Crunchiest Crunchy Crunchy Onion Rings

Today our recipe of the week is Crunchiest Crunchy Crunchy Onion Rings.  The reason I named it that is because they are super crunchy and I love all things crunchy!  Here in Oklahoma the standard of crunchy onion rings, at least my favorite, has always been from Johnnies Charcoal Broiler.  They are so good! However, this recipe comes as close as I have gotten to mimicking the crunchy Johnnies crunchy goodness.

Crunchiest Crunchy Crunchy Onion Rings
1 good size yellow onion sliced into 1/4 inch rings
1/2 cup flour

Wet dredge
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tbs Hot Sauce
1/2 cup flour
(should be consistency of pancake batter, not to thick not to thin)

Dry dredge
1 cup flour
1 sleeve of crushed soda crackers
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 Tbs chili powder

heat your deep fryer to 350 degrees, if you don't have a deep fryer you can use a dutch oven and fill it half way with vegetable oil and use a thermometer to make sure your oil is hot enough.  After slicing your onions put them in a bowl and dust in flour.

Mix ingredients for Wet dredge, wisk these together real good.  And combine ingredients for your dry dredge.

So you will have 3 bowls, one for onions dusted in flour, one for your wet dredge and one for your dry dredge.  Have these near your deep fryer so you can drop them in your oil as you work.  So once you have dusted your onions with flour, drop a few into your wet dredge and let some of the wet dredge drop off and then put in your dry dredge.  Make sure they are all covered real good in your dry dredge and then drop in your deep fryer. Make sure you don't over crowd your fryer. If you put to many into fry at once it will drop the temperature of your oil and your rings will become greasy.  Once they are golden brown, cool on a baking sheet with wire racks so any grease will drop to the bottom of the pan instead of soaking into your rings. Hit them again with a little dusting of seasoned salt to finish them off.

Now all to do is eat.  Of course I like to serve these with cheeseburgers and lots of ketchup for dipping.
I usually double this recipe since I have a family of 4 teenagers.  I don't usually have any leftovers but on the occasion that I do, I take the left over onion rings and chop them up finely and refrigerate.  They are great to use in salads, green beans, soups, etc.

The Best Buttermilk Biscuits

I have tried many different recipes of buttermilk biscuits over the last year.  I have finally came up with this recipe which I think you will find is easy to make and very good.  The combination of butter and shortening in this recipe gives just the right amount of butter flavor while still giving you a nice fluffy texture. My family and friends love these biscuits! Slather butter and honey on them....oh my, oh my so good!

Buttermilk Biscuits
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup shortening or lard
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375.  First sift your flour, baking powder and salt together in bowl.  Cut up butter into pieces and cut into flour with a pastry blender, add your half cup of shortening and cut into flour with pastry cutter.  Flour should have little pea looking consistency.  Make a well in the middle of your flour mixture and add buttermilk.  Now take your spoon and begin to build flour into the buttermilk until it looks somewhat combined.  The most important part of making good buttermilk biscuits is not to over work your mixture.  You want it to come together, but if you over handle it the biscuits will become tough. Once it looks combined take your hands and combine until you can make into a ball.  Flour your work surface and turn dough on to work surface.  I just used my hands to pat dough down to about 1 1/2 inches thick and use a biscuit cutter or juice glass to cut your biscuits out.  Place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet, I like to use a baking stone, and place them where the sides of the biscuits are barely touching.  Brush the tops of biscuits with butter and bake for about 8-10 minutes until tops of biscuits are slightly browned and the middle is not doughy.