The Step You Shouldn't Skip For Better Onion Rings

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The Step You Shouldn't Skip For Better Onion Rings By Javaria Akbar Sept. 13, 2025 4:09 pm EST

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Golden, crunchy, and aromatic, a batch of deep fried onion rings is a thing of beauty. However, making them at home can be a culinary balancing act as the raw onion needs time to cook through and soften before the flour-dredged exterior burns. To make onion rings that have a toothsome middle and an audibly crisp coating, there's one prep step you shouldn't skip: soaking your rounds of onion in a wet dredge made of buttermilk and Tabasco.

As buttermilk is a fermented dairy product, it has a naturally acidic pH level. Buttermilk is often employed as a marinade for chicken because its acidity breaks down the proteins in meat, resulting in a finishe