Baked Onion Rings are perfectly crispy, delicious, and made in the oven! Dredge the onions in a light batter (made without baking powder!) and coat with Panko bread crumbs before baking.
These oven baked onion rings, just like french fries, are the perfect classic side for hamburgers or your favorite sandwich!
Onions for Rings
You can use large white or yellow onions, or my personal favorite, sweet or Vidalia onions. Sweet onions tend to have thicker, juicier layers, and are also large and fairly uniform in size, which yields bigger rings. Yellow or white onions have stronger sulfur compounds than sweet onions, and can be mellowed out by soaking them in milk.
For best results, slice onion rings in uniform thicknesses so they will cook at the same rate. For this recipe, I recommend ½ inch thick slices.
- Peel and trim the root and stem ends.
- Slice perpendicular to the two ends, and separate the rings.
- You can use both inner and outer rings, or separate them and use just the largest ones if you prefer, and save the smaller rings for other recipes (or use them for caramelized onions).
How to Make Onion Rings
Homemade onion rings are simple and fun to make, especially since you don’t have any oily mess from deep frying. Let the onion rings soak in milk for ½ hour to sweeten and then get started!
- Batter: Make sour milk, then combine with egg and seasonings.
- Bread: Toss the onion rings in flour, dip in the batter, then in panko breadcrumbs, turning to coat. Use a fresh dish of bread crumbs as the ones in the first dish become soggy.
- Bake: Place the rings in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake, turning halfway through, until browned and crispy.
The Best Onion Rings Sauces
Baked onion rings taste great with onion ring sauce, ketchup or chili sauce. Or, try some of these other favorite sauces:
- Honey mustard
- Ranch dressing
- Heinz 57 sauce
- Vinegar sauce
- Marinara Sauce
How to Reheat Them
Leftover baked onion rings can be refrigerated for up to three days. To keep them crisp, reheat them in the oven, not the microwave.
To Reheat: Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet in a 400°F oven for 5 or so minutes to crisp up. They will taste just like when made fresh.
Best Baked Appetizers
- Oven Baked Jicama Fries – delicious low carb side option
- Oven Baked Buffalo Cauliflower – perfect for dipping!
- Honey Garlic Chicken Wings – sweet, sticky and loaded with garlic
- The Best Cheesy Breadsticks – ready in 20 mins!
- Crispy Zucchini Fries– crispy, crunchy and perfectly tender inside!
Light & Crispy Baked Onion Rings
Ingredients
- 2 large onions
- 2 cups buttermilk divided
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons
- 2 cups Panko bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon seasoned salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
Instructions
- Peel onions and slice into ½½" thick rings. Place sliced onions in a large freezer bag with 1 cup of buttermilk and let sit at least 30 minutes turning occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Mix buttermilk, eggs and 2 tablespoons of flour until smooth. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, combine Panko Bread Crumbs, olive oil and seasonings.
- Remove onions from the ziploc bag and drain well. Place onions in a bag with 1/2 cup of flour and shake to coat.
- Separate the Panko mixture into 2 small bowls (this is important because the mixture gets damp and doesn't stick after a while). One by one, dip each onion into the egg mixture and then into the Panko mixture to coat.
- Place on a parchment lined pan. Bake 10 minutes, flip over and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until browned and crispy.
- Sprinkle with additional seasoning salt if desired and serve with ketchup!
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Appetizer, Side Dish
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Hi,
Was exactly looking for this !!
I was wondering if I can substitute the buttermilk for regular 1% or 0 % milk?
Hi Myriam, you can make your own buttermilk substitution with some milk and a little lemon juice. Check out our buttermilk substitution guide!
Can these be made in air fryer
Yes, cook them in a single layer at 350°F for 12-15 minutes or until crisp.
What a mouth-watering recipe of onion rings! Thanks for such amazing recipe.
Hi!…..love your recipes…..I’m not sure you know this but I was just checking out some recipes in your appetizer section and in section 4…the recipe for Light and Crispy Baked Onion Rings isn’t loaded…..and I would really love this recipe please.
Hi Wendy, It appears to be showing for us now! You can scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe or use the jump to recipe button at the top. Hope that helps!
This is a great recipe. I’ve pretty much been frying onion rings with Panko crumbs for years. Only one difference – I add about 1/3 the amount of the crumbs of Parmesan cheese (green can is perfect). It lends a good addition to the bland crumbs. Forget adding salt though. It also works in the oven, but they don’t taste as good as frying.
That sounds delicious Shirley, thanks for sharing!
I would love to sign up please.
Hi Maria, to receive our newsletters, you can sign up here or scroll down to the bottom of the post and you will see a green signup box.
Did you ever try in air fryer
I haven’t tried them in the air fryer but they’d be perfect in there Marilynn! Let us know if you try it.
Very good flavor, however, 1 onion will use all the recipe. 2 and you will run out.
Also had trouble getting the onions covered.
I found if you leave the onions in the milk bag and only pull out a few at a time, shaking excess milk off, it worked a lot better!
Hubby loved them! Didn’t bother with ketchup…..too good to dip
Thank you for the dipping tip Becky!!
I’ m just one bod living alone so tend to freeze a lot , can you tell me will these freeze well . Thanks
I haven’t tried freezing this but I don’t think it would work. You could definitely make 1/2 of the recipe to make a little bit less. If reheating them, I would recommend reheating them in the oven.
Can I try this recipe on calamari? Because I do not want to fry the calamari.
I haven’t tried it with calamari but I think it would work because this crust is great & crispy!
If you try it with calamari make sure they are frozen. 20 min. will make them tough if not. Try some crushed corn flakes with the bread crumbs or a little corn meal. Each will give a different taste and texture.
How does this recipie change if you still wanted to fry them?
I haven’t tried frying them so I’m not sure what adjustments you would need to make with these.
These look yummy. Will make them tomorrow.
I love onion rings. I’m on calorie intake diet. What would the calorie break down on how many you ate
White or apple cider vinegar?
White vinegar.
Is there a specific type of onion you would recommend for this recipe, or would any onion work?
I have made this with just regular yellow onions or with very large white onions (the ones that are sweeter). Both worked well!
My gal and I are making them now with a large white onion. We’ll see how these turn out soon I guess.
LOVE IT! Very nice! :)
Tried it today , and it was AMAZING! It very crispy! I kept the onions in milk overnight in the fridge, this made it soooo good and soft! This is a keeper!
These were great! I did add garlic seasonings, and other seasonings I like. I also used more panko crumbs as well than said, I will definitely make these again. I might also try coconut flour instead of flour next time to give a slight sweeter flavor! Worth the effort and time!
So glad you enjoyed these Jackie! Let us know how it works out with the coconut flour! :)
I will, love website! Will share it!
I really enjoyed your onion rings so much better then deep frying and liked the favor thanks for sharing
I’m so glad you enjoyed these!