Baked Onion Rings are a great appetizer option for your next party!

Whenever I eat, I’m always planning my meal around dessert first. It’s how I roll. Because of this, I try to eat as healthy as I can during the meal and I make sure not to over eat. I drink lots of water and try and visualize my meal and just eat half of it. Leftovers are a good thing, especially with portions as big as they are today!

With that said, it’s not likely that you’ll see me indulging in appetizers. However, in this case, the baked onion rings are so much healthier than their twins, the fried onion rings.

Take a little trip back in time, and the diners all over America were filling their customers with fried onion rings, hamburgers and milkshakes! I’m talk about the 1950’s diners. Granted they walked to the diners and went out dancing to the jukeboxes afterwards, but still. Good, solid diner food.

It’s a story for another time, but it’s like I was meant to live in the 1950’s. It’s my favorite decade. 

The reason I mention these lovely 1950’s diners, is that they are were where the movie musical, Grease, was set. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that classic movie. I mean, what teenage girl doesn’t melt at the sight of Danny Zuko, wishing they were Sandy. Ahh.

Just a little bonus, Grease is on the Netflix stream. You can watch it today and relive the great song, “You’re the one that I want”. Oo-oo-ooonion rings.

Baked Onion Rings

adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet onions, peeled and sliced thick and separate slices
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup light buttermilk
• 3 cups panko breadcrumbs
• olive oil spray

How-To

1. Preheat the oven to 450F. Set aside 2-3 baking sheets covered in parchment paper or non-stick foil.
2. In a flat bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. In another flat bowl, combine beat the egg and buttermilk together.
4. In yet another flat bowl, combine the panko breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
5. Cover each onion ring in the flour mixture, followed by the egg mixture and finally the panko mixture. Set on the baking sheets, with space between onion rings.
6. Spray the tops of the onion rings with olive oil and bake for 7 minutes. Flip the onion rings over for even browning and spray the other side with olive oil. Bake for another 7 minutes.
7. Serve with your favorite dipping sauces like BBQ or ketchup.

This post was sponsored by Netflix Stream Team. I received compensation for this post and posts to follow. All opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for further information.