having to clean another one!

Step 5: Use a fork to mix the milk and egg into the flour mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Step 6: Dip the floured rings into the batter to coat, then set on a wire rack to drain until the batter stops dripping.

Have aluminum foil or a cookie sheet under the wire rack to catch the drips for easier cleanup.

Lots of drips!

Step 7: Spread bread crumbs out on a plate or shallow dish, like a pie pan. Place battered rings one at a time in crumbs and scoop crumbs up over the ring to coat completely. Give it a hard tap as you remove it from the crumbs, so shake off any loose ones. Repeat with remaining rings.

I used Panko bread crumbs, since I really like them, but my husband kept pointing out that we had regular bread crumbs, so I took the hint and used those for the second half of the batch. I started out with 1/4 cup of crumbs, since the recipe called for 3/4 c, and I had planned on doing some with both kinds of crumbs. But the 1/4 cup only covered about 2 rings! So I think the 3/4 cup was a typo in the original recipe! I'm thinking he meant 3 TO 4 cups!
I initially just poured the crumbs onto the cutting board, but I switched to a pie dish to help keep them corralled and to help push them up to cover better.
Because the flour didn't stick well everywhere initially, I had lots of bare patches on my onion rings where all the batter had dripped off, and thus no crumbs would stick.

Step 8: Deep fry the rings a few at a time...

(as many as can fit comfortably floating on the top of the oil in the deep fryer without overlapping each other.)

Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove to paper towels to drain.
I removed the drippy aluminum foil and just used the same dirty cookie tray again. Teehee.

They were apparently so tasty, I couldn't get a
picture before most of them were gone!

Step 9: Season with salt/seasoning salt and serve.

My husband loved them, but said they definitely needed salt. I hadn't gotten around to salting them, since I forgot this step, and couldn't think of what to season them with. We just used Kosher salt.
Unka Seesee was like a kid in a candy shop, since my husband is trying to lose weight and so only ate a few, and I hate onion rings (although these tasted okay. I really liked the breading.) So he giggled like a schoolgirl and ran off with all the ones that were done, except for the five I was saving for my Muffin Tin Meal. He really likes onion rings, but they are such a pain in the you-know-what to make!