Crispy Onion Rings

We lived in Dallas Texas a few years back and we discovered a wonderful little restaurant near downtown Dallas called “Sonny Bryan’s Smoke House”.  This little joint specialized in sliced brisket which was smoked overnight for 9 hours. People would come from miles around to get this stuff. The doors would open at around 11 am…If you did not get there by at least 1 pm, many times the meat would be gone! This place is legendary in Texas. But believe it or not one of the best things that this smoke house served was it’s huge, crispy onion rings These onion rings have 2 special secret ingredients. Club soda and instant mashed potato flakes. These onion rings are so crispy and delicious they will almost make you faint.

• Remove skin from onions and slice into 1/2 inch rounds. Separate into rings.
• Dip onion rings in to reserved flour.
• In a bowl mix the flour, corn meal, instant mashed potatoes and eggs an and club soda and mix well until smooth batter forms.
• Place the lightly floured onion rings into the batter letting the excess drip off. Use only one hand to do this so one hand stays dry.
• Place onion rings in refrigerator and let chill for 15 to 30 minutes
•  Once onion rings have chilled heat oil in a deep fryer or in a high sided sauce pan to 350 degrees. If you are using a sauce pan, fill only 1/3 of the pan with oil to prevent boil over when you add the onion rings.
• Slowly place onion rings in hot oil, being careful not to crowd the pot. You will have to cook them in batches!
• Fry until golden and crispy.