Forgo store bought fried onions, make your own 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 snack!
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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: French’s fried onions recipe is best made using French onion. I could not find French onion due to pandemic lockdown, so used white onion.
Flour: use all-purpose flour and for gluten-free options use gluten-free flour.
Buttermilk: Make your own homemade buttermilk with just 2 simple ingredients. You’ll only need 10 minutes or less to have buttermilk ready.
Seasoning: for extra flavorful French’s fried onion season flour with salt pepper and other seasoning. Cajun seasoning or cayenne pepper, 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 knife to slice onion thin or use mandolin slicer. Note: no need to cut onion into 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 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 few days, allow it to cool completely and store in clean air tight container for few days.
Air fry:
- Follow instructions as mentioned above until coating onions in flour mix.
- Spray air fryer rack with oil.
- Layer flour coated onion rings on the rack.
- Spray generous amount of cooking oil on top on onions.
- Air fry at 350F for about 8-12 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
Bake fried onions:
- Follow instructions as mentioned above until coating onions in flour mix.
- Spray baking sheet with oil.
- Layer flour coated onion rings on the sheet.
- Spray generous amount of cooking oil on top on onions.
- Bake at 425F for about 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
Tips for crunchy French fried onions
- Trick to getting golden crispy crunchy onions is slicing onions super thin and keeping it even size so they crisp up evenly.
- Deep frying makes best fried onions. You can air fry or bake in oven, but deep frying is the way to go for best crispy crunchy onions.
- Soaking in buttermilk is crucial, don’t skip the step.
- Instead of buttermilk, soak onion in milk for 10 minutes. I highly recommend you to use buttermilk though.
- Seasoning flour with salt pepper and Cajun seasoning adds flavors to fried onions. You can use any seasoning of your choice. Instead of Cajun seasoning use cayenne pepper or smoked paprika.
- Drain as much buttermilk from onions as possible before coating in flour. That way there’s even coating.
FAQS
Best to use French onion. If you can’t find French onion use white onion. Red onions won’t work.
Substitute all-purpose flour with gluten-free flour like Bob’s Red Mill flour.
Yes you can make plant based buttermilk with coconut milk or almond milk.
Yes you can. French’s fried onions can be made a few days ahead of time and stored.
Once ready, let it cool completely. Store in air tight container closed and store it on counter for 3 days. If you plan to store longer, fried onions will begin to loose it’s crunch.
No onions do not freeze well. It will loose it taste and crunchy texture if frozen and thawed.
Use fried onions as topping for green bean casserole
Use it in burgers
Use as salad toppers instead or along with croutons
Top it on soups for extra crunch
Grind and use it as crumb in place of regular bread crumbs
Munch it as a snack!
TRY THESE:
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📋RECIPE: Copycat French’s Fried Onions
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
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 knife to slice onion thin or use mandolin slicer. Note: no need to cut onion into half.
- Separate onion slices.
- Make your own homemade buttermilk with just 2 ingredients.
- Soak thinly sliced onions in buttermilk for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile in a shallow pan add all-purpose floue, salt and white pepper and Cajun seasoning. Mix it.
- Dredge buttermilk soaked onion sliced in seasoned flour.
- Rub onions in 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 few days, allow it to cool completely and store in clean air tight container for few days.
Air fry:
- Follow instructions as mentioned above until coating onions in flour mix.
- Spray air fryer rack with oil.
- Layer flour coated onion rings on the rack.
- Spray generous amount of cooking oil on top on onions.
- Air fry at 350F for about 8-12 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
Bake fried onions:
- Follow instructions as mentioned above until coating onions in flour mix.
- Spray baking sheet with oil.
- Layer flour coated onion rings on the sheet.
- Spray generous amount of cooking oil on top on onions.
- Bake at 425F for about 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
Video
Notes
- Trick to getting golden crispy crunchy onions is slicing onions super thin and keeping it even size so they crisp up evenly.
- Deep frying makes best fried onions. You can air fry or bake in oven, but deep frying is the way to go for best crispy crunchy onions.
- Soaking in buttermilk is crucial, don’t skip the step.
- Seasoning flour with salt pepper and Cajun seasoning adds flavors to fried onions. You can use any seasoning of your choice. Instead of Cajun seasoning use cayenne pepper or smoked paprika.
- Drain as much buttermilk from onions as possible before coating in flour. That way there’s even coating.
Comments & Reviews
Jo says
Could I use my food saver to seal in a jar for longer storage?
Jyothi Rajesh says
Yes you can use food saver to store it. I keep them for 3 days in air tight containers. For safety reasons, I would recommend you store in air tight container in refrigerator if planning to store longer. You can crisp the onion back in oven at 350F for 3 to 4 minutes, please keep an eye, fried onion can burn quickly
Jo says
Could you store in a canning jar & yes your food saver to seal the jar for a longer storage for more time?
Jyothi Rajesh says
I haven’t tested in canning jars. But my wild guess would be you can use canning jars. Please allow crispy fried onions to cool completely before storing it. You can crisp it back in oven when ready to serve.
For food safety reasons, I recommend you store it in refrigerator if storing longer than 3 days.