Onion Strings/Rings

1 large onion

1 med onion

2 cups Buttermilk (reg milk w/ 2 tbsp white vinegar)

2 Cups Flour

Salt and Pepper

Cayenne

Oil for Frying

Slice up your onion nice and thin for onion strings, or a little thicker for rings.  In a shallow dish soak onions in buttermilk at least an hour. (This is supposed to take some of the bitterness out of the onion and helps the flour mix stick better)

Heat your oil to 375.  Put your flour in a bowl with 1 tbsp salt, pepper and 1/4-1/2  tsp cayenne and mix.  Once your onions are nice and soaked you can take a handful and drop them into the four and toss until coated, shake or tap off any excess flour and fry till golden.  

I put my oven on the lowest heat setting with a cookie sheet set up with a baking rack and layer of paper towels so as I cook the rings in batches the finished ones stay warm and crispy in the oven and have a place to let extra grease drip off.  Yummy but plan on about an hour of fry time. Serve hot with fry sauce.

This is one large and one medium onion, it made more than I thought it would. Plenty for 4 adults with some left to munch on after dinner.

***I cut my onions pretty thin this batch (probably 1/8" thick), next time I would keep them thicker (maybe 1/4" ish) for more onion taste and less crunch.  These ones were more crunch less onion.

I would also put more salt in my flour mix, and more of the pepper and cayenne, these were pretty mild and I didn't salt them after they were cooked.

I sliced up a tomato for dinner and it was pretty green (not what I needed for the main dish) so I tossed it in the buttermilk and flour after the onions were done and added Fried Green Tomatos to the menu.  I salted these when they came out of the fryer. Let cool slightly but eat while still hot and crispy.  These don't hold well because the tomato is juicy.