Copycat French’s Fried Onions

Forgo store-bought fried onions, and make your buttermilk-soaked, perfectly seasoned French fried onions copycat at home easily from scratch. Copycat French’s fried onions are great for burgers, salads, for casserole toppings, or can be eaten as a snack!

Jump to:

• Make your own French fried onions strings at home
• Ingredients you’ll need
• How to make French fried onions
• Tips for crunchy French fried onions
• Common questions
• 📋Copycat French’s Fried Onions

Ingredients you’ll need

You’ll need-

• 1 ½ lb French onion (I used white onion)
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• Salt & white pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
• Canola or vegetable or peanut oil for deep frying

• French onion: The French’s fried onion recipe is best made using French onion. I could not find French onion due to the pandemic lockdown, so used white onion.
• Flour: use all-purpose flour and for gluten-free options use gluten-free flour.
• Buttermilk: Make homemade buttermilk with just 2 simple ingredients. You’ll only need 10 minutes or less to have buttermilk ready.
• Seasoning: for extra flavorful French fried onion season flour with salt pepper and another seasoning. Cajun seasoning cayenne pepper, and smoked paprika can be used to season flour.
• Oil: use high smoke point oil like canola oil, vegetable oil, or peanut oil.

How to make French fried onions

Deep frying:

• Use French onion for best results. If you can’t find French onions, use white onions like I did.
• Peel and slice them super thin. Use a knife to slice the onion thin or use a mandolin slicer. Note: no need to cut the onion in half.
• Separate onion slices.
• Make homemade buttermilk with this recipe.
• Soak thinly sliced onions in buttermilk for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile in a shallow pan add all-purpose flour, salt and white pepper, and Cajun seasoning. Mix it.
• Dredge buttermilk-soaked onion sliced in seasoned flour.
• Rub onions in the flour mix to coat evenly.
• Heat oil in a shallow pan. Fry onions in small batches until golden brown,
• Remove browned onions onto a kitchen towel to extract excess oil.
• Use it right away in your favorite dishes like green bean casserole, in burger, as salad toppers, on soups.
• If storing for a few days, allow it to cool completely and store it in a clean air-tight container for a few days.

Air fry:

1. Follow the instructions as mentioned above until coating onions in the flour mix.
2. Spray the air fryer rack with oil.
3. Layer flour-coated onion rings on the rack.
4. Spray a generous amount of cooking oil on top of onions.
5. Air fry at 350F for about 8-12 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Bake fried onions:

• Follow the instructions as mentioned above until coating onions in the flour mix.
• Spray the baking sheet with oil.
• Layer flour-coated onion rings on the sheet.
• Spray a generous amount of cooking oil on top of onions.
• Bake at 425F for about 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Tips for crunchy French fried onions

1. The trick to getting golden crispy crunchy onions is slicing onions super thin and keeping them even size so they crisp up evenly.
2. Deep frying makes the best fried onions. You can air fry or bake in the oven, but deep frying is the way to go for the best crispy crunchy onions.
3. Soaking in buttermilk is crucial, don’t skip the step.
4. Instead of buttermilk, soak onion in milk for 10 minutes. I highly recommend you use buttermilk though.
5. Seasoning flour with salt pepper and Cajun seasoning adds flavor to fried onions. You can use any seasoning of your choice. Instead of Cajun seasoning use cayenne pepper or smoked paprika.
6. Drain as much buttermilk from onions as possible before coating in flour. That way there’s even coating.

Common questions

TRY THESE:

French onion chicken

French onion tart

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