Name: Baked Panko Onion Rings
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 2 large Vidalia onion (or other sweet onions); 1 cup all-purpose flour; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper; 2 eggs; ½ cup milk; 2 cups panko crumbs; Cooking spray

An oven-baked crispy crunchy onion ring.

4.9 from 7 votes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

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Baked Panko Onion Rings – an oven-baked crispy crunchy onion ring with a panko coating. Just the thing to pair with hamburgers and hot dogs.

I know very few people who don’t like fried foods. Some may not admit it, but secretly they love the salty fried stuff.

And how can you resist it, really? That crispy, crunchy goodness coating something delicious and steaming hot inside. Yum.

In the South of my childhood we ate lots of fried foods – fried chicken, fried fish, fried okra, country fried steak, french fries. I could go on. Oh, man was it good! But over the years, of course, we’ve learned that there are more healthful ways to eat. I sometimes even cook my onion rings in the air fryer now.

Low Fat, Low Salt is Best

You’d have to have been living in a cave in the backwoods to not know the dangers of ingesting too much fat. And salt. And of course, salt goes right along with the fried foods. Salt and fat. They’re what make food taste good.

Too bad our bodies haven’t evolved into salt-and-fat-fighting machines that would allow us to indulge in all the wonderful fried foods we’d like to enjoy.

Way back years ago before people became so health and diet conscious, our old family doctor used to give some really wonderful advice to his patients. He told them, “If you ever find yourself in a restaurant where you’re not sure how clean the kitchen is, just order something deep fried. Hot grease will kill anything.” I just love that :-)

Let’s Lighten Up Our Favorite Onion Rings

One of my favorite fried foods is onion rings. When they’re done just right, all golden and crispy and piping hot, I’d choose a platter of them over most anything else I can think of.

But, like all those other delicious old fried things, I know they’re not good for me so I only indulge occasionally.

Recently, I’ve seen several recipes for baked onion rings on the internet and, since I know I shouldn’t eat the fried ones very often, I really wanted to give the baked option a try.

After researching quite a few different ones, I decided to try using a coating of panko bread crumbs and a mist of cooking spray. The panko gives the baked onion rings a very nice crispy coating. BeeBop gave them a thumbs up, too!

How to Make Baked Panko Onion Rings

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Thickly sliced rings of raw onion on a cutting board

Peel the onions and cut them into thick, approximately 1/2-inch slices. Separate the slices into rings.

Breading station consisting of three bowls; one each of flour, egg wash, and panko bread crumbs

Set up your breading station with three bowls. In one bowl place the flour, salt and pepper. Mix well to combine. In the second bowl, beat together the eggs and milk and in the third bowl, place the panko crumbs.

Prepare two large baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Spray the parchment lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

Coat the onion rings by dredging them first in the flour. Remove from the flour, shake off any excess and drop into the egg and milk mixture.

Remove the onion ring from the egg mixture allowing any excess to drip back into the bowl and then place the coated ring into the panko crumbs. Toss lightly in the crumbs to coat.

Prepared onion rings on a prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper

Place the coated onion rings on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all onion rings are coated.

I was trying both the traditional and the panko bread crumbs in the photo above. The ones on the lower part are traditional and the panko are in the upper part of the photo.

Spray the prepared onion rings lightly with cooking spray. Place the baking sheets in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and flip each onion ring carefully using a spatula or tongs. Replace the sheets in the oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until crispy and browned.

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